Reduplication


In linguistics, reduplication is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word, part of that, or the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change.
The classic observation on the semantics of reduplication is Edward Sapir's: "Generally employed, with self-evident symbolism, to indicate such concepts as distribution, plurality, repetition, customary activity, increase of size, added intensity, continuance." It is used in inflections to convey a grammatical function, such as plurality or intensification, and in lexical derivation to create new words. It is often used when a speaker adopts a tone more expressive or figurative than ordinary speech and is also often, but not exclusively, iconic in meaning. It is found in a wide range of languages and language groups, though its level of linguistic productivity varies. Examples can be found in language as old as Sumerian, where it was used in forming some color terms, e.g. babbar "white", kukku "black".
Reduplication is the standard term for this phenomenon in the linguistics literature. Other occasional terms include cloning, doubling, duplication, repetition, and tautonymy.

Typological description

Form

Reduplication is often described phonologically in one of two ways: either as reduplicated segments or as reduplicated prosodic units. In addition to phonological description, reduplication often needs to be described morphologically as a reduplication of linguistic constituents. As a result, reduplication is interesting theoretically as it involves the interface between phonology and morphology.
The base is the word that is to be copied. The reduplicated element is called the reduplicant, often abbreviated as RED or sometimes just R.
In reduplication, the reduplicant is most often repeated only once. In some languages, it can occur more than once, resulting in a tripled form, and not a duple as in most reduplication. Triplication is the term for this phenomenon of copying two times. Pingelapese has both forms. In this article, English translations of words are shown in apostrophes:
Basic verbReduplicationTriplication
' 'to sing'' 'singing'' 'still singing'
' 'to sleep'' 'sleeping'' 'still sleeping'

Triplication occurs in other languages, e.g. Ewe, Shipibo, Twi, Mokilese, Min Nan, Stau.
Sometimes gemination is considered to be a form of reduplication. The term dupleme has been used to refer to different types of reduplication that have the same meaning.

Full and partial

Full reduplication involves a reduplication of the entire word. For example, Kham derives reciprocal forms from reflexive forms by total reduplication:
Another example is from Musqueam Halkomelem "dispositional" aspect formation:
Partial reduplication involves a reduplication of only part of the word. For example, Marshallese forms words meaning 'to wear X' by reduplicating the last consonant-vowel-consonant sequence of a base, i.e. base+''CVC:
Many languages often use both full and partial reduplication, as in the Motu example below:
Base verbFull reduplicationPartial reduplication
mahuta 'to sleep'mahutamahuta 'to sleep constantly'mamahuta'' 'to sleep '

Reduplicant position

Reduplication may be initial, final, or internal, e.g.
Initial reduplication in Agta ':
Final reduplication in Dakota ':
Internal reduplication in Samoan :
Internal reduplication is much less common than the initial and final types.

Copying direction

A reduplicant can copy from either the left edge of a word or from the right edge. There is a tendency for prefixing reduplicants to copy left-to-right and for suffixing reduplicants to copy right-to-left:
Initial L → R copying in Oykangand Kunjen :
Final R → L copying in Sirionó:
Copying from the other direction is possible although less common:
Initial R → L copying in Tillamook:
Final L → R copying in Chukchi:
Internal reduplication can also involve copying the beginning or end of the base. In Quileute, the first consonant of the base is copied and inserted after the first vowel of the base.
Internal L → R copying in Quileute:
In Temiar, the last consonant of the root is copied and inserted before the medial consonant of the root.
Internal R → L copying in Temiar :
A rare type of reduplication is found in Semai. "Expressive minor reduplication" is formed with an initial reduplicant that copies the first and last segment of the base:

With other morphological processes

All the examples above consist of only reduplication, which also often occurs with other phonological and morphological processes, such as vowel alternation, deletion and affixation of non-reduplicating material.
For instance, in Tz'utujil a new '-ish' adjective form is derived from other words by suffixing the reduplicated first consonant of the base followed by the segment. This can be written succinctly as . Below are some examples:
  • 'red' → 'reddish'
  • 'yellow' → 'yellowish'
  • 'water' → 'watery'
Somali has a similar suffix that is used in forming the plural of some nouns: -aC :
  • 'ditch' → 'ditches'
  • 'lump of meat' → 'lumps of meat'
  • 'boy' → 'boys'
This combination of reduplication and affixation is commonly referred to as fixed-segment reduplication.
In Tohono O'odham initial reduplication also involves gemination of the first consonant in the distributive plural and in repetitive verbs:
  • 'ox' → 'ox '
  • 'rock' → 'rock '
  • 'dig out of ground ' → 'dig out of ground '
  • 'hit ' → 'hit '
Sometimes gemination can be analyzed as a type of reduplication.

