geminates

[aclynes at ubd.edu.bn]

>A recent controversy regarding geminates in Tausug (Southern Philippines)
>has made me realize that some scholars seem to use the terms _geminate_and
>_long consonant_ as though they were synonymous.
>I am aware that in some theories (autosegmental phonology?)  both are
>treated on equal footing.
>Yet, a double /m/, for instance, is not a long /m/.
>Has this problem been addressed in Austronesian languages?
>Jean-Paul G. Potet

With apologies for the late response.  I agree that _geminate_and _long
consonant_  seem often to be taken to mean the same thing, when there is a
fundamental difference between (for example) a) a sequence of two distinct,
non-long segments, which happen to be identical, but which occupy
respectively coda and onset of distinct syllables, and b) a truly long
segment.  The two types could presumably be treated identically only at the
level of feature sharing, but not at other levels.  Only the latter could
logically occur in the onset of a syllable.  From memory, I think Korean,
Hungarian and Pattani Malay may all have the latter.
Some languages of the Baram (north Sarawak) are said to have phonemic long
consonants, however the evidence in some cases at least suggests that they
instead allow sequences of identical consonants, probably only
hetero-syllabically.  I'm not aware of anything published on this as a
descriptive/analyitical problem.  Do you have a reference for the Tausug
discussion?
(Parallel analytical problems involve truly long vowels vs sequences of
identical vowels, prenasalised stops vs /N/+/C/ sequences, diphthongs vs
vowel-vowel or vowel-glide sequences, and so on.)

Adrian Clynes
Adrian Clynes
Department of English Language & Applied Linguistics
Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei Darussalam
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