I can’t evaluate myself to Henry Higgins, however the pleasant guidelines of the English language by no means stop to fascinate me. As an illustration, the letters of the alphabet which can be by no means pronounced, the turns of phrases you can not fathom, and, after all, cockney rhyming slang that nobody apart from them can perceive. Nevertheless, let me right now introduce you to one thing that’s really wonderful. In reality, you can even name it peculiarly British. The rule of ablaut re-duplication. In a current electronic mail, my expensive good friend Mala Gupta jogged my memory of it and examples of the way it works ought to cheer up the grimmest and hottest Sunday.
Have you ever ever puzzled why we are saying tick-tock and never tock-tick, or ding-dong not dong-ding or, even, King-Kong and never Kong-King? As Mala’s message explains, “it seems it’s one of many unwritten guidelines of English that native audio system know with out realizing”.
A BBC article explains additional. “If there are three phrases then the order has to go I, A, O. If there are two phrases then the primary is I and the second is both A or O.” This explains why we robotically and really comfortably say mish-mash, chit-chat, dilly-dally, shilly-shally, tip-top, hip-hop, flip-flop, tic-tac, sing-song and ping-pong. Strive it the opposite approach round and your tongue will in all probability get caught to your palate: dally-dilly, song-sing, chat-chit, mash-mish. Frankly, it’s too troublesome to hold on!
There’s one other side of the rule of ablaut re-duplication. It determines the order through which you need to use a number of adjectives. For instance, it’s Little Purple Using Hood, not Purple Little Using Hood or little inexperienced males and never inexperienced little males. Right here’s the rule: “Adjectives in English completely must be on this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose-noun. So you may have a beautiful little outdated rectangular inexperienced French silver whittling knife. (Re-read that sentence and also you’ll see the order of the adjectives is precisely as this quirky professorial rule requires). However should you mess with that phrase order even within the slightest, you’ll sound like a maniac. (And right here’s proof. This model sounds horribly flawed: outdated rectangular silver beautiful little French inexperienced whittling knife).”
When you’ve got doubts about this order of utilizing adjectives, attempt utilizing adjectives in a distinct order. It should confound your listeners and readers. For instance, this is sensible: “I’ve simply purchased a lovely, massive, outdated, rectangular, black, Rajasthani, cotton dupatta. This doesn’t: I’ve simply purchased a black, outdated, lovely, rectangular, Rajasthani, cotton, massive dupatta.
Truly, it’s rather a lot kinder to your viewers or readership should you use fewer adjectives or break it into two or three sentences. However the rule is there for many who insist on saying it multi function. However I’d advise towards it!
Now, there might be events when you’ll spot that the rule hasn’t been obeyed and it nonetheless is sensible. As an illustration, we are saying ‘Massive unhealthy wolf’ not unhealthy massive wolf because the rule would require (opinion earlier than dimension). However should you recall the opposite a part of the rule of ablaut re-duplication, you’ll directly see why that is okay. I’m referring to what you can name the I-A-O order. As Mala’s message explains: “That rule appears inviolable”.
The BBC places it most pithily: “All 4 of a horse’s ft make precisely the identical sound. However we all the time, all the time say clip-clop, by no means clop-clip”.
Now inform me, actually, do you know of this rule? Certainly, may you could have even imagined it existed? And, but, when you’ve came upon about it, doesn’t it make excellent sense? For this reason I discover the English language fascinating. Maybe that is additionally why it’s the world’s most well-liked lingua franca, but so many people by no means get it fairly proper. By the way in which, nor do the Brits.
Lastly, the rule of ablaut re-duplication doesn’t apply to Punjabis who rhyme their phrases for additional emphasis. For them, Khana-shana, drink-shink and paisa-waisa will all the time be appropriate, even when the language they’re talking is meant to be English!
Karan Thapar is the creator of Satan’s Advocate: The Untold Story. The views expressed are private
