The phonetics and phonology of intervocalic velar nasals in Galician Sonia Colina a, * , Manuel Dı ´az-Campos b,1 a Department of Languages and Literatures, Arizona State University, Main Campus, PO Box 870202, Tempe, AZ 85287-0202, USA b Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Indiana University, Ballantine Hall 857, 1020 East Kirkwood Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA Received 1 December 2004; received in revised form 20 April 2005; accepted 20 April 2005 Available online 13 June 2005 Abstract Galician intervocalic velar nasals have traditionally been considered derived segments. Scholars, however, have been unable to agree on their syllabic affiliation, with all syllabification proposals to date running counter to well-attested principles of phonological theory. Moreover, little is known about the phonetic properties of these segments beyond their nasal and velar qualities. The primary objective of this paper is therefore to contribute to our understanding of the phonology and phonetics of intervocalic velar nasals in Galician. This article reexamines existing phonological accounts of intervocalic velar nasals including a proposal in which these segments are argued to be underlying velar nasals with a geminate realization. The phonological proposal is complemented by a phonetic study on gemination that seeks to determine whether there are durational differences between the proposed underlying velar nasals and other velar nasals. The results show that, while longer than singletons, the Galician segments are not as long as underlying geminates, thus supporting the presence of non-contrastive gemination in Galician intervocalic velar nasals. This article illustrates the role played by phonetic investigation in phonological research and has implications for the study of gemination and for a theory of language change. # 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Galician; Syllabification; Gemination; Velar nasals; Optimality theory; Phonetics www.elsevier.com/locate/lingua Lingua 116 (2006) 1245–1273 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 480 965 4649; fax: +1 480 965 0135. E-mail addresses: scolina@asu.edu (S. Colina), mdiazcam@indiana.edu (M. Dı ´az-Campos). 1 Tel.: +1 812 856 5462; fax: +1 812 855 4526. 0024-3841/$ – see front matter # 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2005.05.001