Gemination

( " Double " Latin Geminare ) gemination referred to in linguistics duplication of letters or words, and the associated linguistic phenomena, such as a longer debate.

Letters and phonemes

Gemination herein refers to the prolonged pronunciation of consonants; the " geminates " occur, for example, in the Italian, Finnish, Arabic and Japanese language, as well as in numerous West Central German dialects. In Scripture geminates are usually referred to by doubling the consonant letters.

Example ( Finnish):

Kuka 'who'
Kukka "flower"

Typical of many modern Germanic languages it is that the originally present significant relevant ( phonological ) difference between short and long consonants no longer exists (so that the double letters of a consonant is no longer needed for the representation of this difference ), and that it is next to it but the difference between short (or monophthongischen ) and long (or diphthongal ) vowels are (which in these languages can often only partially or not at all be played back using the vowel letters ).

So it came about that in German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and English consonants twice represented could take over the function to mark the called vowel differences. In all these languages the double consonant letters indicate the brevity of the immediately preceding vowel (partly corresponding to its open debate), so they serve as a " breve ". However, in any of these languages , each short vowel is identified in this way. Depending on the language to be written twice in different dependence of syllables or Morphemstruktur a word consonants. Common to these languages , the basic rule that a single consonant between two vowels ( the first of which is short ) represented twice. The use of the word and before other consonants, however, is regulated differently ( cf. German swim - it floats with English swimming - she swims ), some with special rules within a language: cf. German regularly before the reform of German orthography from 1996 ride - ride, but irregular cracks - crack ( since the reform also regularly plan ); Swedish regularly hotellet - hotell, but irregularly blommor - blom.

The double consonant letters (or shortening the pronunciation of the preceding vowel ) has a meaning-differentiating function so in those languages. Example for German: Rate - rat. In Rate which is a long, in rat it is short; the t is pronounced the same, however.

Also associated is a function to select the syllable borders. One widespread perception in phonology According lies with the rate of syllable boundary before the consonant, while situated in the rat on the consonants ( the [t ] here is syllable articulation and thus belongs to both syllables). This makes it possible to explain the above-mentioned principle.

As in the German document, a double consonant letter indicates no longer consonants, but on the contrary, the shortening of standing in front vowel, the geminates are very often mispronounced such as the Italian by speakers with German mother tongue. The Germans are audibly prolonged consonants only sometimes found as a result of a combination of words, if this means two equal consonants follow each other; as in the words " stack overflow", " oxygen bottle " or " sheet ".

In contrast, prolonged audible consonants come in some German regions in the dialects or regional language, they have some of Luxembourg on the Eifel to the north of Cologne, regardless of the spelling, mainly after short vowels, but by no means exclusively.

In some German dialects, however, the letters doubling symbolizes quite a gemination of consonants and is not related to the length of the preceding vowel. For example, are in many Swiss German dialects [ hasə ] hares and [ Has ː ə ] hate against. The prolonged pronunciation of the double consonant letters is also common in the Swiss High German. Conversely, the unconscious omission of this elongation of Germans who speak Swiss dialect, as a typical feature. Thus, the often -quoted Swiss German word Chuchichäschtli revealed ( NHG small kitchen cabinet ) speakers from Germany, because they pronounce the correctly exactly once long pronounced ch, namely [ χuχ ː i ˌ χæʃtli ], either not at all ( [ χuχi ˌ χæʃtli ] ) or then two or three long ( [ χ ː uχ ː i ˌ χ ː æʃtli ] ).

Digraphs (eg, ch) and trigraphs (eg sh ) may in German - because according to the rules in German only single consonant letters can be geminiert - not doubled, although a gemination to symbolize the vowel length would actually be just as useful. Example, one could distinguish pool if it says the word with long or short A. In Arabic, the gemination of a consonant can be characterized by the special character Shadda; in Hebrew through Dagesch.

Gemination in word formation

In word formation, the term gemination is also used for the doubling of words or syllables with partial Bedeutungsnuancierung.

Example list

Examples: bembeyaz = exceedingly white; simsiyah = exceedingly black; kapkara = very dark / black; mosmor = very purple (also known as a description for a bruise: " olmuşsun Mosmor " = "You're turned green and blue! " )

In Chinese, the doubling has different functions depending on the part of speech.

The doubling of nouns leads to a generalization :天tian = day / sky,天天Tiantian = every day. The same can be achieved by each but also with the word每měi =. The doubling of adjectives leads to an increase :蓝lán = blue,蓝蓝lán lán = very blue. The same can be but also with the words很hen = very or好hǎo = good reach. The doubling of verbs is the repetition, brevity or weakness of an action :你过来看看nǐ Guo lái Kàn kan = come here and show it to you at times. If the soon to be expressed, even一yī can be inserted between the doubling :你过来看一看nǐ Guo lái Kanyi Ch. Or you depends一下yī xià = times briefly, and not doubled. The doubling of Zählwörtern has the same function as that of nouns, and especially is used when the noun is omitted :他有五个弟弟,个个都怕哥哥tā yǒu wǔ ge dì di, gè gè Dou Pà gē ge = he has five smaller brothers, each of them is afraid of the big brother.

Rhetoric

In the rhetoric of the term gemination is also used for the doubling of words or phrases with partial Bedeutungsnuancierung.

Example:

But woe, woe, woe! When I see the end! ( Wilhelm Busch, Max and Moritz )
My father, my father, now he touch me! (Goethe, Erlkönig )