Germanic geminates

From: andrew jarrette
Message: 43715
Date: 2006-03-08

I am curious about the origin of West Germanic geminated voiced stops that do not arise from a following *j, as in Old English crabba, stagga, frogga, codd, stubb, Old Norse klubb, Old Saxon roggo, etc.  Are these purely expressive geminations, or are they regular phonological developments of *b, *d, *g (< *bh, *dh, *gh/g'h or *p, *t, *k/k'?) plus *n, or something else?  I thought primitive Germanic only had unvoiced geminated stops, and I thought that any IE stop plus *n yielded Germanic geminated voiceless (only) stops.  Also why does dd seem to be rarer than bb or gg?
 
Andrew


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