Nicholas Bodley wrote:

> >> I assume double consonants in Finnish are repeated, as in Italian?
> >
> > Sorry, I've never noticed a "repeated" consonant in Italian?
>
> I was referring to articulation, apparently carelessly. For
> instance, "Sotto", in which the t's are separately
> articulated, maybe with a pause in voicing between them.
> (Am I confused?)

Italian geminated consonants are not articulated as two consecutive sounds.
In a word like "sotto", the consonant spelled "tt" sounds the same as the
consonant spelled "t": the only difference is that it is articulated over
the boundary between two syllables.

If the geminated consonant is a fricative (such as the "ss" in "asso",
'ace'), its sound is actually prolonged, and it spans from the end of the
first syllable to the beginning of the second one.

The doubling of the letter in the spelling is just a convenient graphical
artifice.

(I have not yet had time to read the 50+ messages from this week end, so
sorry if I am misunderstanding the discussion or repeating something.)

_ Marco