Indo-European Proto-Indo-European The
Proto-Indo-European language used partial reduplication of a consonant and
e in many
stative aspect verb forms. The perfect or preterite (past) tense of some
Ancient Greek,
Gothic,
Latin,
Sanskrit,
Old Irish, and
Old Norse verbs preserve this reduplication: • Ancient Greek
lúō 'I free' vs.
léluka "I have freed" • Gothic
hald "I hold" vs.
haíhald (
hĕhald) "I/he held" • Latin "I run" vs. "I ran" or "have run" • Old Irish "it breaks" vs. "it broke" • Old Norse
rœ "I row" vs.
rera (
røra) "I rowed" • Sanskrit
likhati 'he writes' vs.
lilekha "he has written" or "he wrote" • A rare modern English reflex is
do vs.
did Proto-Indo-European also used reduplication for the
imperfective aspect. Ancient Greek preserves this reduplication in the present tense of some verbs. Usually, but not always, this is reduplication of a consonant and
i, and contrasts with e-reduplication in the perfect: •
dídōmi "I give" (present) •
dédōka "I have given" (perfect) • *
sísdō →
hízō "I set" (present) • *
sésdomai →
hézomai "I sit down" (present; from sd-,
zero-grade of
root in *sed-os → ἕδος
hédos "seat, abode") Reduplication in nouns was rare, the best example being Proto-Indo-European '
wheel' (cf.
Lithuanian kãklas 'neck',
Sanskrit cakrá 'wheel',
Greek κύκλος (kýklos) 'circle'), which doubled *
kʷel-o- (cf.
Old Prussian kelan 'wheel',
Welsh pêl 'ball'), itself likely a deverbative of *
kʷelh₁- 'to turn'.
English English has several types of reduplication, ranging from informal expressive vocabulary (the first four forms below) to grammatically meaningful forms (the last two below). See also the
alliteration section of the irreversible binomial article for cases like
flip-flop and
dribs and drabs. •
Rhyming reduplication: Artsy-fartsy,
boogie-woogie, okey-dokey, easy-peasy, hanky-panky,
hocus-pocus, hoity-toity, hokey-pokey,
holy moly,
hurdy-gurdy, itsy-bitsy, namby-pamby, raggle-taggle, ragtag, razzle-dazzle, super-duper, teenie-weenie, willy-nilly, wingding. •
Exact reduplications: Ack ack, aye-aye, back-to-back, blah-blah, boo-boo, bye-bye, chin-chin, choo-choo, chow-chow, dik-dik, doo-doo, fifty-fifty, gogo, ha ha, half-and-half, honk-honk, housey-housey, juju, klop-klop, mama,
muumuu, night-night, no-no, papa, pee-pee, pip-pip,
pom-pom, poo-poo, pooh-pooh,
putt putt, so-so, ta-ta, there-there, tut-tut,
tutu,
wah-wah, wee-wee,
yo-yo. While in many forms of English, exact reduplications can also be used to emphasise the strength of a word ("He wants it
now now"), in South African English, 'now-now' means 'relatively soon'. • lexical reduplication: 'Each-each boy take one-one chair.'
Indian English •
Ablaut reduplications: In
ablaut reduplications, the first vowel is almost always a
high vowel or
front vowel (typically ɪ as in hit) and the reduplicated vowel is a
low vowel or
back vowel (typically æ as in
cat or ɒ as in
top). Examples include: bric-a-brac, chit-chat, clip-clop, ding-dong, flimflam,
flip-flop,
hip-hop, jibber-jabber, kitty-cat, knick-knack, mishmash,
ping-pong, pitter-patter, riffraff, sing-song, slipslop, splish-splash, tick-tock, ticky-tacky, tip-top, whiff-whaff, wibble-wobble, wishy-washy, zig-zag. Three-part ablaut sequences are less numerous, but are attested, e.g.
tic-tac-toe, bing-bang-boom, bish-bash-bosh, splish-splash-splosh and "
Live, Laugh, Love".
