Gemination

For the dental phenomenon, seeTooth gemination.

For root doubling in complex words, seeReduplication.

Not to be confused withGerminationorGeminal.

Inphoneticsandphonology,gemination(/ˌdʒɛmɪˈneɪʃən/;from Latingeminatio'doubling', itself fromgemini'twins'), orconsonant lengthening,is an articulation of aconsonantfor a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant.It is distinct fromstress.Gemination is represented in many writing systems by adoubled letterand is often perceived as a doubling of the consonant.Some phonological theories use 'doubling' as a synonym for gemination, while others describe two distinct phenomena.

Consonant length is a distinctive feature in certain languages, such asJapanese.Other languages, such asGreek,do not have word-internal phonemic consonant geminates.

Consonant gemination andvowel lengthare independent in languages like Arabic, Japanese, Finnish and Estonian; however, in languages like Italian,Norwegian,andSwedish,vowel length and consonant length are interdependent. For example, in Norwegian and Swedish, a geminated consonant is always preceded by a short vowel, while an ungeminated consonant is preceded by a long vowel.

Phonetics

Lengthenedfricatives,nasals,laterals,approximantsandtrillsare simply prolonged. In lengthenedstops,the obstruction of the airway is prolonged, which delays release, and the "hold" is lengthened.

In terms of consonant duration, Berber and Finnish are reported to have a 3-to-1 ratio,compared with around 2-to-1 (or lower) in Japanese,Italian, and Turkish.

Phonology

Gemination of consonants is distinctive in some languages and then is subject to various phonological constraints that depend on the language.

In some languages, like Italian, Swedish,Faroese,Icelandic,andLuganda,consonant length and vowel length depend on each other. A short vowel within a stressed syllable almost always precedes a long consonant or a consonant cluster, and a long vowel must be followed by a short consonant. InClassical Arabic,along vowelwas lengthened even more before permanently-geminateconsonants.

In other languages, such asFinnish,consonant length and vowel length are independent of each other. In Finnish, both are phonemic;taka/taka/'back',takka/takːa/'fireplace' andtaakka/taːkːa/'burden' are different, unrelated words. Finnish consonant length is also affected byconsonant gradation.Another important phenomenon issandhi,which produces long consonants at word boundaries when there is anarchiphonemicglottal stop|otaʔse|>otas se'take it (imperative)!'.

In addition, in some Finnish compound words, if the initial word ends in ane,the initial consonant of the following word is geminated:jätesäkki'trash bag'[jætesːækːi],tervetuloa'welcome'[terʋetːuloa].In certain cases, avafter auis geminated by most people:ruuvi'screw'/ruːʋːi/,vauva'baby'[ʋauʋːa].In theTamperedialect, if a word receives gemination ofvafteru,theuis often deleted (ruuvi[ruʋːi],vauva[ʋaʋːa]), andlauantai'Saturday', for example, receives a medialv[lauʋantai],which can in turn lead to deletion ofu([laʋːantai]).

Distinctive consonant length is usually restricted to certain consonants and environments. There are very few languages that have initial consonant length; among those that do arePattani Malay,Chuukese,Moroccan Arabic,a fewRomance languagessuch asSicilianandNeapolitan,as well as manyHigh Alemannic Germandialects, such as that ofThurgovia.Some African languages, such asSetswanaandLuganda,also have initial consonant length: it is very common in Luganda and indicates certaingrammaticalfeatures. Incolloquial FinnishandItalian,long consonants occur in specific instances as sandhi phenomena.

The difference between singleton and geminate consonants varies within and across languages.Sonorantsshow more distinct geminate-to-singleton ratios whilesibilantshave less distinct ratios. Thebilabialandalveolargeminates are generally longer thanvelarones.

The reverse of gemination reduces a long consonant to a short one, which is calleddegemination.It is a pattern in Baltic-Finnicconsonant gradationthat the strong grade (often thenominative) form of the word is degeminated into a weak grade (often all the other cases) form of the word:taakka>taakan(burden, of the burden). As a historical restructuring at thephonemic level,word-internal long consonants degeminated inWestern Romancelanguages: e.g. Spanish /ˈboka/ 'mouth' vs. Italian /ˈbokka/, both of which evolved from Latin /ˈbukka/.

