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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Culture / Why Do Nigerians Say Things Twice? (3111 Views)
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Why Do Nigerians Say Things Twice? by olisa1010: 4:03pm On Oct 25, 2012 |
An English lady asked, why do Nigerians say things twice? She proceeded to give the following examples: do-do, chin-chin, puff-puff. Her husband who was listening joined in and mentioned moin-moin. This got me thinking and I decided to do a research into this phenomenon. Here are my findings: Do-do – fried plantain Chin-chin – fried dough chips Puff-puff – round fried dough Kuli-kuli – fried peanut ball Dun-dun – fried yam chips Wole-wole – sanitary inspectors Paja-paja – pins and needles Maja-maja – highway traffic inspectors Die-die – little by little Pata-pata – completely Laba-laba – butterfly Pari-pari – the end Seke-seke - chains Lopo-lopo – very much Nla-nla – massive Kia-kia – quickly Jedi-jedi – pile Dogba-dogba – equally Lai-lai – never Mago-mago - deception Gbonmo-gbonmo – kidnappers Tun-tun – new Tu-tu – cold Te-te - quick Ke-ke – bicycle Re-re – good Some are English words which we have domesticated and which may have slightly different meanings such as: Chop-chop - food or eating Suffer-suffer - sufferhead Quick-quick - quickly Fast-fast - quickly Now-now – hurry up Yahoo-yahoo - fraudster Hurry-hurry - quickly Sharp-sharp – smart alec Follow-follow – indecisive Why we repeat words is beyond me. Has this got to do with our fast pace approach to life? Is it to buttress what we say? Is it to exert fear? Or is it just a Yoruba thing? Now to my English friend, Helen who brought this to my attention in the first place, English people do have theirs too. What about Pa-pa and Paw-paw. Finally, one of the most popular songs in Nigeria has the following lyrics: Eh eh eh, eh, my God is good o My God is good o, my God is good o Everything na double, double Na double, double Whilst I do not want to visit the meaning and depth of the song for now, I cannot but notice an extra double in the chorus. Double explains itself, there isn't a need to say double-double. However, this is Nigeria, double has to be repeated. |
Re: Why Do Nigerians Say Things Twice? by ATMC(f): 4:14pm On Oct 25, 2012 |
*giggles* |
Re: Why Do Nigerians Say Things Twice? by kabayomi(m): 1:46pm On Apr 04, 2017 |
Lalasticlala this question never pass Jamb since 2012... Ftp |
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