Spike Milligan's poem "
On the Ning Nang Nong" achieves comic effect by varying the ordering of vowels in such triples: ''There's a Nong Nang Ning/Where the trees go Ping!''. •
Shm-reduplication can be used with most any word; e.g.
baby-shmaby,
cancer-shmancer and
fancy-shmancy. This process is a feature of
American English from
Yiddish, starting among the
American Jews of
New York City, then the
New York dialect and then the whole country. Of the above types, only shm-reduplication is
productive, meaning that examples of the first three are fixed forms and new forms are not easily accepted. •
Comparative reduplication: In the sentence "John's apple looked redder and redder," the reduplication of the
comparative indicates that the comparative is becoming more true over time, meaning roughly "John's apple looked progressively redder as time went on." In particular, this construction does mean that John's apple is redder than some other apple, which would be a possible interpretation in the absence of reduplication, e.g. in "John's apple looked redder." With reduplication, the comparison is of the object being compared to itself over time. Comparative reduplication always combines the reduplicated comparative with "and". This construction is common in speech and is used even in formal speech settings, but it is less common in formal written texts. Although English has simple constructs with similar meanings, such as "John's apple looked ever redder," these simpler constructs are rarely used in comparison with the reduplicative form. Comparative reduplication is fully
productive and clearly changes the meaning of any comparative to a temporal one, despite the absence of any time-related words in the construction. For example, the temporal meaning of "The frug seemed wuggier and wuggier" is clear: despite not knowing what a frug is or what wugginess is, it is easy to grasp that the apparent wugginess of the frug was increasing over time, as indicated by the reduplication of the comparative "wuggier". •
Contrastive focus reduplication: Exact reduplication can be used with contrastive focus (generally where the first noun is
stressed) to indicate a literal, as opposed to figurative, example of a noun, or perhaps a sort of
Platonic ideal of the noun, as in "Is that carrot
cheesecake or carrot
cake cake?". This is similar to the Finnish use mentioned above. Furthermore, it is used to contrast "real" or "pure" things against imitations or less pure forms. For example, at a coffee shop one may be asked, "Do you want soy milk?" and respond, "No, I want
milk milk." This gives the idea that they want "real" milk. • Intensificatory reduplication: Examples like
a big, big problem, a long, long way, or
very very difficult are instances of intensificatory reduplication. This type of reduplication is used to intensify the meaning of the original word. It's a way of expressing that something is not just big or long, but very big or very long. This type of reduplication is typically used only with a narrow range of words, and the meaning can often be inferred even if the specific combination is not a standard idiomatic expression. The more common items include
gradable adjectives (e.g.,
big,
great,
deep,
bad,
old), along with intensificatory adverbs (e.g.,
very,
really,
so) and determiners (e.g.,
much). This is only possible for pre-head
modifiers, and not with other
syntactic functions. For example,
a long long way is fine, but
*the way is long long is ungrammatical, and
I really really want it but not
*I want it really really. The
double is—such as "What I want is, is to go home"—is in some cases a type of reduplication, which may be regarded as non-standard or incorrect. More can be learned about English reduplication in , , and .
Dutch While not common in Dutch, reduplication does exist. Most, but not all (e.g.,
pipi,
blauwblauw (laten),
taaitaai (gingerbread)) reduplications in Dutch are
loanwords (e.g.,
koeskoes,
bonbon, (ik hoorde het)
via via) or imitative (e.g.,
tamtam,
tomtom). Another example is a former safe sex campaign slogan in Flanders:
Eerst bla-bla, dan boem-boem (
First talk, then have sex; lit.
First blah-blah, then boom-boom). In Dutch the verb "gaan" (
to go) can be used as an auxiliary verb, which can lead to a triplication:
we gaan (eens) gaan gaan (we are going to get going). The use of
gaan as an auxiliary verb with itself is considered incorrect, but is commonly used in Flanders. Numerous examples of reduplication in Dutch (and other languages) are discussed by Daniëls (2000).