Examples

Afroasiatic languages

Arabic

WrittenArabicindicates gemination with a diacritic (ḥaraka) shaped like a lowercase Greekomegaor a rounded Latinw,called theشَدَّةshadda:ّ.Written above the consonant that is to be doubled, theshaddais often used todisambiguatewords that differ only in the doubling of a consonant where the word intended is not clear from the context. For example, in Arabic,Form Iverbs andForm IIverbs differ only in the doubling of the middle consonant of the triliteral root in the latter form,e. g.,درسdarasa(with full diacritics:دَرَسَ) is a Form I verb meaningto study,whereasدرّسdarrasa(with full diacritics:دَرَّسَ) is the corresponding Form II verb, with the middlerconsonant doubled, meaningto teach.

Berber

InBerber,each consonant has a geminate counterpart, and gemination is lexically contrastive. The distinction between single and geminate consonants is attested in medial position as well as in absolute initial and final positions.

• ini'say'
• inni'those in question'
• akal'earth, soil'
• akkal'loss'
• imi'mouth'
• immi'mother'
• ifis'hyena'
• ifiss'he was quiet'
• tamda'pond, lake, oasis'
• tamedda'brown buzzard, hawk'

In addition to lexical geminates, Berber also has phonologically-derived and morphologically-derived geminates. Phonological alternations can surface by concatenation (e.g.,[fassin]'give him two!') or by complete assimilation (e.g./rad=ki-sli/[rakkisli]'he will touch you'). Morphological alternations include imperfective gemination, with some Berber verbs forming their imperfective stem by geminating one consonant in their perfective stem (e.g.,[ftu]'go! PF',[fttu]'go! IMPF'), as well as quantity alternations between singular and plural forms (e.g.,[afus]'hand',[ifassn]'hands').

Austronesian languages

Austronesian languagesin thePhilippines,Micronesia,andSulawesiare known to have geminate consonants.

Kavalan

TheFormosan languageKavalanmakes use of gemination to mark intensity, as insukaw'bad' vs.sukkaw'very bad'.

Malay dialects

Word-initial gemination occurs in variousMalaydialects, particularly those found on the east coast of theMalay Peninsulasuch asKelantan-Pattani MalayandTerengganu Malay.Gemination in these dialects of Malay occurs for various purposes such as:

• To form a shortened free variant of a word or phrase so that:
  • buwi/buwi/>/wːi/'give'
  • ke darat/kədarat/>/dːarat/'to/at/from the shore'
• A replacement ofreduplicationfor itsvarious uses(e.g. to denote plural, to form a different word, etc.) in Standard Malay so that:
  • budak-budak/budakbudak/>/bːudak/'children'
  • layang-layang/lajaŋlajaŋ/>/lːajaŋ/'kite'

Tuvaluan

ThePolynesian languageTuvaluanallows for word-initial geminates, such asmmala'overcooked'.

Indo-European languages

English

InEnglish phonology,consonant length is not distinctive withinroot words.For instance,baggageis pronounced/ˈbæɡɪdʒ/,not*/bæɡːɪdʒ/.However, phonetic gemination does occur marginally.

Gemination is found across words and across morphemes when the last consonant in a given word and the first consonant in the following word are the samefricative,nasal,orstop.

For instance:

• b:subbasement[ˈsʌb.beɪs.mənt]
• d:midday[ˈmɪdˌdeɪ]
• f:life force[ˈlaɪfˌfɔ(ɹ)s]
• g:egg girl[ˈɛɡ.ɡɝl]
• k:bookkeeper[ˈbʊk̚ˌkɪi.pə(ɹ)]
• l:wholly[ˈhoʊl.li](compareholy)
• m:calm man[ˌkɑːmˈmæn]orroommate[ˈrʊum.meɪt](in some dialects) orprime minister[ˌpɹaɪmˈmɪnɪstə(ɹ)]
• n:evenness[ˈɪi.vən.nəs]
• p:lamppost[ˈlæmp̚ˌpoʊst](comparelamb post,compost)
• r:interregnum[ˌɪn.tə(ɹ)ˈɹɛɡ.nəm]orfire road[ˈfaɪəɹˌɹoʊd]
• s:misspell[ˌmɪsˈspɛl]orthis saddle[ðɪsˈsædəl]
• sh:fish shop[ˈfɪʃ.ʃɒp]
• t:cat tail[ˈkæt̚ˌteɪl]
• th:both thighs[ˈboʊθ'θaɪz]
• v:live voter[ˈlaɪv.voʊtə(ɹ)]
• z:pays zero[ˈpeɪzˈziˌɹoʊ]

