I can’t compare myself to Henry Higgins, but the delightful rules of the English language never cease to fascinate me. For instance, the letters of the alphabet that are never pronounced, the turns of phrases you cannot fathom, and, of course, cockney rhyming slang that no one other than them can understand. However, let me today introduce you to something that’s truly amazing. In fact, you could even call it peculiarly British. The rule of ablaut re-duplication. In a recent email, my dear friend Mala Gupta reminded me of it and examples of how it works should cheer up the grimmest and hottest Sunday.
Have you ever wondered why we say tick-tock and not tock-tick, or ding-dong not dong-ding or, even, King-Kong and not Kong-King? As Mala’s message explains, “it turns out it’s one of the unwritten rules of English that native speakers know without knowing”.
A BBC article explains further. “If there are three words then the order has to go I, A, O. If there are two words then the first is I and the second is either A or O.” This explains why we automatically and very comfortably say mish-mash, chit-chat, dilly-dally, shilly-shally, tip-top, hip-hop, flip-flop, tic-tac, sing-song and ping-pong. Try it the other way around and your tongue will probably get stuck to your palate: dally-dilly, song-sing, chat-chit, mash-mish. Frankly, it’s too troublesome to carry on!
There’s another aspect of the rule of ablaut re-duplication. It determines the order in which you should use multiple adjectives. For example, it’s Little Red Riding Hood, not Red Little Riding Hood or little green men and not green little men. Here’s the rule: “Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose-noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. (Re-read that sentence and you’ll see the order of the adjectives is exactly as this quirky professorial rule requires). But if you mess with that word order even in the slightest, you will sound like a maniac. (And here’s proof. This version sounds horribly wrong: old rectangular silver lovely little French green whittling knife).”
{{/usCountry}}There’s another aspect of the rule of ablaut re-duplication. It determines the order in which you should use multiple adjectives. For example, it’s Little Red Riding Hood, not Red Little Riding Hood or little green men and not green little men. Here’s the rule: “Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose-noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. (Re-read that sentence and you’ll see the order of the adjectives is exactly as this quirky professorial rule requires). But if you mess with that word order even in the slightest, you will sound like a maniac. (And here’s proof. This version sounds horribly wrong: old rectangular silver lovely little French green whittling knife).”
{{/usCountry}}If you have doubts about this order of using adjectives, try using adjectives in a different order. It will confound your listeners and readers. For example, this makes sense: “I’ve just bought a beautiful, large, old, rectangular, black, Rajasthani, cotton dupatta. This does not: I’ve just bought a black, old, beautiful, rectangular, Rajasthani, cotton, large dupatta.
Actually, it’s a lot kinder to your audience or readership if you use fewer adjectives or break it into two or three sentences. But the rule is there for those who insist on saying it all in one. But I’d advise against it!
Now, there could be occasions when you will spot that the rule hasn’t been obeyed and it still makes sense. For instance, we say ‘Big bad wolf’ not bad big wolf as the rule would require (opinion before size). But if you recall the other part of the rule of ablaut re-duplication, you’ll at once see why this is okay. I’m referring to what you could call the I-A-O order. As Mala’s message explains: “That rule seems inviolable”.
The BBC puts it most pithily: “All four of a horse’s feet make exactly the same sound. But we always, always say clip-clop, never clop-clip”.
Now tell me, honestly, did you know of this rule? Indeed, could you have even imagined it existed? And, yet, once you’ve found out about it, doesn’t it make perfect sense? This is why I find the English language fascinating. Perhaps this is also why it’s the world’s preferred lingua franca, yet so many of us never get it quite right. By the way, nor do the Brits.
Finally, the rule of ablaut re-duplication does not apply to Punjabis who rhyme their words for extra emphasis. For them, Khana-shana, drink-shink and paisa-waisa will always be correct, even when the language they’re speaking is intended to be English!
Karan Thapar is the author of Devil’s Advocate: The Untold Story. The views expressed are personal