Double Consonants, Gemination, or the “Mirror” Method in Naming

Abstract

Double consonants, appearing two times in a row in the middle of the word from an acoustic perspective, constitutes a natural state of a language and manifests itself as one of its primary linguistic features. Double consonant (gemination) predominantly observed in disyllabic words, constitutes one of the most active linguistic phenomena of the child lexicon, both in the world’s languages in general and in the Azerbaijani language and its dialects: babba/ ba^obba ʽ grandfather᾽, nænnæ/ nənnə ʽ grandmother᾽, dæddæ/ dəddə ʽ dad᾽, æddæ/ adda ʽada/ father᾽, ænnæ̍/ anna̍ ʽ mother᾽, abba/ apba/ hapba ʽappa, food᾽, æbbæ/ æpbæ ʽəppək, bread᾽, qaq̣qa ʽ sweets᾽, quq̣qu ʽ bird, rooster᾽, üffü/ üffə ʽ hot food᾽, buvva ʽbuva, water᾽, aq̣qa ʽ shoes᾽, cızza/ ʣızza/ dızza ʽcıza; boiling (hot), indication of something hot᾽ etc. The process of consonant gemination here can be considered a transitional stage toward polysyllabicity, formed through syllable closure in the language following the repetition of the same open syllable (dæ-dæ-dæ...), resulting in the form (dæd-dæ).

Consonant gemination functions as a kind of “mirror” mechanism in language; The second of the syllabic layers separated by the midpoint of the geminate consonant is reflected in a mirror-like manner, in the same way as the first. During articulation, the final consonant of the first syllable assumes a relaxing position within its place of articulation, and exhibit a breath-supported continuity by even depending on the nature of the consonant (affricate, fricative, sonorant, nasal, stopped, and etc.).

It is incorrect to seek gemination in all words containing double consonants. Gemination is the lengthening of a consonant. This, in turn, is not observed in plosive (stop) and affricate consonants, since these consonants are characterized by articulatory hardness. Gemination can arise because their continuity is strong and elastic (soft) in fricative and sonorant sounds.