It's Called "Alteration Reduplication"
IN reading some of the current magazines recently I have been intrigued to see so many words used in which the second half of the word is a duplication of the first half with a slight change. It almost seems as though the writers go out of their way to use such words as helter-skelter, wing-ding, walkie-talkie, humdrum, wheeler-dealer, and claptrap.
Business corporations are using such words in increasing numbers. We have stores named Piggly-Wiggly, Bon Ton, Handy Dandy, Stop & Shop, and PicKwik. We have products named Tutti Frutti, Chit Chat, Boob Tube, Pall Mall, Jic-Jac, Nipper-Napper, Super-Snooper, Super-Scooper, and now Moola-Koola, Slim Jim, and Pretzel-Jetzel.
Not that I disapprove of the use of such words. I heartily approve because it makes our language more expressive, colorful, and picturesque.
Mother Goose rhymes are the oldest use of such words to my knowledge. We all are familiar with Humpty-Dumpty, Georgie-Porgie, and Higgledy-Piggledy. After Mother Goose came "Henny-Penny and Chicken Little" with the characters Cocky-Locky, Ducky-Lucky, Goosey-LoOsey, Turkey-Lurkey, and Bowser-Wowser.
My first reaction was to try to discover the term in linguistics for these Words. Accordingly, I asked many teachers of English and students of linguistics to give me the right term. For a long while none of them seemed to know the real answer. I received such responses as onomatopoeia, alliteration, anaphora, and homophone.
In the course of my search for the right term I narrowed the field to four possibilities:
1. Arbitrary echoic formation.
2. Dissyllabic and compound words in which the halves rhyme.
3. Reduplication with change of vowel or initial consonants.
4. Alteration reduplication.
At the present time I am inclined to the view that the proper term for these words is "alteration reduplication." This term was given me by Prof. Almon B. Ives of Dartmouth College. It seems strange that the word "reduplication" is used when the word "duplication" should do as well, have the same meaning, and not be redundant.
My second reaction was to wonder how many of such words are in current use today. Not being aware of any compiled list of them, I embarked on a new hobby - collecting these words. In my opinion, this hobby is preferable to collecting material things such as buttons, match covers, or coins. It costs nothing and can be shared with others.
I asked friends to suggest such words to me. In every newspaper, magazine or book which I read I look for them. Now I have collected over 150 of them. In my collection are words commencing with every letter of the alphabet except the letters a, e, q, u and x. Curiously enough, approximately 50 of them begin with the letter h.
My third reaction was to ponder the reasons for the increasing use of these words. I don't believe a single such word occurs in the Bible. Shakespeare may have used a few of them, but I doubt if he used very many. Thackeray described society chitchat as "faint, fashionable fiddle-faddle and feeble-court slip-slop." New words are being coined all the time such as top-chop, creeper-peeper, mad-sad, mop-top, jet set, and pop-top. Many people are trying to create new words embodying these principles, particularly the writers of Time Magazine.
My conclusion is that the human mind likes repetition in the use of language. We think repetition adds emphasis. Gertrude Stein's "A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" is a good example. So is the recent movie title "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." We use words such as so-so, goody-goody, bye-bye, and tomtom.
But we also crave rhyme and a little variety in our repetition. So we have a popular song entitled "Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer." Eddie Cantor made famous the song "Oh How She Can Yicky Yacki Wicki Wacki Woo." In golf we have a method of scoring for betting purposes called bingo, bango, bongo which perhaps came from a popular song using that expression. Lovers use expressions which embody reduplication with a slight alteration such as tootsie-wootsie, honey-bunny, sweetie-weetie, and lovey-dovey.
I am enjoying my new hobby and hope to have in my collection someday all of these words. Perhaps my readers will send me some additions to the collection.
Mr. Wadleigh's hobby was used by Cleveland Amory as the subject of a syndicated newspaper column, a radio broadcast, and a shorter piece in the March 6 issue of Saturday Review. In his newspaper column Mr. Amory wrote:
NEW YORK, Feb. 27 - I don't intend to give you any wishy washy, claptrap, chit chat hocus pocus. There'll be no fuddy duddy, harum scarum, namby pamby, hanky panky here. Willy nilly, we do not intend to shillyshally.
Okey doke? Well, the fact is a friend of mine, Winthrop Wadleigh by name, who lives in Manchester, N. H., and is a figure of not only social gravity but common sense as well, has come up with a brand new angle to what might be called slanguage....
Of one thing Mr. Wadleigh is certain. From yesterday's relatively rare hugger mugger of the hinky dinky parlez vous and the fuzzy wuzzy and even the hill billy - not to mention the hootchie kootchie and your very own tootsie wootsie - we have backtracked a long way to today's heyday of the honky tonk, the boogie woogie and the boob tube.
Is it, he asks, a hubbub over a lot of mumbo jumbo or are we so concerned with our flimflam knick knacks that we're turning our language into a helter skelter mish mash of a hodge podge? Well, Mr. Wadleigh, oddly, isn't sure.
But he does know it isn't just a matter for the humdrum ragtag riffraff of the hoi polloi to hobnob with. It's a ring-ding true blue super duper wheeler dealer of a hi-fi big wig hoity toity problem. And, he feels, in this hurly burly of our topsyturvy modern world, we'd better have the know-how to kow-tow or, in the end, he believes, we may well be chock-a-block with a killer diller case of the heebie jeebies.