Withaffricates,however, this does not occur. For instance:

• orange juice[ˈɒɹɪndʒ.dʒʊus]

In most instances, the absence of this doubling does not affect the meaning, though it may confuse the listener momentarily. The followingminimal pairsrepresent examples where the doublingdoesaffect the meaning in most accents:

• ten nailsversusten ales
• this sinversusthis inn
• five valleysversusfive alleys
• his zoneversushis own
• mead dayversusme-day
• unnamed[ˌʌnˈneɪmd]versusunaimed[ʌnˈeɪmd]
• forerunner[ˈfɔ(ɹ)ˌɹənə(ɹ)]versusforeigner[ˈfɔɹənəɹ]

Note that whenever[(ɹ)]appears (in brackets), non-rhotic dialects of English don't have the gemination, but rather lengthen the preceding vowel.

In some dialects gemination is also found for some words when the suffix-lyfollows a root ending in -l or -ll, as in:

• solely[ˈsoʊl.li]

but not

• usually[ˈjʊuˌʒ(ʊ)ə.li]

In some varieties ofWelsh English,the process takes place indiscriminately between vowels, e.g. inmoney[ˈmɜn.niː]but it also applies with graphemic duplication (thus, orthographically dictated), e.g.butter[ˈbɜt̚.tə]

French

In French, gemination is usually not phonologically relevant and therefore does not allow words to be distinguished: it mostly corresponds to an accent of insistence (c'est terrifiantrealised[ˈtɛʁ.ʁi.fjɑ̃]), or meets hyper-correction criteria: one "corrects" one's pronunciation, despite the usual phonology, to be closer to a realization that one imagines to be more correct: thus, the wordillusionis sometimes pronounced[il.lyˈzjɔ̃]by influence of the spelling.

However, gemination is distinctive in a few cases. Statements such aselle a dit('she said') ~elle l'a dit('she said it')/ɛladi/~/ɛll‿adi/can commonly be distinguished by gemination. In a more sustained pronunciation, gemination distinguishes the conditional (and possibly the future tense) from the imperfect:courrais'would run'/kuʁ.ʁɛ/vs.courais'ran'/ku.ʁɛ/;or the indicative from the subjunctive:croyons'we believe'/kʁwa.jɔ̃/vs.croyions'we believed'/kʁwaj.jɔ̃/.

Greek

See also:Ancient Greek phonology: Doubled consonants

InAncient Greek,consonant length was distinctive, e.g.,μέλω[mélɔː]'I am of interest' vs.μέλλω[mélːɔː]'I am going to'. The distinction has been lost in thestandardand most othervarieties,with the exception ofCypriot(where it might carry over from Ancient Greek or arise from a number of synchronic and diachronic assimilatory processes, or even spontaneously), some varieties of the southeastern Aegean, andItaly.

Hindustani

Gemination is common in bothHindiandUrdu.It does not occur after long vowels and is found in words of both Indic and Arabic origin, but not in those of Persian origin. In Urdu, gemination is represented by theShaddadiacritic, which is usually omitted from writings, and mainly written to clear ambiguity. In Hindi, gemination is represented by doubling the geminated consonant, enjoined with theViramadiacritic.

Transliteration	Hindi	Urdu	Meaning	Etymology
pattā	पत्ता	پَتَّہ	'leaf'	Sanskrit
abbā	अब्बा	اَبّا	'father'	Arabic
dajjāl	दज्जाल	دَجّال	'anti-christ'
ḍabbā	डब्बा	ڈَبَّہ	'box'	Sanskrit
jannat	जन्नत	جَنَّت	'heaven'	Arabic
gaddā	गद्दा	گَدّا	'mattress'	Sanskrit

Aspirated consonants

Gemination of aspirated consonants in Hindi are formed by combining the corresponding non-aspirated consonant followed by its aspirated counterpart. In vocalised Urdu, theshaddais placed on the unaspirated consonant followed by theshort vowel diacritic,followed by thedo-cashmī hē,which aspirates the preceding consonant. There are few examples where an aspirated consonant is truly doubled.