Phonological processes, environment, and reduplicant-base relations

  • overapplication
  • underapplication
  • backcopying – A putative phenomenon of over-application in the reduplicant of a process triggered by the reduplicant in the base
  • base-reduplicant "identity"
  • tonal transfer/non-transfer

    Function and meaning

In the Malayo-Polynesian family, reduplication is used to form plurals :
  • Malay rumah "house", rumah-rumah "houses".
In pre-1972 Indonesian and Malaysian orthography, 2 was shorthand for the reduplication that forms plurals: orang "person", orang-orang or orang2 "people". This orthography has resurfaced widely in text messaging and other forms of electronic communication.
The Nama language uses reduplication to increase the force of a verb: go, "look;", go-go "examine with attention".
Chinese and Japanese do not make morphological use of reduplication, but some words are formed this way, often with a collective sense: 人 rén "person", 人人 rénrén "everybody"; 時 toki "time", tokidoki 時々 "sometimes, from time to time". The iteration mark 々 can be used to indicate reduplication, although in Chinese the iteration mark is no longer used in standard writing and is often found only in calligraphy.
Indo-European languages formerly used reduplication to form a number of verb forms, especially in the preterite or perfect. In the older Indo-European languages, many such verbs survive:
  • spondeo, spopondi
  • λείπω, λέλοιπα
  • δέρκομαι, δέδορκα
  • háitan, haíháit
Those forms do not survive in Modern English but existed in its parent Germanic languages. Many verbs in the Indo-European languages exhibit reduplication in the present stem, rather than the perfect stem, often with a different vowel from that used for the perfect: Latin gigno, genui and Greek τίθημι, ἔθηκα, τέθηκα. Other Indo-European verbs used reduplication as a derivational process: compare Latin sto and sisto. All of those Indo-European inherited reduplicating forms are subject to reduction by other phonological laws.
Reduplication can be used to refer to the most prototypical instance of a word's meaning. In such a case, it is called contrastive focus reduplication. Finnish colloquial speech uses the process; nouns can be reduplicated to indicate genuinity, completeness, originality and being uncomplicated, as opposed to being fake, incomplete, complicated or fussy. It can be thought as compound word formation. For example, Söin jäätelöä ja karkkia, sekä tietysti ruokaruokaa. "I ate ice cream and candy, and of course food-food". Here, "food-food" is contrasted to "junk-food". One may say, "En ollut eilen koulussa, koska olin kipeä. Siis kipeäkipeä" ; that means that one was actually suffering from an illness instead of making up excuses, as usual.
  • ruoka "food", ruokaruoka "proper food", as opposed to snacks
  • peli "game", pelipeli "complete game", as opposed to a mod
  • puhelin "phone", puhelinpuhelin "phone for talking", as opposed to a pocket computer
  • kauas "far away", kauaskauas "unquestionably far away"
  • koti "home", kotikoti "home of your parents", as opposed to one's current place of residence
Words can be reduplicated with their case morphemes, as in lomalla lomalla, where the adessive morpheme --lla appears twice.
In Swiss German, the verbs gah or goh "go", cho "come", la or lo "let" and aafa or aafo "begin" reduplicate when they are combined with other verbs.
In some Salishan languages, reduplication can mark both diminution and plurality, with one process being applied to each end of the word, as in the following example from Shuswap. Note that the transcription is not comparable to the IPA, but the reduplication of both initial and final portions of the root is clear: ṣōk!Emē'’n 'knife' reduplicated as ṣuk!ṣuk!Emen'’me’n 'plural small knives'. Reduplication has been found to be a major part of Salish languages.

Babbling in child language acquisition

At 25–50 weeks after birth, typically developing infants go through a stage of reduplicated or canonical babbling. Canonical babbling is characterized by repetition of identical or nearly identical consonant-vowel combinations, such as nanana or idididi. It appears as a progression of language development as infants experiment with their vocal apparatus and home in on the sounds used in their native language. Canonical/reduplicated babbling also appears at a time when general rhythmic behavior, such as rhythmic hand movements and rhythmic kicking, appear. Canonical babbling is distinguished from earlier syllabic and vocal play, which has less structure.

