gemination

Phonetics

Lengthened fricatives, nasals, laterals, approximants and trills are simply prolonged. In lengthened stops, the obstruction of the airway is prolonged, which delays release, and the closure is lengthened. That is, /tʰː/ is pronounced [tːʰ], not *[tʰː]. In affricates, it is also the closure that is lengthened, not the fricative release. That is, /t͜sː/ is pronounced [tːs], not *[tsː].

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, and Luganda, 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. In Classical Arabic, a long vowel was lengthened even more before permanently-geminate consonants.

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

In addition, in some Finnish compound words, if the initial word ends in an e, the initial consonant of the following word is geminated: jätesäkki 'trash bag' [jætesːækːi], tervetuloa 'welcome' [terʋetːuloa]. In certain cases, a v after a u is geminated by most people: ruuvi 'screw' /ruːʋːi/, vauva 'baby' [ʋauʋːa]. In the Tampere dialect, if a word receives gemination of v after u, the u is often deleted (ruuvi [ruʋːi], vauva [ʋaʋːa]), and lauantai 'Saturday', for example, receives a medial v [lauʋantai], which can in turn lead to deletion of u ([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 are Pattani Malay, Chuukese, Moroccan Arabic, a few Romance languages such as Sicilian and Neapolitan, as well as many High Alemannic German dialects, such as that of Thurgovia. Some African languages, such as Setswana and Luganda, also have initial consonant length: it is very common in Luganda and indicates certain grammatical features. In colloquial Finnish and Italian, long consonants occur in specific instances as sandhi phenomena.

The difference between singleton and geminate consonants varies within and across languages. Sonorants show more distinct geminate-to-singleton ratios while sibilants have less distinct ratios. The bilabial and alveolar geminates are generally longer than velar ones.

Examples

Afroasiatic languages

Written Arabic indicates gemination with a diacritic (ḥaraka) shaped like a lowercase Greek omega or a rounded Latin w, called the شَدَّة shadda: ّ . Written above the consonant that is to be doubled, the shadda is often used to disambiguate words that differ only in the doubling of a consonant where the word intended is not clear from the context. For example, in Arabic, Form I verbs and Form II verbs differ only in the doubling of the middle consonant of the triliteral root in the latter form, e. g., درس darasa (with full diacritics: دَرَسَ) is a Form I verb meaning to study, whereas درّس darrasa (with full diacritics: دَرَّسَ) is the corresponding Form II verb, with the middle r consonant doubled, meaning to teach.

In Berber, 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., [fas sin] 'give him two!') or by complete assimilation (e.g. /rad = k i-sli/ [rakk isli] '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 languages in the Philippines, Micronesia, and Sulawesi are known to have geminate consonants.

The Formosan language Kavalan makes use of gemination to mark intensity, as in sukaw 'bad' vs. sukkaw 'very bad'.

Word-initial gemination occurs in various Malay dialects, particularly those found on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula such as Kelantan-Pattani Malay and Terengganu 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 /kə darat/ > /dːarat/ 'to/at/from the shore'

A replacement of reduplication for its various uses (e.g. to denote plural, to form a different word, etc.) in Standard Malay so that:

budak-budak /budak budak/ > /bːudak/ 'children'

layang-layang /lajaŋ lajaŋ/ > /lːajaŋ/ 'kite'

The Polynesian language Tuvaluan allows for word-initial geminates, such as mmala 'overcooked'.

Indo-European languages

In English phonology, consonant length is not distinctive within root words. For instance, baggage is pronounced , 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 same fricative, nasal, or stop.

