When you want to emphasis something, one way to do this in English, and in a number of other languages, is to repeat the word. Sometimes the repeated word is altered, often to make a better rhyme. Sometimes the second word is one with a similar meaning to the first one and which rhymes with it. There may be another linguistic term for this phenomenon, but for now I’m calling it word doubling.

Here are some examples:

English
easy peasy, really truly, holy moly
[additions] hurly-burly, helter-skelter, hob-nob, hodge-podge, flip-flop, riff-raff

Irish
i ndáiríre píre = really truly; cogar mogar = whispering

Japanese
人々 (hitobito) = everybody (人 = person) – the symbol 々 indicates the duplication of a character.

Mandarin
小小的 (xiǎoxiaode) = very small;
滿滿的 (mǎnmǎnde) = full to the brim (滿的 = full);
四四方方 (sìsìfāngfāng) = having the shape of a real square (四方 = square).

Can you think of other examples? Does this happen in your language?

In fiction most characters seem able to communicate with each other without any problems, even if they speak different languages, though some authors use language difficulties or attempts to speak other languages for comic effect.

For example, in Terry Pratchett’s Witches Abroad, which I’m currently re-reading for the umpteenth time, one of the witches comes up with requests like, “Openny vous, gunga din, chop-chop, pretty damn quick”, “Gooden day, big-feller mine host! Trois beers pour favour us, silver plate”, and “Garkon? Mucho vino aveck zei, grassy ass”, which nobody understands. One of the other witches just speaks more slowly and turns up the volume.

Just thought I’d share this with you.

If you’ve seen someone talking before, it’s apparently easier to understand them, even when you can’t hear them clearly. This is one of the findings of a research project at University of California Riverside, according to an article on EureakAlert!.

Researchers showed a group of students a video of someone talking with the sound turned down. Then later showed half of the students the same video with the sound turned up, but with some background noise. The other half of the students saw videos of a different person with the sound on. The first group were able to decipher what the person in the video was saying, even though they couldn’t hear them clearly. The second group had more trouble working out what was being said.

These findings suggest that we all lip-read to some extent, and that we probably find it easier to understand and to read the lips of those we know well.

According to an article on ScienceDaily, moving your hands and making gestures while speaking can help you to access your memory and language. A study at the University of Alberta found that bilingual children who were observed telling the same story in two different languages tended to use gestures more in their stronger language. The researchers believe that moving your hands helps you to recall parts of the story.

The researchers initially thought that the gestures made while speaking were used to convey information. They now think that the gestures are related to memory. So if you find that the words just are flowing, trying moving your hands. It might just help.

Since I started studying the Celtic languages, I’ve sometimes found myself moving the things I want to emphasise to the beginning of sentences when speaking English. For example, “Welsh and Irish are the languages I’m concentrating on at the moment.” This kind of sentence structure is common to all the Celtic languages, but can sound a bit strange in English. I’ve also started using the Wenglish (Welsh English) style ‘isn’t it’ as a general tag at the ends of phrases.

At other times I might add ‘or not?’ or something similar to questions in a Chinese sort of style, though that was a more frequent occurrence when I was living in Taiwan. For example, “Do you want a drink or not?” is a normal question in Chinese, but sounds quite abrupt and even rude in English.

Do you find that the languages you’re learning affect the way you speak and/or write your native language?