Examples

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 tense of some Ancient Greek, Gothic, Latin, Sanskrit, Old Irish, and Old Norse verbs preserve this reduplication:
  • Ancient Greek λύω lúō 'I free' vs. λέλυκα léluka "I have freed"
  • Gothic hald "I hold" vs. haíhald "I/he held"
  • Latin currō "I run" vs. cucurrī "I ran" or "have run"
  • Old Irish maidid "it breaks" vs. memaid "it broke"
  • Old Norse rœ "I row" vs. rera "I rowed"
  • Sanskrit लिखति likhati 'he writes' vs. लिलेख 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:
  • δίδωμι dídōmi "I give"
  • δέδωκα dédōka "I have given"
  • *σίσδω sísdō → ἵζω hízō "I set"
  • *σέσδομαι sésdomai → ἕζομαι hézomai "I sit down"
Reduplication in nouns was rare, the best example being Proto-Indo-European kʷé-kʷl-os 'wheel', which doubled *kʷel-o-, itself likely a deverbative of *kʷelh₁- 'to turn'.

English

English has several types of reduplication, ranging from informal expressive vocabulary to grammatically meaningful forms. 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, 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 and the reduplicated vowel is a low vowel or back vowel. 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 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, along with intensificatory adverbs and determiners. 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, taaitaai ) reduplications in Dutch are loanwords or imitative. Another example is a former safe sex campaign slogan in Flanders: Eerst bla-bla, dan boem-boem. In Dutch the verb "gaan" can be used as an auxiliary verb, which can lead to a triplication: we gaan gaan gaan. 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 are discussed by Daniëls.

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" being reduplicated in the sentence "Piet hardloop koes-koes weg" ; "sukkel" becoming "sukkel-sukkel" ; and "kierang" becoming "kierang-kierang" to indicate being cheated on repeatedly.

Romance

In Italian reduplication was used both to create new words or word associations and to intensify the meaning.
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.
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', tati/tata 'auntie', or tonton 'unkie'.
In Romanian and Catalan, reduplication is not uncommon and it has been used for both the creation of new words 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, 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. 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, lexical, and phrasal.
  • morphological:
Reduplication also occurs in the 3rd gaṇa 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.
Reduplication of numbers Reduplication of pronouns
Reduplication of nouns Reduplication of adjectives
Reduplication of verbs Reduplication of adverbs

Armenian

In Armenian, reduplication follows the same classification as in Turkish, namely emphatic reduplication, echo reduplication, and doubling. Many appear as lexical entries in Armenian lexicographical sources.
  1. Emphatic reduplication, one of two interpolated consonants, as in կարմիր, which becomes կասկարմիր.
  2. Echo Reduplication, as in սեղան-մեղան.
  3. Doubling, as in ''քիչ-քիչ''

    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. For example, kırmızı becomes kıpkırmızı ; mavi becomes masmavi ; yeşil becomes yemyeşil, and temiz becomes tertemiz. The added consonant is unpredictable, grammatically speaking; phonological studies, such as Wedel, shed light on the subject.
Echo reduplication: similar to echo word in other languages, a word can be reduplicated while replacing the initial consonants with m. The meaning of the original word is broadened. For example, tabak means "plate", 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 meaning "time to time" or "occasionally"; uzun uzun 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'. 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:

    Tamil

The Tamil language uses many reduplications, both in spoken and in formal usage. Reduplications are called irattaik kilavi 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
  • gaba-gaba - wolfing down food
  • galIr-galIr - sound of walking ankle bracelets
  • gama-gama - fragrant
  • gara-gara – crunchy, gravely
  • giDu-giDu – quickly, fast
  • giru-giru - giddy
  • gubu-gubu - pouring forth
  • jilu-jilu, jil-jil - cool
  • 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
  • mAngu-mAngu – laboriously
  • maDa-maDa – quickly, fast
  • masa-masa – sluggish, lethargic
  • minu-minu - sparkling, twinkling
  • mozhu-mozhu – smooth
  • paDa-paDa - fluttering
  • 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
  • sora sora – rough
  • Tak-Tak - quickly, rapidly
  • taLa-taLa - lush
  • tara-tara - sound of dragging
  • tazu-tazu - tongue-tied
  • tiru-tiru - guilty, caught-red-handed look
  • toLa-toLa - hanging loose
  • 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

    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 'to strike'; okukubaakuba '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
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, 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 :
  • * 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".
  • * רשרש rishrésh "to make noise, rustle".
There are also numerous examples in the Torah, for example "אם שמוע תשמעו" which means "if you listen diligently".

Amharic

In Amharic, verb roots can be reduplicated three different ways. These can result in verbs, nouns, or adjectives.
From the root sbr 'break', antepenultimate reduplication produces täsäbabbärä 'it was shattered' and biconsonantal reduplication produces täsbäräbbärä 'it was shattered repeatedly' and səbərbari 'a shard, a shattered piece'.
From the root kHb 'pile stones into a wall', since the second radical is not fully specified, what some call "hollow", the antepenultimate reduplication process reduplicates the k inserting the vowel a along with the consonant as a place holder for the hollow consonant, which is by some criteria antepenultimate, and produces akakabä 'pile stones repeatedly'.

