Next: Emphatic reduplication of
Up: Reduplication
Previous: Reduplicationpositive-negative.: Vb
In Tamil, as in other South
Asian languages, there is a kind of reduplication process which consists
of taking a lexical item, e.g., puli `tiger' and following it with
the same item reduplicated, except that the first CONSONANT AND VOWEL are replaced by the CV sequence ´Õ ki-, e.g., äÁÕ
´ÕÁÕ puli ki-li. The meaning of this construction is `(Item) and
other things like it'.
- äÁÕ ´ÕÁÕ puli kili `tigers and other beasts'
- ½À¥×¹ ´ÕÀ¥×¹ paratte kiratte `nasty words, aspersions, etc.'
- ´Ô¤½Õ ´Ö¤½Õ kaappi kiippi `coffee and other beverages'
- ؽԲ¥à ´Ö¥à pooyttu kiittu `going, and other activities'
- ½Ô£ä ´Ö£ä paambu kiimbu `snakes and other reptiles/pests'
- ¾À£ ´ÕÀ£ maram kiram `trees and other growing things'
- â£¾Õ ´Õ£¾Õ tummi kimmi `sneezing and other inauspicious noises'
Note that if the vowel of the first item is a long one, the vowel
in ´Õ ki becomes ´Ö kii. Note also that verbs can also be
the `item' involved in the process, as in ؽԲ¥à ´Ö¥à pooyttu kiittu etc. above.
Haorld_F.Schiffman