Durational properties of Polish geminate consonants

Polish is a geminating language with true lexical geminates that form minimal pairs with their singleton counterparts. What is more, Polish, unlike many other geminating languages, allows both single-articulated and rearticulated geminate realisations. In this study, durational properties of Polish geminates together with preceding and following vowels were analysed to compare Polish to other geminating languages. Fifty-four native speakers of Polish were recorded producing geminates and singletons in controlled carrier sentences during a reading task. The results revealed that the main durational cue to the geminate/singleton contrast was consonant duration with a geminate-to-singleton ratio (G/S) of 2.48. Vowels preceding or following geminates and singletons did not differ significantly in duration. Rearticulated geminates occurred 22% of the time and were not significantly longer or shorter than single-articulated geminates. The current results locate Polish among the languages with a medium-to-high G/S ratio and without vowel duration as a cue to a geminate/singleton contrast. Finally, the results allow for the discussion of the behaviour of Polish geminates relative to other languages as well as to indicate directions for further research into the phenomenon of geminate rearticulation.