Abstract

The traditional explanation of Proto-Romance geminate initials (as in Italian rafforzamento), in terms of a progressive assimilation subsequent to Latin, is here rejected in favor of a theory of cognation between the strikingly parallel initial morphophonemics of Romance and Celtic. To sustain this, it is necessary to redefine geminates as units and medial so-called single consonants as phonemically composite. Romance syntactic 'gemination' is thus replaced by syntactic 'lenition', as in Celtic. Lenition actually handles certain Italian features better than does gemination.

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