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] (cf. holy)

m: calm man [ˌkɑːmˈmæn] or roommate [ˈrʊum.meɪt] (in some dialects) or prime minister [ˌpɹaɪmˈmɪnɪstə(ɹ)]

n: evenness [ˈɪi.vən.nəs]

p: lamppost [ˈlæmp̚ˌpoʊst] (compare lamb post, compost)

r: interregnum [ˌɪn.tə(ɹ)ˈɹɛɡ.nəm] or fire road [ˈfaɪəɹˌɹoʊd]

s: misspell [ˌmɪsˈspɛl] or this saddle [ðɪsˈsædəl]

sh: fish shop [ˈfɪʃ.ʃɒp]

t: cat tail [ˈkæt̚ˌteɪl]

th: both thighs [ˈboʊθ'θaɪz]

v: live voter [ˈlaɪv.voʊtə(ɹ)]

Luganda

Luganda (a Bantu 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/. Whenever morphological rules 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); jj is usually spelt ggy

-wanga /waːŋɡa/ 'nation' (root) > ggwanga /ɡːwaːŋɡa/ 'a nation' (noun)

-lagala /laɡala/ 'medicine' (root) > ddagala /dːaɡala/ 'medicine' (noun)

Japanese

In Japanese, consonant length is distinctive (as is vowel length). Gemination in the syllabary is represented with the sokuon, a small tsu: っ for hiragana in native words and ッ for katakana in foreign words. For example, 来た (きた, kita) means 'came; arrived', while 切った (きった, kitta) means 'cut; sliced'. With the influx of gairaigo ('foreign words') into Modern Japanese, voiced consonants have become able to geminate as well: バグ (bagu) means '(computer) bug', and バッグ (baggu) means 'bag'. Distinction between voiceless gemination and voiced gemination 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, 'really amazing'); 思い切り (おもいきり, omoikiri, 'with all one's strength') contrasts with 思いっ切り (おもいっきり, omoikkiri, 'really with all one's strength').

Turkic languages

In Turkish gemination 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 geminated consonant are always written and pronounced without the ending gemination as in Arabic.

hac [hadʒ] (hajj) (from Arabic حج /ħadʒː/ pronounced [ħadʒ])

hat [hat] (Islamic calligraphy) (from Arabic خط /xatˤː/ pronounced [xatˤ])

Although gemination is resurrected when the word takes a suffix.

hac becomes hacca [haˈdʒːa] ('to hajj') when it takes the suffix "-a" ('to', indicating destination)

hat becomes hattın [haˈtːɯn] ('of calligraphy') when it takes the suffix "-ın" ('of', expressing possession)

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

el [el] ('hand') + -ler [læɾ̥] ("-s", marks plural) = eller [eˈlːæɾ̥] ('hands'). (contrasts with eler, 's/he eliminates')

at [at] ('to throw') + -tık [tɯk] ("-ed", marks past tense, first person plural) = attık [aˈtːɯk] ('we threw [smth.]'). (contrasts with atık, 'waste')

Dravidian languages

In Malayalam, compounding is phonologically conditioned called as sandhi and gemination occurs at word boundaries. Gemination sandhi is called dvitva sandhi or 'doubling sandhi'.

Consider following example:

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

Gemination also occurs in a single morpheme like കള്ളം (kaḷḷaṁ) which has a different meaning from കളം (kaḷaṁ).

In Tamil, "otru" can occur when two words combine in a certain meaning. This otru is generally one of க் /k/, ச் /t͡ʃ/, த் /t̪/ and ப் /p/, and occurs when one of these four consonants is the first letter of the second word. For example:

மர + கட்டை (mara + kaṭṭai) – மரக்கட்டை (marakkaṭṭai)

மர + சால் (mara + sāl) – மரச்சால் (marachchāl)

மர + தடி (mara + taṭi) – மரத்தடி (marattaṭi)

மர + பெட்டி (mara + peṭṭi) – மரப்பெட்டி (marappeṭṭi)

Gemination also occurs in nouns that end in டு ṭu and று ṟu when they are part of a grammatical case. For example:

வீடு + வரி (vīṭu + vari) => வீட்டுவரி (vīṭṭuvari) (meaning: house tax)

சேறு + வயல் (sēṟu + vayal) => சேற்றுவயல் (sēṟṟuvayal) (meaning: muddy field)

Gemination also occurs in a single morpheme like கள்ளம் (kaḷḷaṁ) which has a different meaning from களம் (kaḷaṁ). More examples where words without and with gemination consonants have different meanings:

Uralic languages

Many Sámi languages have gemination as a phonetic feature. The Proto-Sami language had as many as four different lengths, although there is only one living language where this is attested: certains dialect of Ume Sámi. Most varieties have merged them to two or three contrastive degrees of length.

