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. But it's been a while since I was in grad
school. But if nothing has been written about --maybe
one of you whippersnappers can do a dissertation on it.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