Japanese

A small number of native Japanese nouns have collective forms produced by reduplication, such as 人々 hitobito "people" – these are written with the iteration mark "々" to indicate duplication. This formation is not productive and is limited to a small set of nouns. Similarly to Standard Chinese, the meaning is not that of a true plural, but collectives that refer to a large, given set of the same object; for example, the formal English equivalent of 人々 would be "people", rather than "persons".
Japanese also contains a large number of mimetic words formed by reduplication of a syllable. These words include not only onomatopoeia, but also words intended to invoke non-auditory senses or psychological states, such as きらきら kirakira. By one count, approximately 43% of Japanese mimetic words are formed by full reduplication, and many others are formed by partial reduplication, as in がささ〜 ga-sa-sa- – compare English "a-ha-ha-ha".

Austronesian

are known for their extensive use of reduplication in both nouns and verbs.

Malay (Indonesian and Malaysian)

In the Malay language, reduplication is a semi-productive process. It is used for expression of various grammatical functions and it is part in a number of complex morphological models. Simple reduplication of nouns and pronouns can express at least three meanings:
  1. Diversity or non-exhaustive plurality:
  2. #Burung-burung itu juga diekspor ke luar negeri = "All those birds are also exported out of the country".
  3. Conceptual similarity:
  4. #langit-langit = "ceiling; palate; etc."
  5. #jari-jari = "spoke; bar; radius; etc."
  6. Pragmatic accentuation:
  7. #Saya bukan anak-anak lagi! "I am not a child anymore!"
Reduplication of an adjective can express different things:
  • Adverbialisation: Jangan bicara keras-keras! = "Don't speak loudly!"
  • Plurality of the corresponding noun: Rumah di sini besar-besar = "The houses here are big".
Reduplication of a verb can express various things:
  • Simple reduplication:
  • *Pragmatic accentuation: Kenapa orang tidak datang-datang? = "Why aren't people coming?"
  • Reduplication with me- prefixation, depending on the position of the prefix me-:
  • *Repetition or continuation of the action: Orang itu memukul-mukul anaknya: "That man continuously beat his child";
  • *Reciprocity: Kedua-dua orang itu pukul-memukul = "Those two men would beat each other".
Notice that in the first case, the nasalisation of the initial consonant is repeated, while in the second case, it only applies in the repeated word.

Māori

The Māori language uses reduplication in a number of ways.
Reduplication can convey a simple plural meaning, for instance wahine "woman", waahine "women", tangata "person", taangata "people". Biggs calls this "infixed reduplication". It occurs in a small subset of "people" words in most Polynesian languages.
Reduplication can convey emphasis or repetition, for example mate "die", matemate "die in numbers"; and de-emphasis, for example wera "hot" and werawera "warm".
Reduplication can also extend the meaning of a word; for instance paki "pat" becomes papaki "slap or clap once" and pakipaki "applaud"; kimo "blink" becomes kikimo "close eyes firmly". Nouns can also be formed this way – a good example are names of native New Zealand plants given in memory of tropical plants known by early arriving Polynesian settlers that they approximately resemble:
  • kohekohe is named because its stems resemble the kohe bamboo in tropical islands,
  • kawakawa after the tropical kawa,
  • several ferns known as piupiu 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

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

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:
Base formReduplicated form
Full reduplication
  • kini 'pinch'
  • kati 'bite'
  • kinikini 'pinch skin'
  • katikati 'nibble'
    • Rightward reduplication
  • māringi 'pour'
  • taka'uri 'go backward'
  • pātī 'bounce'
  • ngaru 'wave'
  • māringiringi 'pour continuously'
  • taka'uri'uri 'roll back and forth'
  • pātītī 'splash '
  • ngaruru 'sea sick'
    • Leftward reduplication
  • komo 'sleep'
  • kume 'drag'
  • kokomo 'deep sleep'
  • kukume 'large, flat leaf seaweed'
    • Medial reduplication
  • maitaki 'good; well'
  • maitataki 'excellent; very well'
    • 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 :
    • kapa 'mime with hands' → kapakapa 'flap wings '
    • mākuru 'detach oneself' → mākurukuru 'shed or molt'
    • taŋi 'Yell' → taŋitaŋi 'chirp '
    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

