Reduplication 重疊 (重叠)

chóngdié · from Latin

What is reduplication?

Reduplication is repeating all or part of a word to change its meaning, for plural, intensity, softness or casualness.

Mandarin doubles verbs to soften them (看看 have a look) and adjectives to intensify them. Malay and Indonesian form plurals by doubling (orang-orang, people), Tagalog uses it for repetition and aspect, and Japanese uses it for plurals (人々) and mimetic words.

Examples

看看 kànkan (have a look); 高高興興 gāogāoxìngxìng (very happy); Malay orang-orang (people); Tagalog araw-araw (every day); 人々 hitobito (people)

Kungfucius says: Say it twice and it means something new. Say it three times in Malay and you are probably singing.