Afrikaans Afrikaans makes use of reduplication to emphasize the meaning of the word repeated and to denote a plural or event happening in more than one place. For example,
krap means "to scratch one's self," while
krap-krap-krap means "to scratch one's self vigorously", whereas "dit het plek-plek gereën" means "it rained here and there". Reduplication in Afrikaans has been described extensively in the literature – see for example , and . Further examples of this include: "koes" (to dodge) being reduplicated in the sentence "Piet hardloop koes-koes weg" (Piet is running away while constantly dodging / cringing); "sukkel" (to struggle) becoming "sukkel-sukkel" (making slow progress; struggling on); and "kierang" (to cheat) becoming "kierang-kierang" to indicate being cheated on repeatedly.
Romance In
Italian reduplication was used both to create new words or word associations (
tran-tran,
via via,
leccalecca) and to intensify the meaning (
piano piano "very softly"). Common in
Lingua Franca, particularly but not exclusively for onomatopoeic action descriptions:
Spagnoli venir...boum boum...andar; Inglis venir...boum boum bezef...andar; Francés venir...tru tru tru...chapar. ("The Spaniards came, cannonaded, and left. The English came, cannonaded heavily, and left. The French came, trumpeted on bugles, and captured it.") Common uses for reduplication in
French are the creation of
hypocoristics for
names, whereby
Louise becomes
Loulou, and
Zinedine Zidane becomes
Zizou; and in many nursery words, like
dada 'horsie' (vs.
cheval 'horse'),
tati/tata 'auntie' (vs.
tante 'aunt'), or
tonton 'unkie' (vs.
oncle 'uncle'). In
Romanian and
Catalan, reduplication is not uncommon and it has been used for both the creation of new words (including many from
onomatopoeia) and expressions, for example, • Romanian:
mormăi,
țurțur,
dârdâi, expressions
talmeș-balmeș,
harcea-parcea,
terchea-berchea,
țac-pac,
calea-valea,
hodoronc-tronc. • Catalan:
així així, aixina aixana, balandrim-balandram, baliga-balaga, banzim-banzam, barliqui-barloqui, barrija-barreja, bitllo-bitllo, bub-bub, bum-bum, but-but, catric-catrac, cloc-cloc, cloc-piu, corre-corrents, de nyigui-nyogui, farrigo-farrago, flist-flast, fru-fru, gara-gara, gloc-gloc, gori-gori, leri-leri, nap-buf, ning-nang, ning-ning, non-non, nyam-nyam, nyau-nyau, nyec-nyec, nyeu-nyeu, nyic-nyic, nyigo-nyigo, nyigui-nyogui, passa-passa, pengim-penjam, pif-paf, ping-pong, piu-piu, poti-poti, rau-rau, ringo-rango, rum-rum, taf-taf, tam-tam, tau-tau, tic-tac, tol·le-tol·le, tric-trac, trip-trap, tris-tras, viu-viu, xano-xano, xau-xau, xerric-xerrac, xim-xim, xino-xano, xip-xap, xiu-xiu, xup-xup, zig-zag, ziga-zaga, zim-zam, zing-zing, zub-zub, zum-zum.
Slavic The
reduplication in the Russian language serves for various kinds of intensifying of the meaning and exists in several forms: a
hyphenated or repeated
word (either exact or inflected reduplication), and forms similar to
shm-reduplication.
Celtic Reduplication is a common feature of
Irish and includes the examples
rírá,
ruaille buaille both meaning "commotion" and
fite fuaite meaning "intertwined".
Indo-Aryan Typically all Indo-Aryan languages, like
Hindi,
Punjabi,
Gujarati and
Bengali use partial or
echoic reduplication in some form or the other. It is usually used to sound casual, or in a suggestive manner. It is often used to mean
etcetera. For example, in Hindi, chai-shai (
chai means tea, while this phrase means tea or any other supplementary drink or tea along with snacks). Quite common in casual conversations are a few more examples like shopping-wopping, khana-wana. South Asian Indo Aryan languages are also rich in other forms of reduplication: morphological (expressives), lexical (distributives), and phrasal (aspectual). • morphological: {{fs interlinear|indent=3 Reduplication also occurs in the 3rd
gaṇa (verb class) of the Sanskrit language:
bibheti "he fears",
bibharti "he bears",
juhoti "he offers",
dadāti, "he gives". Even though the general idea is to reduplicate the verb root as a prefix, several sandhi rules change the outcome. There are a number of constructions in Hindi and Urdu that are constructed by reduplication. Nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, all have possibility of reduplications.
