CONSONANT GEMINATION 3.1. Phonetic Realization And

CHAPTER THREE

3.1. Phonetic Realization and Transcription

The physical duration of a consonant that is marked as geminate in the transcription varies considerably. As a general rule the duration of a geminate consonant that is preceded by a stress is longer than one that lacks a preceding stress. This can be seen by comparing the range of durations of /ll/ in the following examples, in which the approximate duration of the geminate consonant is measured in milliseconds:

(1) máx6lla [}mæ[x6l](70)æ] ©ðàðe} ‘He knocks them together’ (A24:13) (2) z•dy6lla [}zıdy6l](80)æ] tàma} ‘They threw down it there’ (A24:25) (3) mùrr5-lli} [}mÛr[5[l[(115)i] ‘Tell them to me’ (A24:11) (4) zílle [}zil](75)e] ‘He went’ (A24:4) (5) kúlle [}kÛl[(130)e] ‘all of it’ (A24:11) (6) šqúlle [}∫qÛl[(155)e] ‘Take it!’ (A24:15) (7) g•lla} [}gıl[(190)æ[] ‘grass’ (A24:15)

In words with the same stress position a geminate consonant is still realized with a wide range of durations, as can be seen in (8)–(12), which illustrate various attested durations for the geminate consonant /xx/ in the word laxxa ‘here’:

(8) láxxa [}læx(50)æ] (A24:51) (9) láxxa [}læx](80)æ] (A24:4) (10) làxxa} [}læx[(95)æ] (A24:6) (11) làxxa} [}læx[(125)æ] (A24:6) (12) làxxa} [}læx[(185)a] (A24:49)

As can be seen, there is a considerable difference in the duration with which the sequence /xx/ is realized in this word. It tends to be longer at the end of an intonation group, though even here there is a large variety of realizations. The duration is reduced in forms that occur inside an intonation group. Indeed this lower range of durations, as attested in (8)

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and (9), overlaps with the durations attested for instances of the same consonant that are represented in the transcription as non-geminate, as can be seen in (13)–(17) below. In some cases, in fact, a non-geminate /x/ in these examples has a longer phonetic duration than geminate /xx/ in examples (8)–(12):

(13) xa-da‰mána [x(60)æ-d6‰) }mæ[næ] ‘a remedy’ (A24:2) (14) "an-tre-xéne [}x(70)e[ne]] ‘the other two’ (A24:5) (15) xa-šùla} [x(75)æ-∫u[læ[] ‘a job’ (A24:4) (16) xa-màlka} [x(80)æ-}mælkæ[] ‘a king’ (A24:1) (17) "ixàla} ["i[}x(90)æ[læ[] ‘food’ (A24:16)

The transcription of gemination that is adopted in this grammar does not attempt to refl ect the phonetic diversity of individual occurrences of words that has just been described. The general principle that has been followed is that a geminate consonant is consistently marked in a particular lexical item or infl ectional form, even where, on the phonetic level, the duration of the consonant is reduced in some utterances of it. The choice as to which words gemination should be marked in is based on relative rather than absolute phonetic duration. In general, all other factors being equal, certain lexical items or infl ectional forms exhibit a more consistent tendency for a consonant to be pronounced long than others and it is in such cases that the consonants are marked as geminate. Consonants that are marked as geminate would be expected to be pronounced long consistently when the word occurs in pausal position at the end of an intonation group, though the precise duration of this length may vary. Of course, the term ‘gemination’ or ‘doubling’ strictly refers only to the double marking of the letter in the orthography. As seen above in the instrumental measurements, there is no question of exact doubling in phonetic duration. The marking of consonant gemination in certain words in the transcription is further justifi ed by the existence of a number of minimal pairs in which two words are distinguished only by the length of a consonant. The absolute duration of the consonants in each member of the pair may be increased or reduced according to the contextual position of the word, but, all other factors being equal, there is clearly a relative difference in length that has signifi cance for meaning and for the morphological pat- tern to which the words are assigned:

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