05-09-2017, 03:45 PM
(05-09-2017, 09:55 AM)ReneZ wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Hi Marco,
the ๆ symbol is only used for exact repetition. There is some quasi-reduplication in colloquial expressions, but the repeated part is usually shorter than the non-repeated part.
Typical example: "sanuk" mean fun, "sanuk-sanaan" also means fun but more elaborately.
I had a quick look around. Apart from reduplication of nouns, it is perhaps even more frequently used for adjectives, and the effect is of reducing the quality of the adjective a bit.
ngao = lonely. ngao-ngao = feeling a bit lonely.
I quickly bumped into a CD title which has four reduplicated words in succession, but that is certainly not usual.
1% might just be possible, depending on the type of text....
ฺัBy the way, Thai spelling is quite particular. The above word ngao-ngao is written:
เหงาๆ
The เ is the first half of 'ao'. The character เ is one of several that has to be at the start of a syllable (or word).
The ห is just there to change the tone from neutral to rising.
The ง is the 'ng'
The า is the second half of 'ao'.
The first character pronounced in this case is the third one.
This word is sorted in the dictionary under ห
Taken together with the fact that about half the vowels are not written, and all words are strung together, one can see that reading Thai for the beginner is quite a challenge.
I am not aware of triplication, except for laughter, which is mostly written 555 since 5 = ha. Perhaps also other exclamations.
Thank you, Rene!
From your discussion, it seems that reduplication has very specific characteristics in Thai which only partially match what can be observed in Voynichese. It will be interesting to see how different languages behave and which ones come closer to what we observe in Voynichese.
I have seen differences in pronunciation of the repeated word discussed about other languages. It could be that some of the quasi-repetitions actually denote these differences. But it is also true that the Voynich alphabet seems too small to give indications as detailed as those in your Thai example.