Sobre la distinción entre la geminación y la tensión consonántica

Abstract

In this paper we have reviewed some ideas about the phonetic concepts of gemination and tenseness and wanted to start by clarifying the widespread confusion around these two concepts. We have tried to show that, phonetically, both concepts are completely different. The lenghtening of tense consonants (C*) is an acoustic manifestation of the physiological tenseness involved in their production but the lenghtening of geminates (C:) is just a time-summation of two identical and continued articulations. So geminates are acoustically long but not articulatory tense. On the other hand, tense consonants are also acoustically long but articulatory tense. The time-reduction of the preceding vowel is one of the most important acoustic parameters we presented to differentiate both categories of consonants.