Chapter published in:
Grammatical and Sociolinguistic Aspects of Ethiopian Languages
Edited by Derib Ado, Almaz Wasse Gelagay and Janne Bondi Johannessen †
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 48] 2021
► pp. 245–268

Reduplication in Oromo

| Addis Ababa University
The morphological processes of reduplication in Oromo involve copying a root or a stem, entirely or partially. The latter requires replication of a prosodic CVC template from the left side of the base. The process may require adapting the onset of the adjacent syllable as a coda of the prosodic template. The copied portion, reduplicant, of a root or a stem is prefixed to the latter. However, if the base consists of a geminate or a cluster, the prefixing of the copied reduplicant would be constrained to a CV by a dissimilation rule. In a total reduplication, as in partial reduplication, the copied root or stem is placed to the left of its base. The word classes amenable to total reduplication are nouns, determiners, numerals, adverbs and adpositions, while those agreeable to partial reduplication are adjectives and verbs. Functionally, reduplicated nouns assume a predicative role and adpositions an adverbial role. The reduplicative forms of the other word classes are limited to their respective canonical functions, essentially with the sense of augmentation in terms of quantity, frequency or intensity.
Keywords: reduplication, partial, total, prosodic, copy
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Nominal reduplication
    • 2.1Nouns
    • 2.2Determiners
    • 2.3Adjectives
      • 2.3.1Type I Adjectives
      • 2.3.2Type II adjectives
    • 2.4Numerals
    • 2.5Co-occurrence of reduplicative nominals
  • 3.Verbal reduplication
    • 3.1Type I Verbs
    • 3.2Type II verbs
  • 4.Adverbial reduplication
  • 5.Adpositional reduplication
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations and symbols
  • References
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Published online: 23 April 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.48.11maz
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