Hmar
forms quite a large number of compounds by complete
reduplication of the base or root words. This again
could be discussed under two sub-categories such as
i.
Reduplication
of lexical items, and
ii.
Reduplication
of non-lexical items.
It
may be seen that in the second sub-category there shall
be words which are meaningful and grammatical in their
compound occurrence; but their bese or root forms have
no independent use and meaning.
3.6.10.1
Reduplication
of Lexical Items
It
is a very common feature in Hmar to generate compounds
by complete reduplication of lexical items such as nouns,
pronouns, adjectives, adverbs and so on. Such reduplication
affects some changes in the meaning. In respect of nouns
and pronouns, it generally expresses a sense of plurality,
in respect of adjectives either plurality or intensity
and in respect of adverbs a sense of intensity.
Given
below under various headings are some examples :
Nouns
/ìe
thíl thíl ám/
(what)(thing)(thing)(they)
/what
things (are there)?’
/ìen
sá sà khm/ (what)(meat)(meat)(the
qnty)
‘what
quantity of meat’
(whatever)?’
/ìen
ín ín khm/
(which)(house)(house)(the)
‘whichever
kind of houses?’
/ìe
hnám hnàm khm/
(what)(tribe) (tribe) (the)
‘what
ever tribes?’
All
sub-types of nouns participate in this kind of reduplication.
One point needs mention here that in respect of multi-syllable
words only the last part is reduplicated. For example
:
hù
/
m/
s
:
