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From: ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Reduplication
Message-ID: <164@spar.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 8-Apr-85 06:05:31 EST
Article-I.D.: spar.164
Posted: Mon Apr  8 06:05:31 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 10-Apr-85 06:12:02 EST
References: <234@rtech.ARPA> <396@teddy.UUCP> <1345@ut-sally.UUCP> <456@terak.UUCP> <157@spar.UUCP> <158@spar.UUCP> <1484@ut-sally.UUCP>
Reply-To: ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis)
Organization: Schlumberger Palo Alto Research, CA
Lines: 98

>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.

     Many Pacific languages use reduplication in the plural forms for
     adjectives, as below:

Tagalog:     malaki (big) 	=> malalaki (big ones) {ma- is a prefix}

Fijian:	     na  vale  levu 	=> na  veivale lelevu
	     the house big	   the houses  big

	     na tagane vinaka 	=> na  tagane vivinaka
	     the man   good	   the men   good

Tongan:	     e fale lahi	=> e ngaahi fale lalahi
	     the house big	   the   houses  big

Samoan:	     le tama:loa malosi	=> tama:loa malolosi
	     the man     strong    men      strong

	     le fafine umi	=> ni fafine u:mi {redup. via vowel length}
	     the woman tall	   the women tall

Tahitian:    te fare   rahi	=> te  mau fare rarahi
	     the house big	   the houses   big

    Indonesian occasionally forms noun plurals with reduplication,
    as below (our word `orangutan' derives from this word):

Indonesian:    orang (person)	=> orang-orang (people)

    I believe that none of these languages are pidgins. My bet is that
    all the above languages are related, since there is a unusual 
    amount of correlation in many vocabulary items:

		Fijian	Tongan	Samoan	Tahitian Indon.	Tagalog

big		levu	lahi	tele:	rahi	-	(ma)laki
body		-	sino	tino	tino	-	-
clean		-	ma'a	mama:	ma:	-	-
drink		gunu	inu	meainu	inu	minum	(um)i(i)nom
eye		mata	mata	mata	mata	mata	mata
god			`otou	atua	atua	tuhan	-
head		ulu	'ulu	ulu	upa'o	-	ulo
house		vale	fale	fale	fare	-	-
leg		yava	va'e	vae	'a:vae	-	-
live		-	nofo	nofo	noho	-	-
new		vou	fo'ou	fou	-	baru	bago
no		bogi	po:	po:	po:	-	-
oyster		civa	tofe	tio	tio	-	-
prawn		ura	-	u:la	'oura	udang	ulang
sleep		moce	mohe	moe	-	-	-
soft		malumu	molu:	malu:	maru:	lambek	(ma)lambot
star		-	fetu'u	fetu:	feti'a	bintang	bituin
they		ratou	-	la:tou	ra:tou	-	-
to		ki	ki	'i	'i	ke	sa
water		wai	vai	vai	-	-	-
where?		-vei	-fe:	-fea	-hea	-	-
wind		cagi	matangi	matagi	mata'i	angin	hangin
yesterday	nanoa	'aneafi	ananafi	ina:nahi -	-

    Furthermore, the pronominal systems express similar distinctions:

I		au	ou,ku	'ou	vau	saya	ako
you(1)		iko	ke	e	'oe	engkau	ka
he,she,it	o koya	ne	na	'oia	dia	siya

I+you(2)	daru	ma	ta	ta:ua	-	-
I+they(2)	keirau	ta	ma	ma:ua	-	-
you+they(2)	o drau	mo	lua	'o:rua	-	-
they(2)		rau	na	la	ra:ua	-	-

I+you(+they)	da	mau	tatou	ta:tou	kita	tayo
I+they		kaimami	tau	matou	ma:tou	kami	kami
you+they	o ni	mou	tou	'outou	enkau	kayo
they		ra	nau	latou	ra:tou	dia	sila

    I believe many Native American languages have pronominal systems
    that similarly distinguish all combinations of {I,you,other}.

    Does anyone know about the relatedness of the languages in the
    Pacific and of the Native Americans?

    Getting back to reduplication, perhaps somebody is familiar with
    any African languages. Does anybody know whether reduplication
    is used with them? It seems natural enough that the feature
    would be used to express plurality or intensification.

    IndoEuropean's use, for forming perfect tenses, seems somewhat
    nonintuitive. Perhaps that's why reduplication has disappeared
    in every modern IndoEuropean language I am familiar with.
    
    All this is idle speculation of course..

-michael