Examples of aspirated gemination

Transliteration	Hindi	Urdu	Meaning
pat.thar	पत्थर	پَتَّھر	'stone'
kat.thā	कत्था	کَتَّھا	brown spread onpān
ad.dhā	अद्धा	اَدَّھا	Hindi slang/short for 'half' –आधा(ādhā)
mak.khī	मक्खी	مَکِّھی	'fly'

Italian

See also:syntactic doubling

Italian is notable among theRomance languagesfor its extensive geminated consonants. InStandard Italian,word-internal geminates are usually written with two consonants, and geminates are distinctive.For example,bevve,meaning 'he/she drank', is phonemically/ˈbevve/and pronounced[ˈbevːe],whilebeve('he/she drinks/is drinking') is/ˈbeve/,pronounced[ˈbeːve].Tonic syllables arebimoraicand are therefore composed of either a long vowel in an open syllable (as inbeve) or a short vowel in a closed syllable (as inbevve). In varieties with post-vocalicweakeningof some consonants (e.g./raˈdʒone/→[raˈʒoːne]'reason'), geminates are not affected (/ˈmaddʒo/→[ˈmad͡ʒːo]'May').

Double or long consonants occur not only within words but also at word boundaries, and they are then pronounced but not necessarily written:chi+sa=chissà('who knows')[kisˈsa]andvado a casa('I am going home')[ˈvaːdoakˈkaːsa].All consonants except/z/can be geminated. This word-initial gemination is triggered either lexically by the item preceding the lengthening consonant (e.g. by prepositiona'to, at' in[akˈkaːsa]a casa'homeward' but not by definite articlelain[laˈkaːsa]la casa'the house'), or by any word-final stressed vowel ([parˈlɔffranˈtʃeːze]parlò francese's/he spoke French' but [ˈparlofranˈtʃeːze]parlo francese'I speak French').

Latin

InLatin,consonant length was distinctive, as inanus'old woman' vs.annus'year'.Vowel lengthwas also distinctive in Latin until about the fourth century, and was reflected in the orthography with anapex.Geminates inherited from Latin still exist inItalian,in which[ˈanno]annoand[ˈaːno]anocontrast with regard to/nn/and/n/as in Latin. It has been almost completely lost inFrenchand completely inRomanian.InWest Iberian languages,former Latin geminate consonants often evolved to new phonemes, including some instances ofnasal vowelsinPortugueseand OldGalicianas well as most cases of/ɲ/and/ʎ/in Spanish, but phonetic length of both consonants and vowels is no longer distinctive.

Nepali

InNepali,all consonants have geminate counterparts except for/w,j,ɦ/.Geminates occur only medially.Examples:

• समान– 'equal'[sʌmän];सम्मान[sʌmːän]– 'honour'
• सता– 'disturb!'[sʌt̪ä];सत्ता[sʌt̪ːä]– 'authority'
• पका– 'cook!'[pʌkä];पक्का[pʌkːä]– 'certain'

Norwegian

InNorwegian,gemination is indicated in writing by double consonants. Gemination often differentiates between unrelated words. As in Italian, Norwegian uses short vowels before doubled consonants and long vowels before single consonants. There are qualitative differences between short and long vowels:

• måte[ˈmôːtə]/måtte[ˈmɔ̂tːə]– 'method' / 'must'
• lete[ˈlêːtə]/lette[ˈlɛ̂tːə]– 'to search' / 'to take off'
• sine[ˈsîːnə]/sinne[ˈsɪ̂nːə]– 'theirs' / 'anger'

Polish

InPolish,consonant length is indicated with two identical letters. Examples:

• wanna/ˈvanːa/– 'bathtub'
• Anna/ˈanːa/
• horror/ˈxɔrːɔr/– 'horror'
• hobby/ˈxɔbːɨ/or/ˈxɔbʲːi/– 'hobby'

Consonant length is distinctive and sometimes is necessary to distinguish words:

