Interestingly, the subject of geminate consonants has popped up in two separate recent threads.

In one, zmj tells us, "Geminate consonants in Latin (and Italian) are pronounced distinctly from single consonants." In the other, where Bob asks about Luganda (a language), we learn from Jerry's link that "[a] notable feature of Luganda phonology is its geminate consonants."

Per Jerry's link (if I understand it correctly), the Europeans who first reduced Luganda writing form did not hear the geminate consonants as sounds distinct from the regular ones. This seems odd, because I'd think the geminate sounds would be familiar to them from their knowledge of Latin. Obviously I'm missing something here.

Help! zmj, could you perhaps explain the gist of the article Jerry links to, in terms a layman can hope to understand?