Re: OT: Reduplication enquiry

Nik Taylor scripsit:

> There's also a noun _chouchou_ "butterfly", which appears to have been a
> reduplication, however, _chou_ is not a word (at least, not with any
> related meaning)
The word for butterfly in the world's languages is often a bit oddball,
frequently quasi-imitative of the insect's movements, as in Schmetterling,
butterfly, papillon.  In Chinese, it's hu2die2, an old borrowing from
Mongolian and one of the small number of ancient polysyllabic morphemes.

--
John Cowan                                <jcowan@...>
http://www.reutershealth.com              http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Yakka foob mog.  Grug pubbawup zink wattoom gazork.  Chumble spuzz.
    -- Calvin, giving Newton's First Law "in his own words"

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