In chemistry, the term geminal refers to the relationship between two functional groups that are attached to the same atom. The prefix gem is applied to a chemical name to denote this relationship, as in a gem-dibromide. Multicolored chemicals are frequent hallmarks of chemistry. ... In organic chemistry functional groups are specific groups of atoms within molecules, that are responsible for the characteristic chemical reactions of those molecules. ...
The related term vicinal refers to the relationship between two functional groups that are attached to adjacent atoms. In chemistry vicinal stands for any two functional groups bonded to two adjacent carbon atoms. ...
For words that already obey the "geminate early" rule, switching the doubling to the second consonant is certainly not unusual (this is the Karttunen > Kartunnen error).
Amusingly, gemination can even spread to the y: mayyonaise (42 hits) or mayyonnaise (20 hits); but no misspelling of this word is nearly as common as simply degeminating across the board (mayonaise), in violation of conservation of geminates.
In fact, it's not clear that conservation of geminates is much of an effect at all, given that the same effect could be achieved the independent forces of (1) global degemination (recommend > recomend), and (2) spontaneous first consonantgemination (enemy > ennemy, recomend > reccomend).
Gemination is distinctive in certain languages, for instance Italian, Japanese, Arabic, Finnish.
Geminates are usually around one and a half or two times as long as a short consonants, depending on the language.
In written language, gemination is often indicated by writing a consonant twice ("ss", "kk", "pp", and so forth), but can also be indicated with a special symbol, such as the shadda in Arabic.
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