Reduplication

[Frances Karttunen]

Una Canger wrote pretty comprehensively about all forms of reduplication
back in the early 80s in a special memorial issue of Texas Linguistic Forum
for Fernando Horcasitas.  Or have a look in Joe Campbell's and my Foundation
Course in Nahuatl Grammar.  There are some types of reduplication in
regional dialects that we didn't discuss, though.  For instance, around
Milpa Alta and in Canoa, honorific forms of singular animate nouns
reduplicate, which I found very confusing.

Fran

----------
>From: "Davius Sanctex" <davius_sanctex at hotmail.com>
>To: nahuat-l at server2.umt.edu
>Subject: Reduplication
>Date: Fri, Dec 29, 2000, 5:40 PM
>

>
> 1) Reduplication in nouns
> 2) How does reduplication work in verbs?
> _______________
>
> 1) REDUPLICATION IN NOUNS
> Nahuatl uses reduplication for two purposes. In nouns it forms plurals like
> in:
>
> sg. to:ch-in /pl. TO:-to:ch-tin 'rabbit'
> sg. koyo-tl / pl. KO:-koyo-h 'coyote'
> sg. koa-tl / pl. KO:-koa-h 'snake'
> sg. tepe:tl / pl. TE:tepe:-meh 'mountain' (and inanimate???)
> sg. tlaka-tl / pl. TLA:-tlaka-h 'person'
> sg. teo:-tl / pl. TE:-teo:-meh 'god'
>
> Here the rule is simple, first consonant and vowel (lengthened) are reapted,
> this feature may be that of proto-language; Papago shows:
>
> sg. bana / pl. BA:bana = koyo-tl 'coyote'
> sg. tini / pl. TI:tini = ten-tli 'mouth'
> sg. kuna / pl. KU:kuna = mamic-tli 'husband'
> _________________
>
> 2) REDUPLICATION IN VERBS
> In verbs reduplication indicates frequentative actions. The rule is not
> simple. Sometimes reduplications first vowel is lengthened. Other is second
> vowel:
>
> me-ME:ya        'to flow out'
> a:-se-SE:ya     'to cold by means of water; to rot'
> pi-pi:na-wi     'to feel ashamed'
>
> In others, it seems no vowel to be long:
>
> kwe-kwets-oa    'to twist'
> te-pa-pašiw-a   'to flat'
>
> Are there some rule that determines reduplication type in verbs?
>
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