Doubling

[Henry Kammler]

Doubling has been discussed in the past, I think there was a longer threat in
1999, which we can conveniently look up now, thanks to LINGUISTLIST.ORG :-)

We should of course distinguish between words that mimick natural sounds
(onomatopoetic froms) wich seems to be the case with e.g.
/tiktik/
/tintin/
/pishpish/ (from the sound made when calling cats)
/kaka/

I don't think speakers would consider the involved syllables roots/words on
their own.

In the languages of the region of course reduplication is very common and was
probably at work in CJ too. Doubling occurs in many shapes and can express:
continuing action
repetititve action
action in intervals with pauses
abundance
plurality
being distributed, at several places
habitual action (similar to agent, a habitual doer)

and more. Let's look for more examples from CJ.


Henry K.