LL-L: "Reduplicates" (was "Romance connection") LOWLANDS-L, 05.MAY.2000 (07) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 05.MAY.2000 (07) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Mari Sarv [Mari at haldjas.folklore.ee]
Subject: LL-L: "Romance connection" LOWLANDS-L, 05.MAY.2000 (05) [E]

>Subject: LL-L: "Romance connection" LOWLANDS-L, 05.MAY.2000 (05) [E]
>From: R. F. Hahn [sassisch at yahoo.com]
>
>An example of this type of pseudo-Latin or mock Latin is found in
>Low Saxon,
>German and English, and also in other European languages, I am sure:
>_Hokuspokus_ 'hocus-pocus'.

Estonian foreign word lexicon mentions it to be derived from Dutch.
Dutch loanwords are not very common in Estonian besides the German or Low
German loanwords. Why should this word be Dutch origin?

One can find such reduplicative and totally or partly meaningless, often
onomatopoetic word pairs in Estonian fraseology, incantations and magic
formulas, but especially in riddles. Some 15% of 100000 Estonian riddles use
this kind of words, where only one or two first letters are changing:
kuusnas-kaasnas, pinnuke-pannuke, punter-vunter, ketras-metras.

I have met some of them in English riddles but I would like to know more
about the use of such kind of reduplicatives in Lowland languages.

Mari Sarv

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