    are characterized as having the most productive use of reduplication, especially in Tagalog. Reduplication in Tagalog is complex. It can be roughly divided into six types:
    1. Monosyllabic; e.g. olol
    2. Reduplication of the final syllable; e.g. himaymay, from himay
    3. 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, from kalis
    4. Reduplication of the initial syllable of the root; e.g. susulat, from sulat
    5. Full reduplication; e.g. araw-araw, from araw
    6. Combined partial and full reduplication; e.g. babalibaligtad, from baligtad
    They can further be divided into "non-significant" 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.
    Full or partial reduplication among nouns and pronouns can indicate emphasis, intensity, plurality, or causation; as well as a diminutive, superlative, iterative, restrictive, or distributive force.
    Adjectives and adverbs employ morphological reduplication for many different reasons such as number agreement when the adjective modifies a plural noun, intensification of the adjective or adverb, and sometimes because the prefix forces the adjective to have a reduplicated stem".
    Number agreement for adjectives is entirely optional in Tagalog :
    • "Ang magandang puno" "the beautiful tree".
    • "Ang magagandang puno" "the beautiful trees".
    The entire adjective is repeated for intensification of adjectives or adverbs:
    • Magandang maganda ang kabayo "the horse is very pretty"
    In verbs, reduplication of the root, prefix or infix is employed to convey different grammatical aspects. In "Mag- verbs" reduplication of the root after the prefix "mag-" or "nag-" changes the verb from the infinitive form, or perfective aspect, respectively, to the contemplated or imperfective aspect. Thus:
    • magluto inf/actor trigger-cook "to cook" or "cook!"
    • nagluto actor trigger-cook "cooked"
    • nagluluto actor trigger-reduplication-cook "cook" or "is/was cooking"
    • magluluto inf/actor trigger-rdplc-cook "will cook"
    For ergative verbs reduplication of part the infix and the stem occur:
    • lutuin cook-inf/object trigger-cook "to cook"
    • niluto object trigger infix-cook "cooked"
    • niluluto object trigger infix-reduplication-cook "cook"/"is/was cooking"
    • lulutuin rdp-cook-object trigger "will cook".
    The complete superlative prefix pagka- demands reduplication of the first syllable of the adjective's stem:
    • "Ang pagkagagandang puno" "The most beautiful tree "

      Wuvulu-Aua

    Reduplication is not a productive noun derivation process in Wuvulu-Aua as it is in other Austronesian languages. Some nouns exhibit reduplication, though they are considered to be fossilized.
    Verb roots can undergo whole or partial reduplication to mark aspect. Actions that are continuous are indicated by a reduplicated initial syllable. A whole reduplication can also be used to indicate imperfective aspect.
    • roni "to hurry"
    • roroni "hurrying"
    • rawani "good"
    • rarawani "good"
    • ware "talk"
    • wareware "talked"
    The onomatopoeia in Wuvulu language also uses reduplication to describe the sound. These onomatopoeic words can be used as alienable nouns.
    • "baʔa" or "baʔabaʔa" is a word for the sound of knocking.

      Austroasiatic

    Vietnamese

    Sino-Tibetan

    Burmese

    As in many Tibeto-Burman languages, in Burmese, reduplication is used in verbs and adjectives to form adverbs. Many Burmese words, especially adjectives such as လှပ, which consist of two syllables, when reduplicated become adverbs. This is also true of many Burmese verbs, which become adverbs when reduplicated.
    Some nouns are also reduplicated to indicate plurality. For instance, ပြည်, means "country," but when reduplicated to အပြည်ပြည်, it means "many countries". Another example is အမျိုး, which means "kinds," but the reduplicated form အမျိုးမျိုး means "multiple kinds."
    A few measure words can also be reduplicated to indicate "one or the other":
    • ယောက် → တစ်ယောက်ယောက်
    • ခု → တစ်ခုခု

      Chinese

    Reduplication is sometimes employed in verbs and adjectives to enhance the effect of them.
    • 帮帮忙 is a reduplicated form of 帮忙
    • 胖胖的 from 胖
    Similar to other Sino-Tibetan languages, adjectives form adverbs by reduplication.
    • 漂漂亮亮 is a reduplicated form of 漂亮
    Other than verbs and adjectives, some nouns can be reduplicated to express plurality or a collection in Chinese.
    • 人人 is derived from 人 .
    • 天天 is derived from 天 .

      Old Proto-Basque

    One of the puzzles of Basque is the large number of words that begin with vowels in which the initial and second vowels are the same. Joseba Lakarra proposes that in Pre-Proto-Basque there was extensive reduplication and that later, certain initial consonants were deleted, leaving the VCV pattern of Proto-Basque: