length (phonetics)

In phonetics, length or quantity is a feature of sounds that are distinctively longer than other sounds. There are long vowels as well as long consonants (the latter are often called geminates).Many languages do not have distinctive length. Among the languages that have distinctive length, there are only a few that have both distinctive vowel length and distinctive consonant length. It is more common that there is only one or that they depend on each other.The languages that distinguish between different lengths have usually long and short sounds. According to some linguists, Estonian and some Sami languages have three phonemic (meaning-distinguishing) lengths for consonants and vowels.
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En phonétique et en phonologie, la quantité indique la durée relative d’un phonème. C'est une unité suprasegmentale. Au degré non-marqué [C, V], on oppose les contoïdes et vocoïdes qui subissent un allongement [Cː, Vː] ou un semi-allongement [Cˑ, Vˑ]. Phonologiquement, il convient de ne pas confondre les consonnes longues ([Cː]) avec les consonnes géminées ([CC]).
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