Lang- Reduplicated words

 

Mama, papa, night-night, bye-bye

Music of the rhyming words

Can can dancers at Moulin Rouge

Words create the magic of language, and language whether we think, speak or write in it, is the most expressive form of communication. And they are all created by us humans. Yet sometimes we create words which might make the coming generations wonder what was that one ancestor thinking when he/she said or wrote that word even though it makes perfect sense now that it is a part of the lexicon.

Instead of going on like a learned grammarian, I will just tell you the kind of words I am talking about. The examples are bye-bye, flip-flop, chit-chat, hoity-toity, knick-knack, lovey-dovey, riff-raff, topsy-turvy, walkie-talkie, tutti-frutti etc. and hundreds more.

In our own mother tongues we use trailing words like chabi-wabi (in Hindi for key), chabi- shabi (Punjabi), chabi-choobhi (Bangla),chai-wai (in Hindi for tea), chah-shah (Punjabi), chitti-chitti or chinna-chinna (for very small in Telugu) or a simple wah-wah to show our appreciation and admiration. Most of us gave a  thumbs up to the Hindi movie English Vinglish but have never applied our minds to how or why these word combinations came into existence except that they do not interfere with the meaning of what we wish to say and make it easier for the other person to understand.  

My fresh discovery (the whole world might have known it, I only found it recently) is that there are three categories of such repetitive words or reduplicated words if you want to be technical about it. I was so fascinated that I thought of sharing it with you. These are also called double-barreled words.

Reduplication of words simply means expressions formed through repetition of sounds and such words can be of three kinds- exact, rhyming and ablaut. Naturally, this list must be very long but lucky for you, I am writing about a few only.

Today I shall share my newfound gyan on only one category i.e. rhyming words in which the second word is the exact repetition of the first word.

Such words are abundant in baby talk. The list begins with mama and papa. On their own ma or pa, would mean mother and father respectively and convey the meaning. Yet we use the repetition and now are so used to it that they make perfect sense.

Would choo choo or chuk chuk used for the sound a train makes become redundant with the coming of noiseless electric trains?

We sang in tune the nursery rhyme baba black sheep and understood that baba is the sound that the sheep make. We also knew the meow-meow of a cat or bow-bow of a dog and the sounds that several other animals make. Maybe this system started as a means of reinforcing expressions in a baby’s or child’s mind and was found so practical that it stuck. Aren’t we tired of all the knock knock jokes?

When you are ready to say night night to the baby, you make sure the diaper is in place for any pee pee or poo poo activities at night. 

Children generally use the expression boo boo for a small injury, a mistake or something scary although in the movie Baby’s Day Out the toddler calls his book Boo-boo. In the end while going home in the police car, he looks up at a building, points to the top storey and utters boo-boo, a mighty helpful clue for the police chief in nabbing the three kidnappers. The poor trio was so far absolutely unaware of how dangerous a book of bedtime stories would prove for their lives.

The word ha might denote derision but, the repetition ha ha makes it clear that you found something funny enough; he he too means the same. When one hears ho ho, it means Santa Claus is around. Incidentally these expressions can be made more repetitive and go on as ha ha ha ha/he he he or ho ho ho ho and still mean the same, only with a little emphasis.

In some languages papaya is paw paw while chow chow can mean a vegetable or a breed of dog.

Yet some of these words have found place of respect in the language of grown-ups also. I cannot make a pom pom with can can wool. Although men would love to go watch a can can dance performance, women might prefer the cha cha or cha cha cha.

If something just manages to pass, it is so-so. You do not tom tom your own achievements. A win-win situation spells the promise of sure success, but a fifty-fifty chance just slashes it by half and tempts one to go yo-yo in either direction which can be lu lu, (an American slang which means either extremely good or extremely bad-Cambridge Dictionary).

Bye and no are other such words which have definite meaning yet, bye bye and no-no sound more definite in expressing the end of any indecision in matters.  While you might say lo lo when you meet a friend, pip-pip surely means fare thee well even if you call a tuk-tuk overshadowing all noise with its engine going put-put.

Fortunately, babies are unaware of jig jig and for them bang bang merely means the noise guns make. So do a quick snip-snip or chop chop in your language for their sake and play the goody goody grown-up.

By the way the Oxford English Dictionary says nulla nulla is a wooden club used by the native Australians. 

I hope I do not hear a tut tut (or tsk tsk) from some people who did not enjoy my going gaga over this list and merely thought of it as yada yada, blah blah.   

Ta ta for now!

                                                                                                                      - Anupama S Mani