Description
Book SynopsisThis book is the first volume specifically devoted to the phonetics and phonology of geminate consonants, a feature of many of the world''s languages including Arabic, Bengali, Finnish, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Malayalam, Persian, Saami, Swiss German, and Turkish. While the contrast between geminate and singleton consonants has been widely studied, the phonetic manifestation and phonological nature of geminate consonants, as well as their cross-linguistic similarities and differences, are not fully understood. The volume brings together original data and novel analyses of geminate consonants in a variety of languages across the world. Experts in the field present a wide range of approaches to the study of phonological contrasts in general by introducing various experimental and non-experimental methodologies; they also discuss phonological contrasts in a wider context and examine the behaviour of geminate consonants in loanword phonology and language acquisition. The volume takes
Trade ReviewThe book is excellent... It is important reading for anyone who works on the phonology of geminates, but its appeal is far wider than that might suggest. Because of the thorny empirical and theoretical issues raised by length contrasts, in particular concerning the relationship between phonetic properties and abstract phonological ones, this book will be interesting to anyone concerned with the boundary areas between phonetics and phonology. * Jonah Katz, Phonology *
This book stands out in terms of the range of languages and perspectives covered ... fascinating, and a definite must-read for phoneticians and phonologists exploring the linguistic nature of gemination. * Donna Erickson, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America *
Table of ContentsPART I: PRODUCTION AND PERCEPTION OF GEMINATE CONSONANTS; PART II: PHONOLOGY OF GEMINATE CONSONANTS
