Consonant gemination in Italian: The affricate and fricative case

Consonant gemination in Italian affricates and fricatives was investigated, completing the overall study of consonants. Results analysis other consonant categories, i.e. stops, nasals, liquids, showed that closure duration for stops nasals form most salient acoustic cues to gemination. Frequency energy domain parameters were not significantly affected by a systematic way all classes. on confirmed above findings, i.e., primary correlate is durational nature corresponds lengthened fricative geminates affricate geminates. An inverse correlation between pre-consonant vowel durations present both also singleton geminate word sets when considered separately. This effect reinforced combined sets, confirming hypothesis compensation different phonemes may serve preserve rhythmical structures. Classification tests single vs. consonants using as classification their validity, highlighted peculiarities two In particular, relatively poor performance observed affricates, which led refining considering dental non-dental sets. support Italian, appear intervocalic position singletons but only form.