Edifying Lyrics: "A LESSON ABOUT REDUPLICATIONS"

POETRY / PARODY SONG-LYRICS

ORIGINAL POEM and SONG: Dr. G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2015, updated  2017.

...

... in a fallout shelter?

EXPLANATION: This poem, consisting of a lesson on types of reduplication, evolved as a musical parody using the template of "The Elements" by Tom Lehrer. Further exploration of this type of wordplay also progressed into the venture of 

Feb 15, 2017 entitled 'Abracadabra' to 'Zoom-zoom': possibly the world's largest compendium of reduplications.

   Eventually, this poem was set to music, using the framework of Lehrer's patter-song framework, and became an intrinsic part of a series of nine songs devoted to musical Word-Pairs. This posting of The Lesson, and subsequent posting of a Lexicon of Reduplications contains a total of almost 300 examples of this fascinating and amusing linguistic form.

 UKULELE and GUITAR-FRIENDLY LINK: Our whole series of songs can be found in a friendly format for ukulele (and guitar)-players on our sister blog  "SILLY SONGS and SATIRE", along with chord-charts and helpful performing suggestions; click here to proceed to this site.  

 

1) Introduction

I’m so enthralled with lyrics – their inherent musicality;

I love the words I’ve heard, for both their quantity and quality.

And so I’ll share with you this recent lexic revelation –

My favorite word-device goes by the name ‘reduplication’.

This humble term is used for killer-diller innovations,
Some recent lulus – chick flick, boy-toy – marvellous creations. 

For others, spoke with reverence, their birth can date back centuries

Like hully-gully, boogie-woogie, riff-raff, and hurdy-gurdy.

These fuzzy-wuzzy friends are formed by vocal repetition,

With wi-fi you might find them in Wiki’s current edition;

The three important sub-types you will wiki-wiki* learn about

Are known as Rhyming, Exact, and the oddly German-named Ablaut *.

2) Rhyming Reduplicates

Hear hear! some fine examples start with “H”, like helter-skelter, see!

Hodge-podge, humdrum, hubbub, hillbilly, and higgledy-piggledy.

Although the showing’s not so glowing for some, like the letter “D”

Just ding-aling and Double-Bubble, and surname of H.-Dumpty.

3) Exact Reduplicates

As toddlers we knew quite precisely what pee-pee and yum-yum meant

They’re constituted by exact repeating of each element.

Extension into adult life – tsk-tsk!  it doesn’t matter

For mahi-mahi, rah-rah! hubba-hubba, night-night, yada-yada.

4) Ablaut Reduplicates

Linguistic term that might put off, but don’t throw in the towel

To form the second part you merely change a single vowel.

Criss-cross, splish-splash, King Kong, mish-mash provide the explanation;

Though tidbit, boob-tube, whipper-snapper show some variation.

5)  Borrowings from Other Languages
Some foreign words sound quite absurd, and might be greeted with yuk-yuks,
Like chi-chi, tutu, tête-à-tête, and tse-tse, muu-muu and mukluks. 

6) 'Shm-Reduplicates'
And many word-shmords are employed by speaker-shmeakers of Yiddish,
Like fancy-shmancy, choosy-shmoozy, horseradish(mmh!), gefilte-fish.

7) Related Forms e.g. collocation

Dream Teams of paired words get primetime - in rhyming collocation;

These catchy terms, like kitty-cat, aren’t true reduplications. 
Tut-tut! for many wild-child words, there's no accord on how they're grouped,
Like fuddle-duddle, Walla Walla, voodoo, wiseguys, hula-hoop.

8) Conclusion

The lesson's sung, my cha-cha's done, we’ve reached our termination.

(Boo-hoo!) True blue, and through and through we’ve viewed reduplication;

But while we bid our fond ta-tas, I leave this final message – “HI!”

These phrases love to start with “H”, and their initial vowel – “I”.

Ta-Dah !!!

* German= "off-sound", word coined in the 16th century to indicate a systematic change in the vowel of a word-root to convey a difference in meaning; rhymes with shout

* Hawaiian for quickly or  bus !!

9) Add-On: A Singable Lexicon of Reduplicates
See subsequent posts.

HOT LINKS to WORD-PAIR PARODY LYRICS,

here on the wordplay-poetry-lyrics blog "Edifying Nonsense" ...

Pairs

Binomials (didactic discussion)

Alliterative Binomials, part #1 

Alliterative Binomials, part #2

Rhyming Binomials, A to L

Rhyming Binomials, M to Z

Reduplications - Lesson

Reduplications - Lexicon A to K

Reduplications - Lexicon L to Z

Legal Doublets .

DIRECTION FOR WEB-TRAVELLERS: 

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Gift Suggestions: NOVEL COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS

Authors' Note:  The gecko, a non-threatening species of lizard imported accidentally into the United States (with range expanding in the last few decades), has entered the popular consciousness due to advertisements by GEICO (acronym for the Government Employees Insurance Co.) which feature a British-accented lizard, who gives advice on purchasing auto and other insurance.

