gemination (n.)

A term used in PHONETICS and PHONOLOGY for a SEQUENCE of identical adjacent SEGMENTS of a sound in a single MORPHEME, e.g. Italian notte  (‘night’). Because of the SYLLABLE division, a geminate sequence cannot be regarded as simply a ‘long’ CONSONANT, and TRANSCRIPTIONAL differences usually indicate this, e.g. [-ff-] is geminate, [-f:] is long. The special behavior of geminates has been a particular focus in some approaches to NON-LINEAR PHONOLOGY, as a part of the discussion of the way in which QUANTITATIVE phenomena should be represented. Those long segments which cannot be separated by EPENTHETIC vowels (‘true’ geminates, represented with multiple ASSOCIATION) are said to display geminate ‘inseparability’ or ‘integrity’. Those which fail to undergo rules because only one part of the structure satisfies the structural description are said to display geminate ‘inalterability’. True geminates are contrasted with ‘fake’ or ‘apparent’ geminates, where identical segments have been made ADJACENT through morphological CONCATENATION.