• rodziny/rɔˈd͡ʑinɨ/– 'families';rodzinny/rɔˈd͡ʑinːɨ/– 'familial'
• saki/saki/– 'sacks, bags';ssaki/sːaki/– 'mammals',
• leki/ˈlɛkʲi/– 'medicines';lekki/ˈlɛkʲːi/– 'light, lightweight'

Double consonants are common on morpheme borders where the initial or final sound of the suffix is the same as the final or initial sound of the stem (depending on the position of the suffix), afterdevoicing.Examples:

• przedtem/ˈpʂɛtːɛm/– 'before, previously'; fromprzed(suffix 'before') +tem(archaic 'that')
• oddać/ˈɔdːat͡ɕ/– 'give back'; fromod(suffix 'from') +dać('give')
• bagienny/baˈgʲɛnːɨ/– 'swampy'; frombagno('swamp') +ny(suffix forming adjectives)
• najjaśniejszy/najːaɕˈɲɛ̯iʂɨ/– 'brightest'; fromnaj(suffix forming superlative) +jaśniejszy('brighter')

Punjabi

Punjabiis written in two scripts, namely,GurmukhiandShahmukhi.Both scripts indicate gemination through the uses of diacritics. In Gurmukhi the diacritic is called the[[[ੱ|áddak]]]Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script (help)which is writtenbeforethe geminated consonant and is mandatory. In contrast, theshadda,which is used to represent gemination in theShahmukhi script,is not necessarily written, retaining the tradition of the originalArabic scriptandPersian language,where diacritics are usually omitted from writing, except to clear ambiguity, and is writtenabovethe geminated consonant. In the cases ofaspirated consonantsin theShahmukhi script,theshaddaremains on the consonant, not on thedo-cashmī he.

Gemination is specially characteristic of Punjabi compared to other Indo-Aryan languages like Hindi-Urdu, where instead of the presence of consonant lengthening, the preceding vowel tends to be lengthened. Consonant length is distinctive in Punjabi, for example:

Singleton					Geminated
IPA	Gurmukhi	Shahmukhi	Transliteration	Meaning	IPA	Gurmukhi	Shahmukhi	Transliteration	Meaning
/d̪əsᵊ/	ਦਸ	دَس	das	'ten'	/d̪əsːə/	ਦੱਸ	دَسّ	dass	'tell' (imperative)
/pət̪a/	ਪਤਾ	پَتَہ	patā/patah	'aware of something'	/pət̪ːa/	ਪੱਤਾ	پَتَّہ	pattā/pattah	'leaf'
/sət̪ᵊ/	ਸਤ	سَت	sat	'truth' (liturgical)	/sət̪ːə/	ਸੱਤ	سَتّ	satt	'seven'
/kəlɑː/	ਕਲਾ	کَلا	kalā	'art'	/kəlːa/	ਕੱਲਾ	کَلّا	kallā	'alone'

Russian

InRussian,consonant length (indicated with two letters, as inванна[ˈvannə]'bathtub') may occur in several situations.

Minimal pairs(orchronemes) exist, such asподержать[pədʲɪrˈʐatʲ]'to hold' vsподдержать[pədʲːɪrˈʐatʲ]'to support', and their conjugations, orдлина[dlʲɪˈna]'length' vsдлинна[dlʲɪˈnːa]'long' adj. f.

• Word formationorconjugation:длина([dlʲɪˈna]'length') >длинный([ˈdlʲinnɨj]'long') This occurs when two adjacent morphemes have the same consonant and is comparable to the situation of Polish described above.
• Assimilation.The spelling usually reflects the unassimilated consonants, but they are pronounced as a single long consonant.
  • высший([ˈvɨʂːɨj]'highest').

