Geminates can be wholly syllabified as onsets

What is it about?

The standard analysis of geminates - usually referred to as long consonants - word medially is that one half of the geminate gets to be in the syllable coda and the other half in the onset of the following syllable, i.e. straddling syllable boundaries. But what about geminates in the beginning of the word? Their analysis is theoretically challenging, since the 'straddling' option doesn't seem available. The proposed solution argues in favor of these geminates being analysed as weightful onsets. Interestingly, some languages adopt this representation not only for initial geminates, but also for medial ones.

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Why is it important?

This proposal offers a fairly simple explanation to a puzzling theoretical problem and extends our understanding of syllable and phonological weight typology.