Nicholas Bodley wrote:

>
> On Fri, 18 Jun 2004 13:50:53 -0400, Peter T. Daniels
> <grammatim@...> wrote:
>
> > There really was a reason, long ago, why "dictionary pronunciations"
> > assigned the labels "long" and "short" to the vowels the way they did,
> > but those uses for quality-of-vowel aren't used in linguistics; "long"
> > and "short" to us really do refer to the durations of segments.
>
> Just the sort of information I have been hoping to encounter for many
> years; it's much appreciated.
>
> I do hope that dilettante queries aren't straining the graces of the
> experts! My linguistic posts are becoming a serious distraction; I'll be
> considering joining CONLANG-L, but I lost the message; will ask for a
> repeat-send off-list.
>
> > In Finnish (ObQalam) they make it easy for you by actually writing two
> > vowels or two consonants when they want you to pronounce them long.
>
> ObQalam? You really pique my curiosity!

When a posting, or a thread, is far off topic of the relevant list or
newsgroup, one tries to wrench it back onto topic, with the notation
"Obligatory X."

> I assume double consonants in Finnish are repeated, as in Italian?

Sorry, I've never noticed a "repeated" consonant in Italian?

They are, as the name suggests, _long_.

> Many thanks, Peter.

--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@...