Spanish

There are phonetic geminate consonants in Caribbean Spanish due to the assimilation of /l/ and /ɾ/ in syllabic coda to the following consonant.Examples of Cuban Spanish:

/l/ or /r/ + /f/	→	[ff]	a[ff]iler, hue[ff]ano	(Sp.alfiler,huérfano)
/l/ or /r/ + /h/	→	[ɦh]	ana[ɦh]ésico, vi[ɦh]en	(Sp.analgésico,virgen)
/l/ or /r/ + /b/	→	[bb]	si[bb]a, cu[bb]a	(Sp.silbaorsirva,curva)
/l/ or /r/ + /d/	→	[dd]	ce[dd]a, acue[dd]o	(Sp.celdaorcerda,acuerdo)
/l/ or /r/ + /g/	→	[gg]	pu[gg]a, la[gg]a	(Sp.pulgaorpurga,larga)
/l/ or /r/ + /m/	→	[mm]	ca[mm]a, a[mm]a	(Sp.calma,almaorarma)
/l/ or /r/ + /n/	→	[nn]	pie[nn]a, ba[nn]eario	(Sp.pierna,balneario)
/l/ or /r/ + /l/	→	[ll]	bu[ll]a, cha[ll]a	(Sp.burla,charla)

Luganda

Luganda(aBantu language) is unusual in that gemination can occur word-initially, as well as word-medially. For example,kkapa/kːapa/'cat',/ɟːaɟːa/jjajja'grandfather' and/ɲːabo/nnyabo'madam' all begin with geminate consonants.

There are three consonants that cannot be geminated:/j/,/w/and/l/.Whenevermorphologicalrules would geminate these consonants,/j/and/w/are prefixed with/ɡ/,and/l/changes to/d/.For example:

• -ye/je/'army' (root) >ggye/ɟːe/'an army' (noun)
• -yinja/jiːɲɟa/'stone' (root) >jjinja/ɟːiːɲɟa/'a stone' (noun);jjis usually speltggy
• -wanga/waːŋɡa/'nation' (root) >ggwanga/ɡːwaːŋɡa/'a nation' (noun)
• -lagala/laɡala/'medicine' (root) >ddagala/dːaɡala/'medicine' (noun)

Japanese

See also:Japanese phonology § Gemination

InJapanese,consonant length is distinctive (as is vowel length). Gemination in thesyllabaryis represented with thesokuon,a smalltsu:っforhiraganain native words andッforkatakanain foreign words. For example,Lai た(きた,kita) means 'came; arrived', whileThiết った(きった,kitta) means 'cut; sliced'. With the influx ofgairaigo('foreign words') into Modern Japanese,voiced consonantshave become able to geminate as well:バグ(bagu) means '(computer) bug', andバッグ(baggu) means 'bag'. Distinction betweenvoicelessgemination andvoicedgemination is visible in pairs of words such asキット(kitto,meaning 'kit') andキッド(kiddo,meaning 'kid'). In addition, in some variants of colloquial Modern Japanese, gemination may be applied to some adjectives and adverbs (regardless of voicing) in order to add emphasis:すごい(sugoi,'amazing') contrasts withすっごい(suggoi,'reallyamazing');Tư い thiết り(おもいきり,omoikiri,'with all one's strength') contrasts withTư いっ thiết り(おもいっきり,omoikkiri,'reallywith all one's strength').

Turkic languages

Turkish

InTurkishgemination is indicated by two identical letters as in most languages that have phonemic gemination.

• anne[annɛ]"mother"
• hürriyet[çyɹ̝ːije̝t]"freedom"

Loanwords originally ending with a phonemic geminatedconsonantare always written and pronounced without the ending gemination as in Arabic.

• hac[hadʒ](hajj) (from Arabicحج/ħadʒː/pronounced[ħadʒ])
• hat[hat](Islamic calligraphy) (from Arabicخط/xatˤː/pronounced[xatˤ])

Although gemination is resurrected when the word takes a suffix.

• hacbecomeshacca[haˈdʒːa]('to hajj') when it takes the suffix "-a" ('to', indicating destination)
• hatbecomeshattın[haˈtːɯn]('of calligraphy') when it takes the suffix "-ın" ('of', expressing possession)

Gemination also occurs when asuffixstarting with a consonant comes after a word that ends with the same consonant.

• el[el]('hand') +-ler[læɾ̥]( "-s", marksplural) =eller[eˈlːæɾ̥]('hands'). (contrasts witheler,'s/he eliminates')
• at[at]('to throw') +-tık[tɯk]( "-ed", markspast tense,first person plural) =attık[aˈtːɯk]('we threw [smth.]'). (contrasts withatık,'waste')

Dravidian languages

Malayalam

InMalayalam,compounding is phonologically conditionedcalled assandhiand gemination occurs at word boundaries. Gemination sandhi is calleddvitva sandhior 'doubling sandhi'.

