English reduplication
English uses some kinds of reduplication, mostly for informal expressive
vocabulary. There are three types:
Rhyming reduplications: boogie-woogie, bow-wow, chock-a-block,
claptrap, easy-peasy, eency-weency, fuddy-duddy, fuzzy-wuzzy, hanky-
panky, harum-scarum, heebie-jeebies, helter-skelter, herky-jerky, hi-fi,
higgledy-piggledy, hobnob, Hobson-Jobson, hocus-pocus, hodge-podge,
hoity-toity, hokey-pokey, honey-bunny, hot-pot, hotch-potch, hugger-
mugger, Humpty-Dumpty, hurdy-gurdy, hurly-burly, hurry-scurry, itsy-
bitsy, itty-bitty, loosey-goosey, lovey-dovey, mumbo-jumbo, namby-
pamby, nimbly-bimbly, nitty-gritty, nitwit, okey-dokey, pall-mall, palsy-
walsy, pee-wee, pell-mell, picnic, razzle-dazzle, righty-tighty, roly-poly,
sci-fi, super-duper, teenie-weenie, teeny-weeny, walkie-talkie, willy-nilly,
wingding
Although at first glance "Abracadabra" appears to be an English rhyming
reduplication it in fact is not; instead, it is derived from the Aramaic formula
"Abəra kaDavəra" meaning "I would create as I spoke")
Exact reduplications (baby-talk-like): bonbon, bye-bye, choo-choo,
chop-chop, chow-chow, dum-dum, fifty-fifty, gee-gee, go-go, goody-goody,
knock-knock, night-night, no-no, pee-pee, poo-poo, pooh-pooh, rah-rah,
so-so, tsk-tsk, tuk-tuk, tut-tut, wee-wee; and, of course, the hawaiian term,
wiki-wiki- meaning fast.
Couscous is not an English example for reduplication, since it is taken from a
French word which has a maghrebi origin.
Ablaut reduplications: bric-a-brac, chit-chat, criss-cross, dilly-dally,
ding-dong, fiddle-faddle, flimflam, flip-flop, hippety-hoppety, kitcat, kitty-
cat, knick-knack, mish-mash, ping-pong, pitter-patter, riff-raff, rickrack,
riprap, see-saw, shilly-shally, sing-song, snicker-snack, splish-splash,
teeny-tiny, teeter-totter, tic-tac-toe, tick-tock, ticky-tacky, tip-top, tittle-
tattle, wish-wash, wishy-washy, zig-zag
In the ablaut reduplications, the first vowel is almost always a high vowel and the
reduplicated ablaut variant of the vowel is a low vowel. There is also a tendency
for the first vowel to be front and the second vowel to be back.
None of the above types are particularly productive, meaning that the sets are
fairly fixed and new forms are not easily accepted, but there is another form of
reduplication that is used as a deprecative called shm-reduplication (or schm-
reduplication) that can be used with most any word; e.g. baby-shmaby or car-
shmar. This process comes to American English from Yiddish.
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. This is similar to the Finnish use
mentioned above. An extensive list of such examples is found in [1].
More can be learned about English reduplication in Thun (1963), Cooper and
Ross (1975), and Nevins and Vaux (2003).
Reduplication
The coinage of new words and phrases into English has been greatly enhanced by the pleasure we get
from playing with words. There are numerous alliterative and rhyming idioms, which are a significant
feature of the language. These aren't restricted to poets and Cockneys; everyone uses them. We start in
the nursery with choo-choos, move on in adult life to hanky-panky and end up in the nursing home
having a sing-song.
The repeating of parts of words to make new forms is called reduplication. There are various categories
of this: rhyming, exact and ablaut (vowel substitution). Examples, are respectively, okey-dokey, wee-wee
and zig-zag. The impetus for the coining of these seems to be nothing more than the enjoyment of
wordplay. The words that make up these reduplicated idioms often have little meaning in themselves and
only appear as part of a pair. In other cases, one word will allude to some existing meaning and the other
half of the pair is added for effect or emphasis.
New coinages have often appeared at times of national confidence, when an outgoing and playful nature
is expressed in language. For example, during the 1920s, following the end of the First Word War, when
many nonsense word pairs were coined - the bee's knees, heebie-jeebies etc. That said, the introduction
of such terms begin with Old English and continues today. Willy-nilly is over a thousand years old. Riff-
raff dates from the 1400s and helter-skelter, arsy-versy ( a form of vice-versa), and hocus-pocus all date
from the 16th century. Coming up to date we have bling-bling, boob-tube and hip-hop. I've not yet
recorded a 21st century reduplication. Bling-bling comes very close - one can't be far away.
