There are a lot of words in japanese that are the same thing repeated twice, like ぐるぐる (round and round) 人々 (people) いろいろ (various) うるうる (teary eyed) etc…
Is there are word for this group of words?
Also is there a way to find a word list of the most commonly used ones, or the one’s included in JLPT?
Any help appreciated, thanks!
If I recall correctly, these are examples of Reduplication. This feature appears in English too (“bye-bye”, “easy-peasy”).
The Japanese term is 畳語
Tatami words?
Don’t tatami words fall under the category of reduplication?
There’s even tatami word law…
Not for all of them though. From looking that up, I think 畳語 are doubled words for pluralization or emphasis of meaning. Some will instead be onomatopoeic or mimetic words, so 擬声語 and 擬態語 from my quick search.
Not only did I stop working to read this but I showed off my new knowledge to my persian friend with the reduplicated word for nonsense.
I’ve been trying to thing of examples in french but it’s much harder to find than in english.
The best I thought of is used in the phrase “train train quotidien”: daily grind would best describe it. Train is train in french too.
I can think of “tonton” for uncle in child talk. I’m not sure if it counts though.
Edit:Oh, I found one. “bonbon” (candy) which is simply “good” said twice.
I still call mine that and I doubt I’ll stop. Likewise our nieces call us that now as well. And my kittens call my brother like that too. Yeah we have loads of those but I was looking for an actual word that once repeated means something different but inspired by the original meaning.
By child talk, I mean that the word was invented by children.
Olé olé, I guess? Although it’s technically not one word.
I have a friend that bought this book for onomatopoeia which looked good. However, it is not related to the JLPT.
peko-peko!
My friend has that book too. The illustrations are really beautiful! I want to get a copy myself.
What about chouchou (favorite)! Single it is used affectionately in „mon petit chou“ (my little darling)
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