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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!gatech!ut-sally!riddle
From: riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Reduplication
Message-ID: <1484@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 4-Apr-85 18:40:56 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.1484
Posted: Thu Apr  4 18:40:56 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 6-Apr-85 01:40:26 EST
References: <234@rtech.ARPA> <396@teddy.UUCP> <1345@ut-sally.UUCP> <456@terak.UUCP> <157@spar.UUCP> <158@spar.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Tx. at Houston-in-the-Hills
Lines: 17
Keywords: pidgins, Chinese, reduplication

> >	To'ngzhi`men do~u ga~o-gao-xi`ng-xing-de go~ngzuo`.
> >	comrades     all      glad-glad          work 
> 
> ..where "ga~oxi`ng" (glad), being duplicated, means (very glad).

Hmm.  Seems to me that I remember that a characteristic of a number of
Pacific pidgins is the frequent use of reduplication, especially for things
like this.  I wonder if it's safe to assume that they got it from Chinese?
I know that various pidgins based on Chinese were among the first to appear
in the Pacific, and had an influence on later pidgins in other areas.

I wish I knew of some specific examples, but the only ones I can dredge from
the murky fathoms of my memory are probably not to be trusted.

--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle
--- riddle@ut-sally.UUCP, riddle@ut-sally.ARPA, riddle%zotz@ut-sally