treated phonemically, a medial consonant might appear to double, thus creating a contrast, for example, between the word hiki (meaning 'pull' or 'influence') and hikki (meaning 'writing'). In terms of articulation and phonetics, the difference between the two words would be that, in the latter hikki, the doubled closes the first syllable and is realized in the glottis as glottal plosive stop (with some anticipatory articulation evident in the velum of the mouth, where a is usually made) while starting the next syllable as a articulated and realized as the regular velar sound. In effect, this consonant doubling then adds one mora to the overall speech rhythm and timing. Hence, among other contrasts, the word hik-ki is felt to be one mora or beat longer than hi-ki by a speaker of Japanese. See also Emic and etic Morpheme Phoneme References Suomi, Kari. Temporal conspiracies for a tonal end: Segmental durations and accentual f0 movement in a quantity language. Journal of Phonetics, Volume 33, Issue 3, July 2005, pp. 291–309. Phonetics of Finnish: Quantity and duration of vowels & consonants External links Phonology