sum : c gemination ( syntactic ) content - length : 10885 summary of data on syntactic gemination of consonants a couple of weeks ago i posted a query on what i termed " syntactic gemination " , for which i got information from no fewer than 15 respondents . i am very grateful to them all . here they are , listed in alphabetical order : list of the 15 respondents : prathima christdas ( prathima . christdas @ um . cc . umich . edu ) vincent decaen ( decaen @ epas . utoronto . ca ) lance eccles ( lance . eccles @ mq . edu . au ) maik gibson ( llrgbson @ reading . ac . uk ) david gil ( ellgild @ nusvm . bitnet ) ralf grosserhode ( afrikanistik2 @ uni-bayreuth . de ) jacques guy ( j . guy @ trl . oz . au ) marcia haag ( haag @ monk . nhn . uoknor . edu ) mark robert hale ( hale1 @ alcor . concordia . ca ) bruce nevin ( bnevin @ lightstream . com ) john phillips ( john @ ccyi . ccy . yamaguchi-u . ac . jp ) mari siiroinen ( siiroinen @ cc . helsinki . fi ) norbert strade ( lingnost @ hum . aau . dk ) mark verhijde ( mark . verhyde @ let . ruu . nl ) caroline r . wiltshire ( wiltshir @ minerva . cis . yale . edu ) the term " syntactic gemination " was not specific enough , as i had in mind only gemination at word boundaries , and not word-internal gemination at morpheme boundaries . nevertheless i will mention such cases as have been pointed out by respondents . besides , in my haste , i had forgotten to mention classical greek , which i had also taken into account in the preliminary version of my paper . here are the data : a syntactic gemination at word-boundary a . 1 - italian this is the " raddoppiamento sintattico " of central and southern italian . nevertheless the conditions under which this appears seem to vary considerably among the dialects ( and the speakers ? ) . for instance , the example " a casa " [ a ' kkasa ] , taken from lepschy & lepschy ( 1981 ) is not accepted in the dialect of an italian colleague at my university . a . 2 & a . 3 - biblical hebrew and phenician in these languages the definite article / ha / triggers gemination of the initial consonant of the following word ( except for certain consonants ) . for instance , in bh , we have / su : s / ( horse ) , but / ha ssu : s / ( the horse ) . the same would seem to apply to phenician ( see the grammars by segert , van den branden ) , although we have only one epigraphic attestation in punic . the explanation is that a proto-article is reconstructed as * / han / or * / hal / , so that * / hal su : s / ) * / has su : s / , then reinterpreted as / ha ssu : s / . this hypothesis has been connected with the arabic data : the final c of the article / ? al / is assimilated to the initial c of the following word ( at least for the socalled " sun " cs ) . for instance : / ? as samak / ( the f ish ) . 46or arabic , gibson adds this : in tunisian arabic there is a clearer case ( @ is schwa ) : shaaf - @ t 's aw - 3sf ' " she saw " shaaf - @ tt-u 's aw - 3sf-3sm ' " she saw him " the doubling is done to maintain syllable structure , but this is not the20 normal way . we would normally expect the elision of @ , to shaaf-t - u , but20 this does not happen in the 3s feminine past . a . 4 - classical greek in attic greek word-initial / r - / goes to / rr - / under certain conditions after a word ending in a short final v . in epic texts , or in other dialects , this gemination is extended to other sonants : / l - , m - , n - / . we even find / pp - / attested in boeotian these four languages were the only instances known to me when i posted the query . incidentally , note that they are different from the cases of latin " hic " and " hoc " , which were pronounced / hikk / and / hokk / before a word beginning with a v . the form / hokk / is original ( and / hikk / analogically modelled after it ) , so that diachrony forces us to say that / hokk / is simplified into / hok / before a c - initial word . here are now the additional data kindly supplied by my respondents , which i paste freely . a . 5 - finnish ( eccles , siiroinen , strade ) there is consonant gemination at word boundaries in certain cases in finnish . it is morphologically conditioned though it is " syntactic " . several morphemes or forms trigger it : imperative 2nd person singular ( ota ' take ' / otas se ' take it ' ) , allative case ( annan sinulle ' i - give to-you ' / annan sinullek kirjan ' i - give to-you a book ' ) , most of the nouns ending in - e ( kirje ' a letter ' / kirjet tuli ' a letter arrived ' ) and so on . other examples : in some negative forms : * en mene sinne * ( i do n't go there ) , pronounced20 * en menes sinne * negation + v - stem + there verb ( go ) 20 1 . sg . the same in imperative : * a " la " mene sinne * ( do n't go there ! ) , 20 pronounced : 20 * a " la " menes sinne * neg . verb imp . 2 . sg . also in the so called " 1 . infinitive " : * ha " nen pita " isi tulla ta " nne * ( he / she ought to20 come here ) , pron : * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . tullat ta " nne * 20 inf . 