Will Parsons wrote: > Spanish does *not* maintain > the consonantal length of Latin.
Are you sure about that? I've had my Spanish corrected a number of times in which I pronounced a word with a non-geminated consonant but the way they wanted me to pronounce it was clearly geminate. It is definitely not indicated in the spelling, that I would agree with. I think, like English speakers, Spanish speakers are generally unaware consciously of gemination, but clearly can tell when someone is saying something "oddly." English, once had long and short vowels, as well, and like the consonants, they were indicated with doubled letters (ex: "boot"). But, after the vowels shifted, vowel length was no longer phonemic (although there are still traces of vowel length, compare "sat" and "sad"). A Scotsman, however, does contrast vowel and consonant length strongly. Hebrew just followed the same path that many languages have followed... over time, length lost its meaning, particularly when distinct vowel inventories increase (such as when, two sounds are not just considered situational variants of the same sound). -- Ratson Naharädama Denver, Colorado _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
