Re: Spanish geminated vowels

On Sat, 16 Feb 2008 15:49:27 -0800 (PST), Rick McCallister
<gabaroo6958@...> wrote:

>Spanish geminated vowel are interesting in that there
>is some type of qualitative difference going on.
>I can't exactly explain what it is --whether a
>tensing, then relaxing, a pitch distinction, or what.
>In words like lee and loor both vowels are pronounced,
>yet they're not separated by glottal stops and the
>difference between le and lee is not one of length
>--i.e. the vowel of lee is not just a long version of
>that in le. Both vowels are distinctly pronounced yet
>there is no glottal stop between them. Yet there is
>some type of approximation, some type of change in the
>shape of the mouth from open to closed.
>I've never seen an explanation of this phenomenon in
>any book.

Probably because the fact is that the two vowels are in two
different syllables, and phoneticians still haven't figured
out what a syllable is, physically.

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
miguelc@...