1 here 20 the background for this gemination is the historical loss of a final consonant in the suffix-less verbal stem and in the mentioned infinitive form . this consonant was assimilated to a following consonant . while it disappeared without any trace in an end position or in front of a vowel , the gemination of the following consonant was retained . this feature is n't marked in orthography . a . 6 & a . 7 - tamil and malayalam ( christdas , wiltshire ) tamil has gemination of word initial stops following words with some case markings ( accusative at least ) . a brief account can be found in christdas , prathima ( 1987 ) " on constraining the power of lexical phonology : evidence from tamil " in mcdonough , j . and plunkett ( eds ) proceedings of nels 17 , volume 1 : 122-146 . 20 syntactic gemination is also found in malayalam , a closely related language . a . 8 - celtic languages ( phillips ) the celtic languages have " mutations " , changes to the beginnings of words due to their syntactic environment . types of mutations include prefixing of h or n to a vowel and voicing , devoicing , nasalising , etc . , of consonants . one of the mutations in old irish was gemination . the welsh spirant mutation is historically cognate with irish gemination , e . g . ci " dog " , but tri chi " three dogs " , cath a chi " a cat and a dog " , though gemination in old irish occurred in a much wider range of environments . some of the mutations in breton are realised phonetically as gemination , though spelt otherwise . on other cases of c - mutation , see the mention by verhijede below ( fulla , southern paiute ) . a . 9 - the kelantan dialect of malay ( gil ) in the kelantan dialect of malay , agents of passive clauses ( ie . " by " - phrases ) are marked not with a preposition ( as in standard malay ) , but , rather , by gemination of the initial consonant . cb : if i understand this correctly , the preposition has been ellipted ? b - word - internal syntactic gemination word - internal syntactic gemination seems to be widespread , probably more than gemination at word-boundary . as pointed out by nevin , in many languages , some phonotactic effects apply only in certain syntactically defined domains , for example , in roots or in verb stems , but not in affixes . hale adds that the number of languages which show this process is quite large . for instance there are some oceanic examples . at any rate , both sanskrit and ( if the meter is to be believed ) and preclassical ( homeric ) greek show such processes . here are a few specific instances : b . 1 - classical greek word - internal / r / is geminated to / rr / after the augment or after a vowel in compounds , variably . b . 2 - choctaw ( haag ) choctaw ( a muskogean lg of n . america ) has an inflectional form ( for aspect marking ) that involves deformation of the stem such that a medial consonant is geminated , or / y / is inserted an geminated if there are not the requisite number of syllables . so we have falama ` return ' becoming fallaama ` finally return ' while ala ` arrive ' becomes ayyaala ` finally arriv e ' . b . 2 - sakao ( guy ) sakao is a language spoken at espiritu santo , , in vanuatu ( formerly new - hebrides ) . when the direct object is incorporated in the verb , the initial c of the verb is geminated . examples , with son 3d to hunt / shoot with a bow , enes 3d fish : moson enes 3d he is fishing fish with a bow ( now ) but : mossones 3d he fishes fish with a bow ( generally ) , il peche a l ' arc analysis : mv - 3eme p . sg . realis sson20 nes ( ( enes with disappearance of the compulsory article v - , then simplification of the two n 's inro one n ) nb : o 3d open o ( ipa " open o " in pullum & ladusaw , p . 117 ) e 3d open e ( ipa epsilon ) b . 3 - biblical hebrew gil adds this on hebrew : in biblical hebrew the 2nd binyan ( " pi99el " ) is formed by reduplication of the 2nd root consonant , together with the appropriate choice of vowels . now in most part , the binyan system is considered " derivational " and hence not , strictly speaking , syntactic ; however , in some cases , the 2nd binyan is the " transitive " or " causitive " of the first , in which case gemination ( plus vowel pattern ) does have a syntactic function . let me end by a more theoretical note , quoting verhijde : your question touches upon the fields of interaction between morphology-syntax and phonology ( prosody ) . now as far as i know , all c - gemination is in itself strictly phonological . thus if i understand your question correctly , you wish to find out whether there are languages that appear have morphological / syntactic triggers for c - gemination . there is a huge bulk of material on sandhi - effects , as for example the italian rs case you mentioned in your query . perhaps ellen kaisse ( 1985 ) , _ connected speech _ may be of some help . now with respect to your query : i was thinking ( from a phonological point of view ) that c - gemination is really : share melody . or in more abstract terms : share [ x ] . if this is correct , then for example c - mutation ( like in fula , southern paiute and celtic languages ) under syntactic considerations may become very interesting for you . thans again to all of you who generously answered my question . claude boisson universite lumiere , lyon , france ( claude . boisson @ mrash . fr )