Breaking doubled consonants into syllables

[Laurence Horn]

On Aug 26, 2012, at 5:35 PM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:

> My take is that double consonants are never separated for syllabification if you go aurally.

Really?  To me reducing the geminates in the un- and non- cases would be un…natural, if not downright non…native.

LH

>  But if you go visually, then it's convenient to do.  I like to go aurally.One interesting is that double consonants can be a hint to stress.  They usually start a stressed syllable unless involved in suffixing according to the silent e rule.
>
> Tom Zurinskas, Conn 20 yrs, Tenn 3, NJ 33, now Fl 9.
> See how English spelling links to sounds at http://justpaste.it/ayk
>
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>> Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2012 16:59:22 -0400
>> From: laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
>> Subject: Re: Breaking doubled consonants into syllables
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: Breaking doubled consonants into syllables
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Any cases of compounding like these, where each word contributes its own consonant, do retain their pronunciation except sometimes in fast speech. (I can imagine "bookcase" either with or without a double /kk/, for example.)
>>
>> LH
>>
>> On Aug 26, 2012, at 4:37 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>>
>>> 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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