Estonian has three phonemic lengths; however, the third length is a suprasegmental feature, which is as much tonal patterning as a length distinction. It is traceable to allophony caused by now-deleted suffixes, for example half-long linna < *linnan 'of the city' vs. overlong linna < *linnaan < *linnahen 'to the city'.

Consonant length is phonemic in Finnish, for example takka [ˈtɑkːɑ] ('fireplace', transcribed with the length sign [ː] or with a doubled letter [ˈtɑkkɑ]) and taka [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 in Sami languages and in the Finnish name Jouhkki, which is of Sami origin.) Sandhi often 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 in interjections, new loan words and in the playful word hihhuli, 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 type leipää < leippä; the common gemination (yleisgeminaatio), with lengthening of all consonants in short, stressed syllables, of the type putoaa > puttoo and 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 types lehmiä > lehmmii and maksetaan > maksettaan.

Wagiman

In Wagiman, an indigenous Australian language, consonant length in stops is the primary phonetic feature that differentiates fortis and lenis stops. Wagiman does not have phonetic voice. Word-initial and word-final stops never contrast for length.

Notation

IPA

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, long consonants are normally written using the triangular colon U+02D0 ː MODIFIER LETTER TRIANGULAR COLON, e.g. penne [penːe] ('feathers', 'pens', also a kind of pasta), though doubled letters are also used (especially for underlying phonemic forms, or in tone languages to facilitate diacritic marking).

Writing

In written 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 the shadda in Arabic, the dagesh in Classical Hebrew, or the sokuon in Japanese.

Catalan uses the raised dot (called an interpunct) to distinguish a geminated l from a palatal ll. Thus, paral·lel ('parallel') and Llull (Standard Catalan: [pəɾəlˈlɛl], [ʎuʎ]).

Estonian uses b, d, g for short consonants, and p, t, k and pp, tt, kk are used for long consonants.

Hungarian digraphs and trigraphs are geminated by doubling the first letter only, thus the geminate form of sz /s/ is ssz /sː/ (rather than *szsz), and that of dzs /d͡ʒ/ is ddzs /d͡ʒː/.

The only digraph in Ganda, ny /ɲ/ is doubled in the same way: nny /ɲː/.

In Italian, geminated instances of the sound cluster [kw] (represented by the digraph qu) are always indicated by writing cq, except in the words soqquadro and beqquadro, where the letter q is doubled. The gemination of sounds [ɲ], [ʃ] and [ʎ], (spelled gn, sc(i), and gl(i), respectively) is not indicated because these consonants are always geminated when occurring between vowels. Also the sounds [ts], [dz] (both spelled z) are always geminated when occurring between vowels, yet their gemination is sometimes shown, redundantly, by doubling the z as, e.g., in pizza [ˈpittsa].

In Japanese, non-nasal gemination (sokuon) is denoted by placing the "small" variant of the syllable Tsu (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.

In Swedish and Norwegian, the general rule is that a geminated consonant is written double, unless succeeded by another consonant. Hence hall ('hall'), but halt ('Halt!'). In Swedish, this does not apply to morphological changes (so kall, 'cold' and kallt, 'coldly' or compounds [so tunnbröd ('flatbread')]. The exception are some words ending in -m, thus hem ['home'] [but hemma ('at home')] and stam ['stem'], but lamm ['lamb', to distinguish the word from lam ('lame')], with a long /a/), as well as adjectives in -nn, so tunn, 'thin' but tunt, '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)).