Consider following example:

• മേശ+പെട്ടി(mēśa+peṭṭi) –മേശപ്പെട്ടി(mēśappeṭṭi)

Gemination also occurs in a single morpheme likeകള്ളം(kaḷḷaṁ) which has a different meaning fromകളം(kaḷaṁ).

Uralic languages

Estonian

Estonianhas three phonemic lengths; however, the third length is asuprasegmentalfeature, which is as much tonal patterning as a length distinction. It is traceable toallophonycaused by now-deleted suffixes, for example half-longlinna< *linnan'of the city' vs. overlonglinna< *linnaan< *linnahen'to the city'.

Finnish

See also:Finnish phonology

Consonant length is phonemic inFinnish,for exampletakka[ˈtɑkːɑ]('fireplace', transcribed with the length sign[ː]or with a doubled letter[ˈtɑkkɑ]) andtaka[ˈtɑkɑ]('back'). Consonant gemination occurs with simple consonants (hakaa:hakkaa) and between syllables in the pattern (consonant)-vowel-sonorant-stop-stop-vowel (palkka) but not generally in codas or with longer syllables. (This occurs inSami languagesand in the Finnish nameJouhkki,which is of Sami origin.)Sandhioften produces geminates.

Both consonant and vowel gemination are phonemic, and both occur independently, e.g.Mali,maali,malli,maallinen(Karelian surname, 'paint', 'model', and 'secular').

In Standard Finnish, consonant gemination of[h]exists only ininterjections,new loan words and in the playful wordhihhuli,with its origins in the 19th century, and derivatives of that word.

In many Finnish dialects there are also the following types of special gemination in connection with long vowels: the southwestern special gemination (lounaismurteiden erikoisgeminaatio), with lengthening of stops + shortening of long vowel, of the typeleipää<leippä;the common gemination (yleisgeminaatio), with lengthening of all consonants in short, stressed syllables, of the typeputoaa>puttooand its extension (which is strongest in the northwestern Savonian dialects); the eastern dialectal special gemination (itämurteiden erikoisgeminaatio), which is the same as the common gemination but also applies to unstressed syllables and certain clusters, of the typeslehmiä>lehmmiiandmaksetaan>maksettaan.

Wagiman

InWagiman,anindigenous Australian language,consonant length in stops is the primary phonetic feature that differentiatesfortis and lenisstops. Wagiman does not have phonetic voice. Word-initial and word-final stops never contrast for length.

Writing

Inwritten language,consonant length is often indicated by writing a consonant twice (ss,kk,pp,and so forth), but can also be indicated with a special symbol, such as theshaddain Arabic, thedageshin Classical Hebrew, or thesokuoninJapanese.

In theInternational Phonetic Alphabet,long consonants are normally written using thetriangular colonː,e.g.penne[penːe]('feathers', 'pens', also a kind of pasta), though doubled letters are also used (especially for underlyingphonemicforms, or in tone languages to facilitate diacritic marking).