Here are a few examples, there are many more:
Rhyming: - These are reminiscent of Cockney rhyming slang, although in that the rhyme is usually
with some other unspoken word, which doesn't form part of the phrase. For example, trouble and strife
- wife. There are a few exceptions to this guideline, for example, chevy chase - face.
Boogie-woogie Harum-scarum Hoity-toity
Chick-flick Heebie-jeebies Hokey-pokey
Chock-a-block Helter-skelter Hubble-bubble
Eency-weency Higgledy-piggledy Hugger-mugger
Fuddy-duddy Hob-nob Hurly-burly
Fuzzy-wuzzy Hobson-jobson Itsy-bitsy/itty-bitty
Hanky-panky Hocus-pocus Jeepers-creepers
Happy-clappy Hodge-podge Lovey-dovey
Mumbo-jumbo Pell-mell Walkie-talkie
Namby-pamby Razzle-dazzle Willy-nilly
Nitty-gritty Rumpy-pumpy
Okey-dokey Teenie-weenie
Exact: Several of these are baby-talk, showing how they are used to help youngsters learn the
language.
Blah-blah Chop-chop So-so
Bling-bling Goody-goody Wee-wee
Bye-bye Knock-knock Yada-yada
Chi-chi No-no
Choo-choo Rah-rah
Ablaut: - This appears to be suggestive of a toing and froing motion, i.e. indicating a thing that is this
and then that. For example, ding-dong, see-saw, tick-tock, zig-zag. Almost all of these use the vowel 'i'
in the first part of the reduplication and either 'a' or 'o' in the second part. Why? I don't know.
Bric-a-brac Mish-mash Tick-tock
Chit-chat Ping-pong Tip-top
Dilly-dally Pitter-patter Tittle-tattle,
Ding-dong Riff-raff Wishy-washy,
Fiddle-faddle See-saw Zig-zag
Flim-flam Shilly-shally
Knick-knack Sing-song
Welcome to the Echo-Word Reduplication Lexicon page.
The purpose of this Lexicon page is to gather and create a lexicon of echo-word
reduplicative expressions in English. Phrases like helter-skelter, hodge-podge,
peg-leg, ding-dong, tick-tock, shilly-shally, wishy-washy, and many others have
been around in English for a long time, and some of them are found in standard
dictionaries. The process is still productive, and many new phrases are created
every day. This Lexicon seeks to record these and create a searchable data-base
that people can use on the Web.
My view of this word-formation process is that there are a number of different
sub-varieties or types:
1. Type 1: CV1C-CV2C. This is the type where the vowel changes, e.g. shilly-
shally, tick-tock, ding-dong, pitter-patter, etc. Often the vowel in the first
item is a high vowel, and the second vowel is a low(er) vowel, with the
high-vowel part often perceived as "smaller" than the other part (i.e. a
"tick" is smaller, lighter, quieter etc. than a "tock"). This type often
involves some onomatopeia, i.e. the sounds in question "symbolize"
something, but the meaning of the two elements is shared except for the
difference in size, weight, volume, etc. (i.e. a "pitter" is a smaller version of
a "patter"). In other cases, there is no onomatopoeia, and the two elements
are derived from separate things, as in ficto-facto "a pastiche of fiction and
facts; a pseudo-documentary".
2. Type2: C1VC(etc.) C2VC(etc.) In this type, the initial consonant (or
consonant cluster) is replaced by another. This is not regular in English,
though the Yiddish type exemplifed by "fancy-shmancy" does regularly
replace the first consonant with [shm-]. But other possibilities exist, such
as willy-nilly, sci-fi, nitty-gritty etc. In this type, both elements have
"meaning" and may be derived from separate words or morphemes that
have different meanings, such as sci-fi from "sci[ence] fi[ction]." The
vowel of fi- is then changed to rhyme with that of sci-.
3. Type 3: Portions of the rhyming or alliterative items are identical, but
there may be additional material that is extra , as in dust-buster (cf. also
fuzz-buster), Queen of Mean (instead of *mean-queen), ass-gasket etc.
These may or may not belong here, but I feel that they should be included.
