Andres Hernandez-Zemljic

Phonology, first semester. 2010-11

University of Nova Gorica
January, 2011.

About geminates
and some applications to Slovene
 Introduction

On this paper I will try to explain briefly what geminates and their
variations are in different languages, begining by anilizing some aspects of
French and English and the relation between Gemination and morphology
and I will also take a look at Italian -a language known by the srong
presence of consonant quantity, making explicit that there are other
procesess that underlie geminatization. At the end of this paper an
investigation will take place. This will intend to demonstrate whether any of
the phenomena described throughout the present work is found in Slovene,
process that will be carried out by recording native speakers of differents
regions of Slovenia meassuring consonant length in certain enviroments to
finally get to a conclusion on whether geminates occur or not in Slovene
language.
 Geminates

Geminates occur in spoken language when a consonant sound is heard for a longer period of
time than a short consonant (represented as /t:/, which is a long [t] vs /t/, being this short). Consonant
length, to be more specific geminates, are fundamental in the study of phonology since geminates and
non-geminates are a distinctive features in many languages such as Italian, Estonian and Classical
Hebrew among others.

In written language geminates are often represented by the double notation of consonants (as in
“cc”, “ff”, “nn”, “tt”). Listed below we will present some examples of this:
• inflammable
• illegal
• innocuous
• immaterial

First of all, it is important to notice that even though the spelling in [illegal] and [innocuous] is
clearly a double consonant, the junction of them ([ll] and [nn] ) does not contain geminate. That is to
say that instead of a word like innocuous being pronounced as */i[nn]ocuous/ [nn] happens to be
mapped into a single timing slot (as consequence taking the same time for the sound to be uttered as in
those cases represented by a single letter in written language).

Innocuous x x xx xx x
g fh g g g g g

i n n c u o u s
 Geminates are phenomena that take place when a consonant sound occupies or is linked to two
timing slots. Let us now represent this in a more practical and/or visual manner.

xxxx x x
g g g g g g

a) unnamed u[nn]amed

As shown in a) the sound [n] is linked to two timing slots (x x) therefore we have a geminate.
Let us now focus on one example in Slovene, even though it is believed that in this case (Slovene
language) geminates occur depending on the speaker's intention rather than an unmistakeable feature of
it.

x xx xxx
g g g g gg

b) oddaja o[dd]aja (he/she/it) gives away

According to the generalization by Gurssel (19878) and Kenstowicz and Pyle (1973), geminate
structures cannot be split by epenthesis -that is that they do not allow the insertion of a sound within
themselves, nor allow one half of the cluster to undergo a rule that the other half does not undergo.

According to McCarthy (1979) and Leben (1980) geminates are single segments mapped onto
several timing slots (usually two):

x x = geminate t
yt

This kind of structures can be referred to as mono-segmental geminates. It has been suggested
that these units resist being split by epenthesis since the insertion of a vowel would cross association
lines with the geminate segment.
 * t a
gp

C V C

In view of those generalizations it can be concluded that geminates are blocked from applying
to a geminate input, what is reffered to as geminate blockage.

Looking at the examples above ([unnamed], [innocuous] and [oddaja]) we are able to recognize
that geminates in this particular case are formed by affixation, thus, according to the morphology of the
words we can classify affixation as:

• root level affixation (as in [in-nocuous])

• word level affixation (as in [un-necesary])

From this, it is possible to affirm that the attachment of an affix (such as -in, -un and/or od- (the
later in Slovene)) to a stem can result in the creation of gemination sequences. And last but not least
geminates can also be found at phrasal level (as in [wooden-neck]).

Now that we have seen under which conditions geminates occur, it is important to make a clear
difference between two types of them: “true” geminates and “fake” geminates. The first makes
reference to those happening within a single word (or lexical unit) and it accounts as such for purposes
of syllabification (as in [piz.za]) and the late which occurs by juxtaposition of morphemes (as in [un]
[known]). True geminates contrast lexically with non-geminates (as in italian grat:o “I scratch” and
grato “grateful (masc.))

Going further, other geminate-related processes take place: degemination. Looking at root
morphology we have already seen how the case above (innocuous), in which an affix appears next to a
lexical morpheme, fails to geminate. This is what is called degemination. This phenomenon could be
easily represented with the Slovene words [preddverje] and [preddelavec] in case gemination does not
happen in this language, thus, it is not being affirmed that actually either is the case.
preddverje x x x x x xx xx lounge
g g g fh g g g g g

p r e d d v e r j e

preddelavec x xx x x xxx x x foreman

g g g fh g g g g g g

p r e d d e l a v e c

Another instance where degemination can be found is with imported loan words with
geminates from other languages as in spaghetti and pizza, where it can be appreciated that even the
orthography has been adapted to suit the receiving language (špageti and pica respectively).

As the discussion has developed we can notice that many of the words used as example share
morphological features (as unnamed, preddelavec, etc.), but some, as unnamed, succeed to create
gemination while others fail, allowing to extract that, in terms of gemination, there is a potential
mismatch between what is morphologically and phonologically relevant.

In view of those generalizations it can be concluded that geminates are blocked from applying
to a geminate input, what is reffered to as geminate blockage.

Another case in which gemination can be appreciated is what is reffered to as raddopiamento

sintattico1 (RS), a phonological rule presented by Nespor and Vogel (1982, 1986), occuring in
Italian. RS is a process taking place across words, in phrasal context, where, in Tuscan Italian, the
initial consonant of a word is lengthened if preceded by another word under certain phonological
conditions.

