Showing posts with label language culture reduplication. Show all posts
Showing posts with label language culture reduplication. Show all posts

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Reduplication

The golf course in Mandaluyong, Manila is called the Whack-Whack Golf Course. 

I think this is an example of a feature of many Asian languages called Full Reduplication.  All the Filipino languages have it (kàon-káon "eat-eat"; hìbî-híbî "cry-cry"; tinlò-tinlò "clean-clean" are examples in Hiliganon (often, though mistakenly called "Illongo"). A motorcycle cab with a sidecar is called a "tuk-tuk" in many Asian countries.  You can hear Japanese and Thais say "same-same" when speaking English, I assume this comes from their root of the word "same", and is typical of how reduplication is used - for emphasis. Wikipedia is a wiki, and all wiki's get their name from the Hawaiian "wiki-wiki", which means quick, really quick!

I don't think Mandarin has reduplication, except for kinship (叔叔 shūshu - uncle who is younger than after and 伯伯 bóbo for an uncle who is older) but I could easily be wrong. The Italian for "take it easy" is "piano-piano" (softly, softly). 

There are other kinds of reduplication such as partial reduplication ("tick-tock" ) and rhyming reduplication ("dazzle-dazzle", hanky-panky"), baby reduplication (mama, papa, baba), and onomatopoeia reduplication ("bow-wow"). Except for "bye-bye", which could be characterized as baby reduplication, I can't think of an English full reduplication. I'm not sure if "knock-knock" counts since it's from knock-knock jokes which themselves come from the passwords needed when gaining access to a hidden speakeasy bar during alcohol prohibition in the 1930s. 

"Whack Whack" sounds funny to Americans, like it should be a mini-golf course, mostly because it sounds like baby talk. Similarly "same-same" sounds funny to Filipinos. It seems all legit when put into language context. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduplication