Marco Cimarosti wrote:

>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.
>
>

English doesn't normally have these geminated consonants, but there are
a few examples in English that might help you get the idea:

unnamed vs unaimed
bookcase vs bookie
rat-trap vs ratty

etc.

~mark