Friday, 4 March 2016

Wenja Grammar: Reduplication

Smarkaka! 

Shaja gastiya samkway dahamas. Na Winja warshtas warhamas, tu, ya rahi Winja dangwa-su aw-awam, sis warhamas: "reduplication."

(Today we'll be doing something a bit different. We'll not be talking about a Wenja word, instead we'll be talking about a thing in the Wenja language I like the most: "reduplication"). 

What is reduplication? Reduplication is the doubling of a word (to be more exact, a morpheme) to give the word a bit more "oomph" in grammar or meaning. 

Example from English: "home" vs. "home home":

I'm going home home = I'm going to where I grew up.
I'm going home = I'm going to where I live currently. 

Wenja uses reduplication A LOT, both in verbs and adjectives. To give an example from the game, Ull says: "Kwadi mari-marimas?" (Why do we keep on dying?) 

If he had said "Kwadi marimas?" this would not indicate the fact that the Udam continually die. 

As for adjectives, perhaps my favorite example comes from Tensay (I think I'm remembering this correctly) : "pal-palhu Udam fakwi... shuta daba-dabu" (too many Udam eyeballs... or too few).

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