I first heard about it in that IPA book[1] I read at BYU. All I mention from my notes is that the topic is mentioned. I wish I had written more.
A google search turns up this book[2] which is a bit dated and the IPA transcriptions are hard to read. It defines "backward gemination" as one that "repeats a syllable-initial liquid or voiced glide as a syllable-final satellite on the preceding nucleus, provided that it is a stressed one." Some examples are spirit, silly, lawyer, kayak, and Montoya. Not sure what those last three are. He says Northern States English has this for liquids and voiced glides (but not nasals) for all nuclei. Southern British, however, geminates /r/ only after heavy or long nuclei, as in jury, glorious, and historian.
He gives a table that shows three groups of words that can be geminated, which shows that if a dialect geminates group c, it implies that group b is geminated, which, in turn, implies group a is geminated. Word boundaries play a part in this, so the difference between toil and toilet is mostly because of the extra syllable.
Table 1a
| Illustrative examples |
Scottish English |
Southern States |
Southern British |
Northern States | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (a) | hairy | /herɪ/ | /hæɚrɪ/ | /hɛɚrɪ/ | /hɛɚri/ |
| (b) | vãrious | /verɪəs/ | /vɛɪrɪəs/ | /vɛɚrɪəs/ | /vɛɚrɪəs/ |
| phãraoh | /fero/ | /fɛɪrou/ | /fɛɚrou/ | /fɛɚrou/ | |
| (c) | Harry | /harɪ/ | /hærɪ/ | /hærɪ/ | /hɛɚri/ |
| merry | /mɛrɪ/ | /mɛrɪ/ | /mɛrɪ/ | /mɛɚi/ | |
Table 1b
| Illustrative examples |
Southern (States, Britain, Africa) |
Northern States | |
|---|---|---|---|
| (a) | hill#y | /hɪlɪi/ | /hɪɫli/ |
| tell#it | /tʰɛlɪʔ/ | /tʰɛɫləʔ/ | |
| (c) | mellow | /mɛlo/ | /mɛɫlo/ |
| Jello | /ʤɛloʊ/ | /ʤɛɫloʊ/ | |
| (d) | sell##enough | /sɛɫlənʌf/ | |
(Types (a) and (d) are forward gemination. Types (b) and (c) are backward gemination.)
The examples shows so far show that this happens a lot with stressed syllables followed by an unstressed syllable. When it's the other way around, there isn't as much (paralysis vs. paralytic).
(There is more in this source that I haven't read yet.
References edit
- ^ Feagin, Crawford (1998). "Representing Southern States English: Pitfalls and Solutions". In Bronstein, Arthur J., ed. (1998). Conference Papers on American English and the International Phonetic Alphabet. American Dialect Society.
- ^ Charles-James, N. Bailey (1983). "The patterning of sonorant gemination in English lects." In Fasold, Ralph W. ed. Variation in the Form and Use of Language: A sociolinguistics reader. Georgetown University. p. 177–