Armenian In
Armenian, reduplication follows the same classification as in Turkish (see below), namely emphatic reduplication, echo reduplication, and doubling. Many appear as lexical entries in Armenian lexicographical sources. • Emphatic reduplication, one of two interpolated consonants (փ, ս), as in
կարմիր (red), which becomes
կասկարմիր (very red). • Echo Reduplication, as in
սեղան-մեղան (table schmable). • Doubling, as in
քիչ-քիչ (little [by] little)
Turkic Turkish In
Turkish, there are three kinds of reduplication. Emphatic reduplication, also called
intensification: A word can be reduplicated partially, such that an emphatic stem is created to be attached to the adjective. This is done by taking the first syllable of the adjective, dropping the syllable-final phoneme, and adding one of four interpolated consonants (p, s, m, r). For example,
kırmızı (red) becomes
kıpkırmızı (very red);
mavi (blue) becomes
masmavi (very blue);
yeşil (green) becomes
yemyeşil (very green), and
temiz (clean) becomes
tertemiz ("spotless"). The added consonant is unpredictable, grammatically speaking; phonological studies, such as Wedel (1999), shed light on the subject. Echo reduplication: similar to
echo word in other languages, a word can be reduplicated while replacing the initial consonants (not being
m, and possibly missing) with
m. The meaning of the original word is broadened. For example,
tabak means "plate(s)", and
tabak mabak then means "plates, dishes and such". This can be applied to all kinds of words, as in
yeşil meşil meaning "green, greenish, whatever". Although not used in formal written Turkish, it is a standard accepted construction. Doubling: A word can be reduplicated totally, turning it into an adverb with a related meaning. For example,
zaman zaman (time time) meaning "time to time" or "occasionally";
uzun uzun (long long) meaning "at length." This type is used also in formal Turkish, especially in literature. There are a lot of reduplications in this category which do not, if used as one word, have a place in the Turkish language's vocabulary but is used solely in this way. These words are called mimetic in linguistics. An example is 'şırıl şırıl' (used for the sound of a waterfall). They try to give sounds to not only audible but also non-audible phenomena. For example, 'mışıl mışıl' is used for sleeping soundly.
Dravidian Reduplication is also used in
Dravidian languages like
Telugu for the same purpose.
Telugu • phrasal: {{fs interlinear|indent=3
Tamil The Tamil language uses many reduplications, both in spoken (colloquial) and in formal usage. Reduplications are called irattaik kilavi (இரட்டைக் கிளவி) in Tamil grammar. •
baga-baga () - wolfing down food •
busu-busu () – soft and bushy •
cala-cala () - sound of breeze, bubbling brook, cascading water •
cara-cara () - sound of objects rubbing against one another •
choda-choda () – marshy, waterlogged •
chuDa-chuDa () – piping hot •
cuL-cuL () - sharpness of pain •
daga-daga () - blazing, shining, sparkling •
gaDa-gaDa () - quickly, rapidly •
gaNIr-gaNIr () - strident (like the sound of a bell) •
gaba-gaba () - wolfing down food •
galIr-galIr () - sound of walking ankle bracelets •
gama-gama () - fragrant •
gara-gara () – crunchy (as in food), gravely (as in voice) •
giDu-giDu () – quickly, fast •
giru-giru () - giddy •
gubu-gubu () - pouring forth (like smoke, flood, etc.) •
jilu-jilu,
jil-jil () - cool (temperature) •
kIchu-kIchu () - screeching, like the sound of parrots •
kaDu-kaDu () - angry •
kaNa-kaNa () - warm, hot •
kala-kala () - lively •
kozha-kozha () – slimy, gooey •
kozhu-kozhu () – plump •
kuLu-kuLu () - cool (temperature) •
mAngu-mAngu () – laboriously •
maDa-maDa () – quickly, fast •
masa-masa () – sluggish, lethargic •
minu-minu () - sparkling, twinkling •
mozhu-mozhu () – smooth (surface) •
paDa-paDa () - fluttering (e.g., heartbeat) •
