Lexical and syntactic gemination in Italian consonants -- Does a geminate Italian consonant consist of a repeated or a strengthened consonant?

TL;DR

This study examines the acoustic features of Italian lexical and syntactic gemination, revealing duration cues, double stop-release bursts, and different planning processes for the two types of gemination.

Contribution

It provides new evidence on the acoustic correlates of Italian gemination, especially the biphonematic nature and distinct timing of lexical versus syntactic geminates.

Findings

Duration is a key cue for gemination, with lengthened closure and shortened vowels.

Double stop-release bursts occur in 10-12% of cases, supporting a biphonematic interpretation.

Timing differences suggest separate planning processes for lexical and syntactic gemination.

Abstract

Two types of consonant gemination characterize Italian: lexical and syntactic. Italian lexical gemination is contrastive, so that two words may differ by only one geminated consonant. In contrast, syntactic gemination occurs across word boundaries, and affects the initial consonant of a word in specific contexts, such as the presence of a monosyllabic morpheme before the word. This study investigates the acoustic correlates of Italian lexical and syntactic gemination, asking if the correlates for the two types are similar in the case of stop consonants. Results confirmed previous studies showing that duration is a prominent gemination cue, with a lengthened consonant closure and a shortened pre-consonant vowel for both types. Results also revealed the presence, in about 10-12% of instances, of a double stop-release burst, providing strong support for the biphonematic nature of Italian geminated stop consonants. Moreover, the timing of these bursts suggests a different planning process for lexical vs. syntactic geminates. The second burst, when present, is accommodated within the closure interval in syntactic geminates, while lexical geminates are lengthened by the extra burst. This suggests that syntactic gemination occurs during a post-lexical phase of production planning, after timing has already been established.