The syllabification of word- or morpheme-internal consonants, especially those preceded by short
vowels, in Germanic languages has been subject to various analyses and there is generally not much
consensus on the analysis of single string-internal consonants in these languages. This paper presents
the results of a study based on a word game, carried out with German and Norwegian subjects, that
provides evidence for a differential analysis of string-internal syllable junctures and consonants in
these two languages. We conclude that in German a consonant preceded by a short/lax stressed
vowel is best analysed as short and ambisyllabic while in Norwegian a consonant in the same
environment is a geminate that contributes weight to the preceding syllable via its mora even though
it is parsed in the following syllable. The analysis highlights the need for orthogonal syllable and
moraic representations.
