Breaking doubled consonants into syllables

Sun Aug 26 20:37:37 UTC 2012

Does the example of "bookkeeping" and related words help? There aren't many words in English with geminates, but they do exist.

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

On Aug 26, 2012, at 11:20 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> Is there a general rule about breaking English words with doubled
> consonants into syllables, either in speaking or in writing?  For
> example, "canning" would be spelled and pronounced "can-ning", with
> an N sound beginning the second syllable.
>
> My speech says such a rule is not applicable to speaking.  For
> example, I don't say "stop-ping" but rather -- I think --
> "sto-pping".  (For my "canning" I can't tell.)
>
> But I assume it applies to writing.  Are their counter-examples?

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