Typological features of geminate consonants at word edges

What is it about?

In this paper we seek to answer the following questions relevant to the typology of edge geminates (EGs): (a) With respect to weight, do EGs pattern as moraic (heavy) or not? (b) What is the relationship between EGs and edge clusters? Languages with initial geminates may or may not have initial consonant clusters. Similarly, languages with final geminates may or may not have final clusters. In particular, we ask: (i) In languages that have EGs and edge clusters, do the geminates and clusters pattern the same way with respect to weight, or can geminates be special? (ii) In languages that have EGs but no corresponding edge clusters, are the edge geminates more or less likely to be moraic (heavy)? (iii) In languages that have both initial and final geminates, how do the EGs pattern with respect to weight? Broadly speaking we find that (I) if edge clusters do not exist, then edge geminates are moraic; (II) if edge geminates are non-moraic, then edge clusters are non-moraic. Further implications and preliminary thoughts as to how we can understand the generalizations we have uncovered more formally are discussed.

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Why is it important?

Our findings about edge geminates are important since to date no typological research has focused on this type of geminates, their weight properties and their correlations to edge clusters.