Geminate Inalterability in Old English

Abstract

In Old English, Fricative Voicing and g-Spirantization fail to apply to geminates whereas Palatalization freely applies to geminates. Such difference in the applicability of phonological processes to geminates relies on the question whether the nature of a phonological process is lenition or not. On the basis of the observation that geminate consonants tend to resist lenition processes, the present paper proposes that geminate inalterability/alterability in Old English can be accounted for by specifying the distinction between singleton segments and geminate segments in relevant markedness constraints and thus restricting lenition processes to affecting short segments only.