| kĕskĕs, “ to bind tightly ” | biṅkĕs “ to pack ”. |
| parpar, “ to fling down ” | ampar, “ to lie on the floor ”. |
| gakgak, “ to keep one's gaze fixed upwards” | jurgak, “to look upwards ”. |
| kĕlkĕl, “ to overcome all obstacles ” | doṅkĕl, “ obstacle ”. |
| larlar, “ very extended ” | wĕlar,[1] “ broad, wide ”. |
We find similar phenomena in other languages as well. Thus, in Tontb., the precise meaning of lĕqlĕt, from lĕtlĕt, is “ to force oneself into ”, whereas sĕlĕt merely means “ between ”. Further peqpet, from petpet, means “ to flatten ”, while kumpet signifies “ to cover ”. There are similar cases in Mad. and elsewhere.
78. The further question arises, whether this intensification of meaning is a regular concomitant of reduplication. Since the present writer, as stated in § 7, has taken a general survey of the whole store of simple and reduplicated roots in many languages, he is in a position to answer this question also. And the answer is: no. In the majority of the cases reduplication does not, after all, import any specific shade of meaning; that is shown by the following comparisons, here given as samples:
Karo
| taptap, “ to wash clothes ” | litap “ wet clothes ”. |
| datdat, “ slow ” | kĕdat, “ lazy ”. |
Madurese
| raṅraṅ, “ seldom ” | jaraṅ “ seldom ”. |
| jhĕkjhĕk, “ firm ” | ajhĕk, “ to stamp firm ”. |
| terter or: | eter, “ to sow in a row ”. |
79. In the cases of complete reduplication hitherto mentioned the root was set down twice, sound for sound. But we also find cases of reduplication with variation of the vowel. This phenomenon occurs in many languages, but the variation is nowhere found in manifold diversity, and the number of individual cases is nowhere great.
- ↑ Not Karo, but found in several other languages.
