Re: Degrees of comparation

Jesse Bangs wrote:
> harillai        "extremely beautiful, overwhelmingly beautiful"
> harillui        "too beautiful, excessively beautiful"
Reduplication in Uatakassí generally conveys both of these, that is,
ziikú "beautiful", ziikuziikú "extremely beautiful" OR "too beautiful",
depending on context.

But, there are some words that are often reduplicated with no
significance at all, particularly monosyllabic adjectives, for instance,
_tiá_ "learned", _tiatiá_ "learned", NOT "extremely learned" or "too
learned".  Color terms are often like that, like the (slightly
irregular) mlallál < mlál "blue".  The _m_ was dropped because /lml/ is
a bit of a tongue-twisting combination.  :-)

--
Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon
A nation without a language is a nation without a heart - Welsh proverb
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