1 notes on RS taken from Phonological phrases: their relation to syntax,focus and prominence. By Hubert Truckenbrodt
(1989).
Caffè caldo caffè [cc]aldo warm coffee

Tè freddo tè [ff]reddo cold tea

One of the conditions that appears here is that the preceding word ends in a stressed vowel. As
shown in the example the stress is shown by the accent grave. RS, however, does not occur in the
following example where the last vowel sound is not stressed:

Molto caldo molto [c]aldo very warm

Another phonological condition of RS is that it will not apply for the first member of a word-
initial obstruent cluster [s] in [s] [-son].

Cittá sporca cittá [s]porca dirty city

To continue with our discussions on the processes involved in gemination we will turn now to a
phenomenon that follows the generalizations of the mono-segmental structure of geminates. “Consider
Semitic Spirantization, a family of rules that turn a postvocalic stop (any nonemphatic stop in Hebrew, only
[ +back] stops in Tigrinya) into a spirant.” (Schein and Steriade).

What are the options in applying this rule to a form like fäkkärä “he boasted” ?

Fäkkärä x x x xx x
g g gh g g g

f ä k k ä r ä
g g g
N N N

However the second x in the cluster related with [k] is not post-vocalic, the process of
spiranization is free to affect [k], even though the first x related to [k] does not meet the specifications
of the rules, but what cannot happen is to apply it to the content of the first x without affecting the other
one.
 We will see now how geminates behave differently from expected explaining such process by
targeting the effects of morphology on their representation. First we will represent long-distance
geminates, that is to say, nonadjacent timing slots being linked to a single segment (poly-morphemic
verbal stem in Semitic).

s m
Sm g gh linearized sammam on the root sm “poison”

x x x x x x
g

Even though we expected geminates to follow the rules stated above, it happens that this is
challenged by long-distance geminates being split by the application of rules linked to some timing
slots.

We have seen so far that there are different ways of classifying geminates. We will take a look
now into the phenomena that underlie Slovene language:

As stated above geminates are lexical segments as any other consonant -like the many of them
found in Italian, but not in Slovene. These are what we call true geminates. However Slovene is known
as a language without consonantal quality contrasts and a language where we cannot find true
geminates, it happens that long consonants may appear from the combination of a word-final and a
word-intial consonant as in s sinom, [with my son], or by juxtaposition as it will be shown. An attempt
will be presented to demonstrate that geminates, however not frequently, do occur in Slovene and
according our matter of discussion they will be represented as fake geminates. We can look at the word
“oddaja” is perfectly articulated without geminatization of [dd], but can definitely be articulated as a
geminate not being this a drop into overarticulation.

Some date has been collected in order to test whether gemination occurs by juxtaposition when
two segments of the same kind on each side of a morphological boundary meet, in this case focusing on
stops such as [t] and [d] and making measurements in milliseconds.
 oddati 0.2 dati 0.1
oddaja 0.19 predaja 0.11
preddelavec 0.2 delavec 0.12
preddverje 0.23 predvor 0.16
predtelovadec 0.23 telovadec 0.05

From the numbers above it is seen that juxtaposition of morphemes generates gemination as in
those examples where the morphemes [od-] and [pred-] arranged next to lexical morphemes beginning
with [d] have a considerably longer duration as the ones without juxtaposition and even in the word
predtelovadec, where what happens is actually the devoicing of /d/ to become a long /t/.It is clearly
visible that the pair [dt] has a considerably longer sound than single /t/ or /d/.

Compare:

0.0641771062 0.93672001oddaja
0.0134

-0.02438
0 2.266
Time (s)

O D D A J A PRE D A J A
 Another case where we will try to find out whether geminates in Slovene language is when two
fricatives are next to one another at phrasal level:

s sinom 0.26 sin 2.14

s sandro 0.23 sandra 0.18
s sestro 0.25 sestra 0.18
z zemljo 0.24 zemlja 0.16

Compare:

s sestro
0.01166

-0.01709
0.008284 2.06
Time (s)

S S E S T R O S E S T R A
 zzemljo 2.06773243
0.009033

-0.01575
0 2.068
Time (s)

Z Z E M L J O Z EM L J A

It is clear now, that by looking at the examples above fake gemination occurs when two
fricative- sonorant or not, sounds meet at phrasal level, even though this may depend of course on the
speed of the speaker. That is that, whenever a speaker might feel urge to utter a sentence or part of it or
even they want to emphasize some part of the structure, other than the one that produces gemination,
length of the sounds might be vary.

We will focus now on what happens when two nasal sounds gather at phrasal level to see
whether gemination occurs in this case.

on noče 0.2 noče 0.12

sam misli 0.33 misli 0.16
Compare:

0 on noce 2.01704587
0.0173

-0.0278
0 2.042
Time (s)

ON N O C E N O C E

It can be sen here that gemination can also occur when nasal sonorant sound meet at phrasal
level.
 Conclusion

It is taccording to the analysis of the date that we can satisfactorily state that
gemination occurs in Slovene when two consonants of the same nature, occur at word
boundaries including cases where assimilation or even devoicing takes place (as in
predtelovadec /pre[tt]elovadec/). Even though the study above somehow aims to
demonstrate the occurrence of gemination exists in Slovene it may be sensible to
consider as well the vocalic environment where this phenomenon happens and maybe
even try putting this examples into context. The samples were recorded by three different
people- All native speakers of Slovene, reason why it can be said that it is a trustful study,
however it is still limited to a very small number of samples.
 References:

Classroom discussions.
English Sound Structure, John Harris.
On geminates, schein-steriade.
Slovene, a comprehensive grammar, Peter Harrity.
Phonological phrases: their relation to syntax,focus and prominence, Hubert Truckenbrodt