Geminate consonants are phonemically contrastive in Biblical Hebrew. Before the fricatives , coronal obstruents assimilate to a fricative, resulting in a geminate. Geminate fricatives, nasals, and are realized as lengthened continuants. However, geminate consonants do not undergo this lenition. The Estonian and Finnish languages use double letters for long vowels and geminate consonants. The long (geminate) consonants occur only between vowels. Some speakers distinguish between single and geminate consonants. Before other consonant clusters (including the preaspirated stops and geminate consonants), stressed vowels are short. A few languages have regained secondary geminate consonants. Combination of a "palatalizable" consonant and a following palatal consonant results in a palatal geminate. Geminate consonants are generally represented with two characters. Long (geminate or double) consonants are pronounced exactly like short consonants, but last longer. Syllables are exclusively of the CV pattern, except that consonants may be geminate between vowels. A geminate or prenasalised consonant has one mora. In a geminate or long consonant, the occlusion lasts longer than in simple consonants.