   Voice-activated assistance (for humans) on Apple cellphones is provided by a persona known as ‘Siri’. As saurian is a synonym for reptilian, (and the suffix ‘-saur’ is well-known in regard to current and ancient lizard species), you won’t be surprised that we have developed an assistant named ‘Sauri’ for the high-tech gecko community. 

Authors' Note: This verse deals with a nonsensical 'tall tale' prevalent in the author's family. Our children grew up in the 1980s in a universe in which 'remotes' (remote controllers) miraculously helped manage elements of their computerized daily lives. With its expandable dimensions and the ability to either hide or display, the Cyber Box offered a digitized but imaginary solution to logistic problems, worthy of attribution to Aladdin. Unfortunately, no one could ever find the misplaced 'remote' for the mythical device.

Authors' Note:  The principal ingredients and other details of Dust, the indispensable furniture protector, are left to the reader's imagination.

Authors' Note:  A garden gnome is an ersatz creature, often assumed to be of below average intelligence and technical sophistication. Here the author reimagines the garden gnome as a technically adept home protection device, suited to the western American setting.

Authors' Note: The male turkey's facial snood is an erectile caruncle that plays an important role in his ability to attract females. Unfortunately for domestic toms, commercial turkey breeders see it as advantageous to remove these facial appendages at an early age. The process of desnooding, and its devastating effect on turkey romance, have been versified by the author previously. Commercial development of a prosthesis to assist males in adult life, as described in this verse, is apocryphal.

Authors' Note:  Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, on the St. Mary River, is known casually by its English-speaking inhabitants and visitors as ‘the Sault’ (pronounced SOO). (A smaller town, similarly named, is also present on the American side of the river). French colonists had referred to the rapids on the river as les saults de Ste Marie (SOH).

   A classic limerick, dating from 1902, concerns family economics and stressful relationships of a resident of the island of Nantucket in the state of Massachusetts:

     There once was a man from Nantucket ...

   A series of limericks by the present author provides satirical variations on this iconic tale. 

   The technically advanced bucket and safe combination imagined in the above verse might have been of use to the famous Nantucket protagonist.

Authors' Note: Shotgun-wielding hunter Elmer Fudd was the cartoon-world nemesis of the beloved character Bugs Bunny. Elmer was notable for his lisping speech, for his hatred of 'wascally wabbits', for his oversized weaponry and, fortunately for Bugs, for his rather poor eyesight and aim.

   Currently (2017), weapons can be legally web-purchased by residents of the U.S.,without  prior background checks of the purchasers.

If you want to resume daily titillations on our blog 'Daily Illustrated Nonsense', click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings in the righthand margin, and check the daily offerings for any week in the years 2020 and 2021. (There are now over 600 daily entries on the Daily blog, and most of these are also presented here on 'Edifying Nonsense' in topic-based collections.)

TORONTO OASES

Line-dance classes are now proceeding at this venue.

Poor salmon! Most of the time, they don't make it past this first jump!

Suggested as an alternative to dental flossing!

Free-range ducks (male mallard above, male wood duck below) tour a pond

.

To learn more about Toronto Ravines, see the exciting three previous posts entitled "Hikes, Bikes and Likes: TORONTO RAVINES" #1, #2, and #3.

If your crank is turned (to turn a phrase) by the photographic and poetic material you have been viewing here, you might risk proceeding to a related post entitled "Ontario Nostalgia".

Should you be interested in looking there, Giorgio Coniglio's images can also now be found in Photo Albums on Facebook.

If you want to resume daily titillations on our blog 'Daily Illustrated Nonsense', click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time-frame of interest from the calendar-based listings in the righthand margin, and check the daily offerings for any week in the years 2020 and 2021. (There are now over 600 daily entries on the Daily blog, and most of these are also presented here on 'Edifying Nonsense' in topic-based collections.)

Verse for HOLIDAYS and CELEBRATIONS

Authors' Note: Joel Poinsett, South Carolinian physician and amateur botanist, served as the first US ambassador (a position designated as minister) to Mexico. In the 1820s, he sent home to his greenhouses samples of Euphorbia pulcherrima (member of the spurge family), then known as nochebuena, associated in Latin America with the Christmas story. Distribution of the poinsettia in the US was enhanced by other horticulturalists' development of cultivars with a more lush profusion of the colored bracts, and more recently, by variants in various appealing colors. Today, a single nursery in Texas accounts for 70% of American sales, and half of all global sales of this decorative seasonal potted plant.

Incidentally, although the plant is assumed by many to be toxic, that possibility appears based on an incorrect original report, and is unsupported by other evidence.

 

If you want to resume daily titillations on our blog 'Daily Illustrated Nonsense', click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings in the righthand margin, and check the daily offerings for any week in the years 2020 and 2021. (There are now over 600 daily entries on the Daily blog, and most of these are also presented here on 'Edifying Nonsense' in topic-based collections.)