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Grammar: Reduplication

Reduplication is the repetition of the initial sound of the word. Shouldn't it just be called "duplication"? Yeah, probably: but the technical term is "reduplication". Go figure! Reduplication is a special form of the verb in ancient Indo-European languages, such as Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit. In Greek and Sanskrit, reduplication was a common and basically systematic process. In Latin, the reduplicated verb forms are much less common, but there are a number of perfect stems that show reduplication. You need to be able to recognize them, because the process of reduplication changes the way that you search for a word in the dictionary. You have to "unduplicate" the initial sound of the word in order to find its dictionary form.

  • cado - cecidi
  • cano - cecini
  • curro - cucurri
  • disco - didici
  • do - dedi
  • (no present stem) - memini
  • mordo - momordi
  • parco - peperci
  • pario - peperi
  • pello - pepuli
  • pendo - pependi
  • tango - tetigi
  • tendo - tetendi

Modern Languages 4970 / MRS 4903: Medieval Latin. Spring 2003 Online Course at the University of Oklahoma. Visit http://www.ou.edu/online/ for more info.
Laura Gibbs, University of Oklahoma - Information Technology © 2003.  laura-gibbs@ou.edu. Last updated: December 29, 2002 7:12 PM