Accidental Tautonyms

Whether you call them repeaters, double-ups, reduplications, or technically, tautonyms, words like FROUFROU, HINAHINA and GUITGUIT are fascinating. From ATLATL to ZOOZOO, and KAVAKAVA to TUCUTUCU, from DIVIDIVI to QUINAQUINA, and RIRORIRO to CHIQUICHIQUI, they all catch your eye. My favorite tautonyms are the 'accidental' repeaters, words such as TESTES, PALPAL, VALVAL, SESSES and the lovely HOTSHOTS that are 'visual' but not 'aural' doubles. Actually, in some compound examples the two halves are pronounced almost identically. For instance, with a word like LIPSLIPS there is very little difference whether it is LIP + SLIPS or LIPS + LIPS.