Reduplication in Khowar (kʰɔwar) Language
Farid Ahmad Raza
02.01.2022
Khowar is an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic group spoken by some 600,000 people in Chitral in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, in the Ghizer District of Gilgit-Baltistan, and in two villages of Kalm in Upper Swat namely Ushu and Matiltan. Speakers of Khowar have also migrated heavily to Pakistan's major urban centres e.g. Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi, having sizeable populations there. The Khowar language shares common characteristics with other Dardic languages, but some unique features of Khowar are different from the other languages of the region.
There are many ways for word formation in world languages. Reduplication is a one and very common way of forming a new word. According to a ‘A. Kauffman York College of Pennsylvania’ “Reduplication in language is a morphological type that – through doubling a word, element, root, or stem – enhances, emphasizes, amplifies, enlarges, diminishes, adds number or changes verb tense – to bring about significant meaning changes or shades of meaning”. From Wikipedia, “Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) or even the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change”. Reduplication is language-specific, i.e. some languages the process is very simple and some languages the function are very wide.
In Khowar many types of reduplication found, some being dealt-with here:
1. The most common one is full reduplication. In the process a word or stem reduplicate fully and formed a new word like zrukh-zrukh, nɑs-nɑs. In full reduplication, augmentation is very common like kɔri-kɔri,bi-bi.
2. Partial Reduplication, in this kind of construction, a word repeats partially or a part becoming reduplicate and formed a word like phu-phuk, li-lot.
Vowel alteration is another way of word reduplication in the language, in this way vowel inside a word changed and formed a new meaningful word just like tʃi-tʃɛq, ʒi-ʒɑʋ.
3. Another type of Reduplication in Khowar is Reduplication plus adding vowel at the end like sɑf-sɑfo, mux-muxo.
4. Reduplication plus adding of segments/ sounds like dzɑh-ɑ-dzɑh-i, ɖuk-ɑ-ɖuk-i.
5. The first part inflects, and the second part remain same like, muxɑ mux, zuqɑ zuq.
6. In this kind of construction, the word first part remains same, and adding a segment of word in between and the second part inflects like ʋɔr pi ʋɔru, lˠɑi pi lˠɑju.
7. Echo Reduplication a first part of a word has meaning but the second part has no meaning in his own remain echo of the first word. This kind of construction is very common in Khowar. Just like tʃɑj mɑj, u:ɣ mu:ɣ.
For every kind of reduplication example table are mentioned below classifying in groups and with example words.
Table 1: Full Reduplication
Full reduplication of the the word or stem repeats it without any change in word or morpheme. In full reduplication augmentation (perfective participle) is very common feature in Khowar
Word | Meaning | Reduplication | Meaning |
nɑs | pice, part | nɑs-nɑs | Too many pieces |
bɔ | much | bɔ-bɔ | To many, too much |
Pʰuk | less, small | pʰuk-pʰuk (kori) | In bit and pieces |
lɔʈ | big | lɔʈ-lɔʈ | Big big |
kɔri | having done | kɔri-kɔri | Having done much/more |
Table 2: Partial Reduplication
In this type of construction, a phoneme or word stem is repeated partially. The examples listed here show that Reduplication is one way of forming plurals in Khowar. Vowel alteration or ablaut (change of vowel) also found with partially reduplication here.
Word | Meaning | Re-duplication | Meaning |
tsɛq | child | tsi-tsɛq | children |
ʒɑʋ | son | ʒi-ʒɑʋ | sons |
Pʰuk | less | pʰɔ:-pʰuk | very small in quantity |
ʒɔlˠ | nut | ʒir-ʒɔlˠ | Apricot kernels |
Table 3: Reduplication plus adding vowels
The third type of construction in Khowar is Reduplication plus adding vowel at the end of the word like-ɔ.
Word | Meaning | Re-duplication | Meaning |
sɑf | all | sɑf-sɑf- ɔ (biti) | all together |
ɡɔlˠ | Dry bed of seasonal stream | ɡɔlˠ-ɡɔlˠ-ɔ (korik) | To make panic |
nɑs | edge | nɑs- nɑs- ɔ (drɛk) | To make spill |
mux | face | mux mux-ɔ (pɔʃik) | To face some one, |
muʒ | between | muʒ-muʒ-ɔ | In between |
Table 4: Reduplication plus adding of segments/ sounds
There is another way of word formation through reduplication is adding vowels ɑ and i -with both parts.
Word | Meaning | Re-duplication | meaning |
dzɑh | wet | dzɑh-ɑ-dzɑh | When still wet |
xɑm | plane | xam-ɑ-xɑm-i | A big area with plane pieces of land |
ɖuk | mount | ɖuk-ɑ-ɖuk- i | A big area with mounds here and there |
u:ɣ | water | u:ɣ- ɑ-uɣ- i | Watery |
ɡɛht | dust | ɡɛht-ɑ-ɡɛht-i | Dusty |
Table 5: Reduplication by adding vowel to the first Part
The fifth type of reduplication in Khowar is adding vowel with the first part while the second part remain the same.
Word | Meaning | Re-duplication | Meaning |
mux | face | mux-ɑ -mux | face to face |
nɑsa | Close by | nɑs-ɑr- nɑs | All around |
zuq (dik) | to push | zuq-ɑ -zuq (korik) | Pushing |
pɛʈʂ | hot | pɛʈʂ-ɑ- pɛʈʂ | While something is still hot |
mulˠ | root | mulˠ-ɑ- mulˠ (bik) | Spreading roots |
Table 6: Adding Segment of word in between
The most and common reduplication in Khowar is adding a segment of word in between both parts and inflects as ending.
Word | Meaning | Re-duplication | meaning |
kɔʃt | naked or poor | tʃɑn bi tʃɑnu | poor people |
kʰɔʃt | hidden | kʰɔʃt ɑ kʰɔʃti | stealthily |
lˠɑj | Patterns/ designs | lˠɑi pi lˠɑju | Full of patterns |
ʋɔr | pleasent smell | ʋɔr pi ʋɔru | Spices |
lɔq | rag | Lɔq pi lɔqu | Worn out clothes |
Table 7: Echo Reduplication
In these types of construction, the second word does not have a meaning of its own, it is like an echo of the first one. This called echo reduplication
Word | Meaning | Re-duplication | Meaning |
tʃɑ:j | Tea | tʃɑ:j- mɑ:j | Tea etc. |
ʂɑpik | bread | ʂɑpik-mɑpik | Meal |
u:ɣ | water | u:ɣ mu:ɣ | Water etc. |
sɑbɑq | lesson | sɑbɑq-mɑbɑq | lessons |
Farid Ahmad Raza, President Mother-tongue Institute for Education and research (MIER) is a linguist and researcher, working on language promotion, documentation and multilingual education in Chitral.
He is Editor in-chief of a journal "Khowar Nama" for Khowar language
Email: farid.mier@gmail.com