On doubled words in Latin.

[Puer Pedens]

Doubled words such as: Ubiubi, utut, Quisquis, Quidquid etc., Any reason for that? what's the meaning in grammar?

CVR VERBA QVAEDAM LATINE DVPLICANTVR? (by the way, is it Ok?)


Thanks in advance.

 

[Matthaeus]

The simplest exaplanation I can come up with is "where/how/who/what/whenever."

 

[Puer Pedens]

The simplest exaplanation I can come up with is "where/how/who/what/whenever."

But why to use "ubiubi" instead of "ubiucumque"? Formal and informal ways of the same thing?

 

[Matthaeus]

Not sure about that. It's just the way they did it. I find the -utcunque versions to be of a more elegant style.

 

[Glabrigausapes]

The usual name for this phenomenon in linguistics is reduplication. One also finds it in the personal pronouns, e.g. memet & sese (Japanese does it also, at least with wa ["I"] - re [exclusive group] = 我々 ware[ware] = "we").

As to why? Because Latin is old enough to remember its Indo-European roots! Reduplication does different things in different languages, but in Latin (much as in Turkish, e.g., güzel 'beautiful' > güpgüzel 'very beautiful') intensivity/emphasis is the general idea. If you have a relative adverb like ubi 'where', then ubiubi is even 'where-ier'!

CVR VERBA QVAEDAM LATINE DVPLICANTVR? (by the way, is it Ok?)

Bonum'st, amice mi flatulente.

 

[Matthaeus]

That also brings to mind some reduplicated syllables in perfect verbs (cucurri, poposci, credidi, fefelli, didici etc...)

 

[Dumnorix]

Would you say that sese is always more emphatic than se? I have tried to see whether Caesar uses sese for emphasis in De Bello Gallico, and it isn't obvious to me that he does. Perhaps, sese is sometimes used simply for euphony and just sounds better in the sentence? I realize that poets might choose se or sese for meter's sake, but I am interested in its use in prose.

 

[Pacifica]

Would you say that sese is always more emphatic than se? I have tried to see whether Caesar uses sese for emphasis in De Bello Gallico, and it isn't obvious to me that he does. Perhaps, sese is sometimes used simply for euphony and just sounds better in the sentence? I realize that poets might choose se or sese for meter's sake, but I am interested in its use in prose.

Sese is believed to have originally been more emphatic, but as far as I can tell the nuance had faded to nothing or almost nothing by the time of classical Latin.

 

[Dumnorix]

Pacifica, that makes sense to me! Thank you very much.