• Catalanuses the raised dot (called aninterpunct) to distinguish a geminatedlfrom a palatalll.Thus,paral·lel('parallel') andLlull(Standard Catalan:[pəɾəlˈlɛl],[ʎuʎ]).
• Estonianusesb,d,gfor short consonants, andp,t,kandpp,tt,kkare used for long consonants.
• Hungarian digraphs and trigraphsare geminated by doubling the first letter only, thus the geminate form ofsz/s/isssz/sː/(rather than *szsz), and that ofdzs/d͡ʒ/isddzs/d͡ʒː/.
• The only digraph inGanda,ny/ɲ/is doubled in the same way:nny/ɲː/.
• InItalian,geminated instances of the sound cluster[kw](represented by the digraphqu) are always indicated by writingcq,except in the wordssoqquadroandbeqquadro,where the letterqis doubled.The gemination of sounds[ɲ],[ʃ]and[ʎ],(spelledgn,sc(i),andgl(i),respectively) is not indicated because these consonants are always geminated when occurring between vowels. Also the sounds[ts],[dz](both spelledz) are always geminated when occurring between vowels, yet their gemination is sometimes shown, redundantly, by doubling thezas, e.g., inpizza[ˈpittsa].
• In Japanese, non-nasal gemination (sokuon) is denoted by placing the "small" variant of the syllableTsu(っorッ) between two syllables, where the end syllable must begin with a consonant. For nasal gemination, precede the syllable with the letter for mora N (んorン). The script of these symbols must match with the surrounding syllables.
• InSwedishandNorwegian,the general rule is that a geminated consonant is written double, unless succeeded by another consonant. Hencehall('hall'), buthalt('Halt!'). In Swedish, this does not apply to morphological changes (sokall,'cold' andkallt,'coldly' or compounds [sotunnbröd('flatbread')]. The exception are some words ending in-m,thushem['home'] [buthemma('at home')] andstam['stem'], butlamm['lamb', to distinguish the word fromlam('lame')], with a long/a/), as well as adjectives in-nn,sotunn,'thin' buttunt,'thinly' (while Norwegian has a rule always prohibiting two "m" s at the end of a word (with the exception being only a handful of proper names, and as a rule forms with suffixes reinsert the second "m", and the rule is that these word-final "m" s always cause the preceding vowel sound to be short (despite the spelling)).

Double letters that are not long consonants

Doubled orthographic consonants do not always indicate a long phonetic consonant.

• In English, for example, the[n]sound ofrunningis not lengthened. Consonant digraphs are used in English to indicate the preceding vowel is a short (lax) vowel, while a single letter often allows a long (tense) vowel to occur. For example,tapping/tæpɪŋ/(fromtap) has a shorta/æ/,which is distinct from the diphthongal longa/eɪ/intaping/teɪpɪŋ/(fromtape).
• In StandardModern Greek,doubled orthographic consonants have no phonetic significance at all.
• Hangul(the Korean alphabet) andits romanizationsalso use double consonants, but to indicatefortisarticulation, not gemination.
• InKlallam,a sequence of two/t/sounds such as in a word like/ʔítt/'sleep' is not pronounced like a geminated stop with a long closure duration – rather the sequence is pronounced as a sequence of two individual sounds such that the first/t/is released before the articulation of the second/t/.
• In theOld Icelandicorthography of theFirst Grammatical Treatise,geminates are indicated by small caps: ⟨ʙ⟩, ⟨ᴅ⟩, ⟨ꜰ⟩, ⟨ɢ⟩, ⟨ᴋ⟩, ⟨ʟ⟩, ⟨ᴍ⟩, ⟨ɴ⟩, ⟨ᴘ⟩, ⟨ʀ⟩, ⟨ꜱ⟩ and ⟨ᴛ⟩, whereas modern renditions of Old Norse designate geminates by two consecutive stops, i.e. ⟨bb⟩, ⟨ff⟩, ⟨gg⟩, ⟨kk⟩ ⟨ll⟩, ⟨mm⟩, ⟨nn⟩ ⟨pp⟩, ⟨rr⟩, ⟨ss⟩ and ⟨tt⟩, respectively.
• InProto-Basquenotation, capital letters are employed to denote thefortis–leniscontrast, which manifests as a difference between geminate vs. ⟨L⟩ /lː/ vs. ⟨l⟩ /l/, ⟨N⟩ /nː/ vs. ⟨n⟩ /n/, but capitals might also denote voiceless vs. voiced (⟨T⟩ /t/ vs. ⟨d⟩ /d/, ⟨K⟩ /k/ vs. ⟨g⟩ /g/, no ⟨P⟩ exists in Mitxelena's reconstruction consonant system of Proto-Basque, only ⟨b⟩) or affricate vs. sibilant distinction (⟨TZ⟩ /t̻s̻/ vs. ⟨z⟩ /s̻/, ⟨TS⟩ /t̺s̺/ vs. ⟨s⟩ /s̺/), or trill ⟨R⟩ /r/ vs. tap ⟨r⟩ /ɾ/.

See also

• Syntactic gemination
• West Germanic gemination
• Glottal stop
• Length (phonetics)
• Vowel length
• Syllabic consonant
• Index of phonetics articles