# Do other languages use rhyming reduplication? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 30, 2025, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410 "2025-10-30T03:22:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2025, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/41 "2025-10-31T04:16:06Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Korean has **들쑥날쑥** (deulssung-nalssung) meaning _rough_, _uneven_, or _jagged_. The usual thing in that language, though, is complete reduplication–repeating the entire sound–or alliterative reduplication–repeating the beginning sounds. Japanese has approximately a jillion expressions that are fully duplicative, i.e. the first part is repeated exactly in the second part. These seem to me, a foreigner, to also be frequently onomatopoeic, such as patta-patta, which refers to the flapping of wings on a flying bird. I don’t know if this sort of thing is of interest to the OP, and I can’t offhand think of any examples of rhyming reduplication in that language. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2025, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/42 "2025-10-31T04:42:51Z")
A lot of Chinese nicknames use a rhyming scheme–Hsing Hsing, Ling Ling, Pei Pei, Yo-Yo Ma, often (though not exclusively) for small children. The Dada art movement’s name translates variously to “Yes yes” and “hobby horse.” ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2025, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/43 "2025-10-31T07:46:15Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > A lot of Chinese nicknames use a rhyming scheme–Hsing Hsing, Ling Ling, Pei Pei, Yo-Yo Ma, often (though not exclusively) for small children. And pandas. ---
**Author:** ![Chelonaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9a140/32.png) [@Chelonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chelonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2025, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/44 "2025-10-31T09:10:42Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > > [@Velocity](#): > > > > German: _schnickschnack_ = means something trivial or useless (I think…?) > > Rather the latter. It’s used to refer to unnecessarily fancy or expensive items Interesting.In danish sniksnak means you’ve said something wrong or beside the point. “Snak” means talk (noun). Maybe we borrowed the german expression, but gradually changed it to what to danish ears sounded like a more straightforward meaning. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2025, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/45 "2025-10-31T10:15:43Z")
I remembered the phrase from when I lived in Mexico and read stories to my godson there, and I just googled the phrase to confirm its meaning. I was in a hurry, so I just copied the AI Google answer, rather than using my own words. So, sorry, no help with your search terms. Q. Q. Switcheroo’s link looks helpful, though. ---
**Author:** ![Chelonaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9a140/32.png) [@Chelonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chelonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2025, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/46 "2025-10-31T10:25:51Z")
Another danish one: “hip som hap” meaning one or the other makes no difference. “som” means as/like, neither hip or hap has any meaning in danish. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2025, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/47 "2025-10-31T11:19:02Z")
> [@Chelonaut](#): > > Interesting.In danish sniksnak means you’ve said something wrong or beside the point. “Snak” means talk (noun). Maybe we borrowed the german expression, but gradually changed it to what to danish ears sounded like a more straightforward meaning. For what it’s worth, the verb “schnacken” means “to talk” in North German dialect, also in the part of Germany bordering Denmark. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2025, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/48 "2025-11-01T00:56:18Z")
I used one in the wild this evening!! As our choir was stumbling through a new song and we made it to the end intact, my wife, the pianist, said “Wow, we made it!” And I said to her _ **aos trancos e barrancos** _, a rhyming Portuguese expression meaning “in fits and starts”. I was so happy to have stumbled across this example since when I first saw this thread I couldn’t think of any. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2025, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/49 "2025-11-01T01:00:53Z")
I think there are very few aspects of English that are truly unique to English, out of all the thousands of languages out there. A linguist could confirm or deny. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2025, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/50 "2025-11-01T01:09:33Z")
Michael MacIntyre giving splendid examples of these on the Graham Norton show! [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/uJEqXJRK4Q4/maxresdefault.jpg "Michael Mcintyre talks 'hanky panky' - The Graham Norton Show 2016: Episode 7 Preview - BBC") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJEqXJRK4Q4) ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2025, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/51 "2025-11-01T01:38:31Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > I don’t know if this sort of thing is of interest to the OP, and I can’t offhand think of any examples of rhyming reduplication in that language. I can’t think of any, either. As you said, Japanese tends to have fully duplicative rather than rhyming duplicative. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2025, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/52 "2025-11-01T02:26:22Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > I think there are very few aspects of English that are truly unique to English Truly unique, maybe not — but there are some very rare ones, like the obligatory “a/an” vs. “the” merely to indicate if a noun is bring introduced or has already been part of the conversation. Also, the English “r” sound is rare among languages — it’s just by chance that it is in the two most commonly spoken ones (the other is Mandarin Chinese). ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2025, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/53 "2025-11-01T06:07:03Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Abracadabra, which is such a word extant in many languages, but I don’t know the origin. _Abra ka-dabra_ is simply ‘I create as I speak’ in Aramaic. Dopers who have studied Hebrew will immediately recognize the cognate roots. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2025, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/54 "2025-11-01T06:48:01Z")
Aramaic linguist Steve Caruso gives a detailed explanation [here](https://galileanaramaic.com/articles/abracadabra-is-not-aramaic/) why “abracadabra” cannot be derived from Aramaic. Specifically, the final root supposedly meaning “speak” does not mean that in Aramaic: > First, the root דבר (dbr) pertains to direction or guidance in Aramaic, not speech­ — those being the verbs אמר (/amar/) or מלל (/malel/). Where this meaning _is_ found in Hebrew, this was not a borrowing attested anywhere in 2nd Century Aramaic. In the whole of the Aramaic corpus, the word דבר is only found _calqued_ in late Medieval Jewish Aramaic languages, far removed from Sammonicus’ time and place. On its face it appears to be a noun form and, depending on the specific Aramaic dialect, as a noun potential interpretations might include “leader,” “pasture,” or “plunder” — none of which fits the given description. > Additionally, if it were to function as a verb, it would necessitate a completely different inflection. Consequently, the purported Aramaic phrase is grammatically improbable and semantically convoluted. He also traces the history of the false Aramaic etymology, which started in the late 19th century, and most remarkably, blames a 1999 posting on an Internet message board as being the earliest published reference to the Aramaic myth published on the Web. That message board is … The Straight Dope. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2025, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/55 "2025-11-01T09:32:24Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > And I said to her _ **aos trancos e barrancos** _, a rhyming Portuguese expression Hey, great! Spanish has **a trancas y barrancas** too, with exactly the same meaning 🙂 > [@markn\_1](#): > > That message board is … The Straight Dope. I love closing loops! Do you happen to have the precise cite at hand? Was it perhaps Cecil himself? ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2025, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/56 "2025-11-01T13:01:09Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Apparently the Hawaiian language is full of reduplicative phrases. Not really surprising in a language whose alphabet consists of only twelve letters plus a glottal stop, and every consonant must be followed by a vowel. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2025, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/57 "2025-11-01T13:02:02Z")
Colloquial Indonesian uses repetition, rather than rhyme. Does that count? e.g “bebek” is one duck, “bebek bebek” is several ducks ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2025, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/58 "2025-11-01T17:44:56Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Do you happen to have the precise cite at hand? Was it perhaps Cecil himself? There’s a link to the SDMB in Caruso’s article but it’s dead. After a little research I’m pretty sure that what happened was Cecil wrote [this article](https://www.straightdope.com/21342455/what-s-the-origin-of-abracadabra-hocus-pocus-and-presto) on March 25, 1999 about the origin of “abracadabra,” “hocus-pocus,” and “presto”. He listed three possible origins of “abracadabra”, none of them Aramaic. Then in [this SDMB thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abracadabra/144) soon after, a user (apparently the user attributions are lost in this very old thread; all posts are attributed to “system”, but the post is signed “Chaim Mattis Keller”) said that they had heard a different origin, from “abra ke-dabra” in Hebrew meaning “I will create as I speak”. Then another user (post signed “Akiva Miller”) broadly agreed with that derivation but said it was from Aramaic, not Hebrew. This is probably what Caruso claims is the first appearance of the Aramaic story on the Web. A user (again Miller, I think) then claimed that the Aramaic derivation comes from Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, but Caruso says that the attribution is mistaken and that Kushner “wrote no such thing”, which is odd because Miller gave the exact book and page number where Kushner supposedly wrote this (_The Book of Words_, p.11). Frustratingly, neither Amazon nor Google Books seems to have an image of the page in question. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2025, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/59 "2025-11-01T20:54:47Z")
You have closed the loop very neatly, thank you. Nice. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2025, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410/60 "2025-11-01T22:08:49Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > I can’t think of any, either. As you said, Japanese tends to have fully duplicative rather than rhyming duplicative. Not perfect rhyme, but めちゃくちゃ _mecha kucha_ is the best I can think of right now. Irish has a lovely phrase _rí rá agus ruaille buaille_ which means a commotion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-languages-use-rhyming-reduplication/1024410.md?page=4)