gemination
Lengthened consonant sound
Gemination is the doubling of a consonant sound or letter.
In speech, it refers to pronouncing a consonant for a noticeably longer duration, as happens naturally in English compounds like bookkeeper or night-time.
In writing, gemination appears as doubled letters, which in English often signal a preceding short vowel: sitting versus siting.
Many languages use gemination meaningfully to distinguish words, though English speakers rarely notice the phenomenon unless learning such a language.
Tense consonant type
- articulationClear vocal expression
- voicingExpressing aloud
- phonemeMinimal distinctive sound unit
- allophoneNon-distinctive sound variation
plosive · stop · nasal · fricative · affricate · mora · timing · duration
Act of redoing
- reduplicationMorphological doubling process
- anaphoraRepeated opening words
- epistropheRepeating concluding words
- amplificationIncrease in intensity
emphasis · intensification · doubling · iteration · oratory · persuasion
Science of language sounds
- reduplicationMorphological doubling process
- morphemeSmallest meaningful language unit
- segmentalDivided into sections
- prosodyStudy of verse rhythm
syllable structure · weight · assimilation · dissimilation · contrast · distinctive feature · underlying form · lexical
Adjacent identical characters
- spellingCorrect letter sequence
- orthographyStandard writing conventions
- digraphTwo letters, one sound
- transcriptionWritten version of speech
diacritic · ligature · romanization · Italian · Finnish · Arabic · Japanese · Amharic
fortis
Tense consonant type
- articulationClear vocal expression
- voicingExpressing aloud
- phonemeMinimal distinctive sound unit
allophone · plosive · stop · nasal · fricative · affricate · mora · timing · duration · tenseness
repetition
Act of redoing
- reduplicationMorphological doubling process
- anaphoraRepeated opening words
- epistropheRepeating concluding words
amplification · emphasis · intensification · doubling · iteration · oratory · persuasion
phonology
Science of language sounds
- reduplicationMorphological doubling process
- morphemeSmallest meaningful language unit
- segmentalDivided into sections
prosody · syllable structure · weight · assimilation · dissimilation · contrast · distinctive feature · underlying form · lexical
double letter
Adjacent identical characters
- spellingCorrect letter sequence
- orthographyStandard writing conventions
- digraphTwo letters, one sound
transcription · diacritic · ligature · romanization · Italian · Finnish · Arabic · Japanese · Amharic · notation