paLAr-paLAr () - sound of slapping •
paLIr-paLIr () - flash of light •
paLa-paLa () – glittering, shiny •
paLic-paLic () - sparkling, twinkling •
para-para () - hurried •
pisu-pisu () - sticky •
pola-pola () - easily falling off (like fruits from a tree) •
sora sora () – rough (the sound produced when rubbing back and forth on a rough surface) •
Tak-Tak () - quickly, rapidly •
taLa-taLa () - lush (as in a lush plant/orchard) •
tara-tara () - sound of dragging •
tazu-tazu () - tongue-tied •
tiru-tiru () - guilty, caught-red-handed look •
toLa-toLa () - hanging loose (as in loose fitting) •
toNa-toNa () - annoyingly incessant •
turu-turu () - brisk, active •
vazha-vazha () – smooth, slippery •
veDa-veDa () – shaking, trembling •
vicuk-vicuk () - sound of walking fast •
viru-viru () – energetically (also, spicy)
Bantu Reduplication is a common phenomenon in
Bantu languages and is usually used to form a
frequentive verb or for emphasis. •
Swahili piga 'to strike';
pigapiga 'to strike repeatedly' •
Ganda okukuba (
oku-kuba) 'to strike';
okukubaakuba (
oku-kuba-kuba) 'to strike repeatedly, to batter' •
Chewa tambalalá 'to stretch one's legs';
tambalalá-tambalalá to stretch one's legs repeatedly' Popular names that have reduplication include •
Bafana Bafana •
Chipolopolo •
Eric Djemba-Djemba •
Lomana LuaLua •
Ngorongoro Semitic Semitic languages frequently reduplicate consonants, though often not the vowels that appear next to the consonants in some verb form. This can take the shape of reduplicating the antepenultimate consonant (usually the second of three), the last of two consonants, or the last two consonants.
Hebrew In
Hebrew, reduplication is used in nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs for various reasons: • For emphasis: in ''le'at le'at
, where the adverb "slowly" is duplicated to mean "very slowly". In the slangism gever gever'', the noun "man" is duplicated to mean a "very manly man". • To mean "one by one": •
yom yom is based on "day", and means "every day, day by day". •
para para is based on "cow", and literally means "cow by cow", referring to "one thing at a time". This is possibly a folk etymology, and a derivation from Spanish "para" meaning "stop" is possible. • To create a diminutive: by reduplicating the last two consonants (bi-consonantal reduplication): •
kelev "dog" •
klavlav "puppy" •
khatul "cat" •
khataltul "kitten" •
lavan "white" •
levanban "whitish" •
katan "small" •
ktantan "tiny" • To create secondary derivative verbs: by reduplicating the root or part of it: •
dal () "poor" >
dilel () "to dilute", and also
dildel () "to impoverish, weaken". •
nad () "to move, nod" >
nadad () "to wander" but also
nidned () "to swing" and - due to
phono-semantic matching of the
Yiddish lexical item נודיען nídyen / núdzhen "to bore, bother" - also "to bother, pest, nag, annoy". •
tzakhak () "to laugh" >
tzikhkek () "to chuckle". • For onomatopoeia: • שקשק
shikshék "to make noise, rustle". •
kawakawa (
Piper excelsum) after the tropical
kawa (
Piper methysticum, hence the former conveying a "kawa-ish" meaning), • several ferns known as
piupiu (
Parablechnum and others in their family) named after their fronds' shape resembling those of the
piu palm or
Pritchardia pacifica.
Mortlockese The
Mortlockese language is a Micronesian language spoken primarily on the
Mortlock Islands. In the Mortlockese language, reduplication is used to show a habitual or imperfective aspect. For example, /jææjæ/ means "to use something" while the word /jæjjææjæ/ means "to use something habitually or repeatedly". Reduplication is also used in the Mortlockese Language to show extremity or extreme measures. One example of this can be seen in /ŋiimw alɛɛtɛj/ which means "hate him, her, or it". To mean "really hate him, her, or it," the phrase changes to /ŋii~mw al~mw alɛɛtɛj/.
