Editing Gemination (section)

===Afroasiatic languages===

====Arabic====
Written [[Arabic]] indicates gemination with a diacritic ([[Arabic diacritics|{{transliteration|ar|ḥaraka}}]]) shaped like a lowercase Greek [[omega]] or a rounded Latin ''w'', called the {{lang|ar|شَدَّة}} [[shadda|{{transliteration|ar|shadda}}]]: {{lang|ar|ّ&nbsp;}}. Written above the consonant that is to be doubled, the {{transliteration|ar|shadda}} is often used to [[ambiguity|disambiguate]] words that differ only in the doubling of a consonant where the word intended is not clear from the context. For example, in Arabic, [[Arabic verbs#Derivational categories, conjugations|Form I]] verbs and [[Arabic verbs#Derivational categories, conjugations|Form II]] verbs differ only in the doubling of the middle consonant of the triliteral root in the latter form, ''e.&nbsp;g.'', {{lang|ar|درس}} {{transliteration|ar|darasa}} (with full diacritics: {{lang|ar|دَرَسَ}}) is a Form I verb meaning ''to study'', whereas {{lang|ar|درّس}} {{transliteration|ar|darrasa}} (with full diacritics: {{lang|ar|دَرَّسَ}}) is the corresponding Form II verb, with the middle {{transliteration|ar|r}} consonant doubled, meaning ''to teach''.

====Berber====
In [[Berber languages|Berber]], each consonant has a geminate counterpart, and gemination is lexically contrastive. The distinction between single and geminate consonants is attested in medial position as well as in absolute initial and final positions.

*{{Transliteration|ber|ini}} 'say'
*{{Transliteration|ber|inni}} 'those in question'
*{{Transliteration|ber|akal}} 'earth, soil'
*{{Transliteration|ber|akkal}} 'loss'
*{{Transliteration|ber|imi}} 'mouth'
*{{Transliteration|ber|immi}} 'mother'
*{{Transliteration|ber|ifis}} 'hyena'
*{{Transliteration|ber|ifiss}} 'he was quiet'
*{{Transliteration|ber|tamda}} 'pond, lake, oasis'
*{{Transliteration|ber|tamedda}} 'brown buzzard, hawk'

In addition to lexical geminates, Berber also has phonologically-derived and morphologically-derived geminates. Phonological alternations can surface by concatenation (e.g., {{IPA|[fas sin]}} 'give him two!') or by complete assimilation (e.g. {{IPA|1=/rad = k i-sli/}} {{IPA|[rakk isli]}} 'he will touch you'). Morphological alternations include imperfective gemination, with some Berber verbs forming their
imperfective stem by geminating one consonant in their perfective stem (e.g., {{IPA|[ftu]}} 'go! PF', {{IPA|[fttu]}} 'go! IMPF'), as well as quantity alternations between singular and plural forms (e.g., {{IPA|[afus]}} 'hand', {{IPA|[ifassn]}} 'hands').