Pingelapese Pingelapese is a Micronesian language spoken on the Pingelap atoll and on two of the eastern Caroline Islands, called the high island of Pohnpei. Pingelapese utilizes both duplication and triplication of a verb or part of a verb to express that something is happening for certain duration of time. No reduplication means that something happens. A reduplicated verb means that something is happening, and a triplication means that something is still happening. For example,
saeng means 'to cry' in Pingelapese. When reduplicated and triplicated, the duration of this verb is changed: •
saeng – cries •
saeng-saeng – is crying •
saeng-saeng-saeng – is still crying Few languages employ triplication in their language. In Micronesia, Pingelapese is one of only two languages that uses triplication, the other being Mokilese. Reduplication and triplication are not to be confused with tense. In order to make a phrase past, present, or future tense, a temporal phrase must be used.
Rapa Rapa is the French Polynesian language of the island of
Rapa Iti. In terms of reduplication, the indigenous language known as Old Rapa uses reduplication consistent to other Polynesian languages. Reduplication of Old Rapa occurs in four ways: full, rightward, leftward, and medial. Full and rightward are generally more frequently used as opposed to the leftward and medial. Leftward and medial only occur as CV reduplication and partial leftward and medial usually denote emphasis. Example of reduplication forms: For the Rapa Language the implementation of reduplication has specific implications. The most evident of these are known as iterative, intensification, specification, diminutive, metaphorical, nominalizing, and adjectival. Iterative: • naku 'come, go' → nakunaku 'pass by frequently' • ipuni 'hide' → ipunipuni 'hide and seek' Intensification: • mare 'cough' → maremare 'cough forcefully' • roa 'much' → roroa 'very much' • maki 'sick' → makimaki 'really sick' Specification: • kini 'to pinch' → kinikini 'pinch skin' Diminutive: • paki 'slap, strike' → pakipaki 'clap' • kati 'bite' → katikati 'nibble' Metaphorical (typically comparing an animal action with a human action): • kapa 'mime with hands' → kapakapa 'flap wings (a bird)' • mākuru 'detach oneself' → mākurukuru 'shed or molt' • taŋi 'Yell' → taŋitaŋi 'chirp (a bird)' Nominalizing: • para 'finished' → parapara 'leftovers' • Panga'a 'divide' → panaga'anga'a 'a break, a divide' Adjectival: • repo 'dirt, earth' → reporepo 'dirty' • pake 'sun' → pakepake 'shining, bright'
Tagalog Philippine languages are characterized as having the most productive use of reduplication, especially in
Tagalog (the basis of the
Filipino language). Reduplication in Tagalog is complex. It can be roughly divided into six types: • Monosyllabic; e.g.
olol ("mad") • Reduplication of the final syllable; e.g.
himaymay ("separate meat from bones"), from
himay (same meaning) • Reduplication of the final syllable of a disyllabic word, where the added syllable is created from the first consonant of the first syllable and the last consonant of the second syllable; e.g.
kaliskis ("[fish] scale"), from
kalis ("to scrape") • Reduplication of the initial syllable of the root; e.g.
susulat ("will write"), from
sulat ("to write") • Full reduplication; e.g.
araw-araw ("every day"), from
araw ("day" or "sun") • Combined partial and full reduplication; e.g.
babalibaligtad ("turning around continually", "tumbling"), from
baligtad ("reverse") They can further be divided into "non-significant" (where its significance is not apparent) and "significant" reduplication. 1, 2, and 3 are always non-significant; while 5 and 6 are always significant. 4 can be non-significant when used for nouns (e.g.
lalaki, "man"). Many Burmese words, especially adjectives such as ('beautiful' ), which consist of two syllables (when reduplicated, each syllable is reduplicated separately), when reduplicated ( → 'beautifully' ) become
adverbs. and that later, certain initial consonants were deleted, leaving the VCV pattern of Proto-Basque: ==See also==