Analytical Comparative Etymological Dictionary of Reduplication in the Major Languages of the Middle East and Iran

The present dictionary is an analytical, comparative and etymological presentation of reduplication over a wide spectrum of languages. The preliminary findings show an element of universality to reduplication across languages, both related and unrelated.

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«Dariush Borbor has created an impressive lexicographical reference work with zeal and passion for over three decades, having collected the largest possible assemblage of alternatives for every single reduplicate. Linguists from many scientific fields must be grateful to him for his pioneering work.»


(Adriano V. Rossi, Professor Emeritus of Iranian Philology, DAAM, University of Naples L’Orientale and ISMEO, Rome)





«The author has created a truly remarkable work on a very strange and little studied area of linguistics. The book contains a wealth of fascinating information and I can only congratulate him on the care and assiduity which he has devoted to it.»


(Nicholas Sims-Williams, Professor Emeritus of Iranian and Central Asian Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London)





«I had an occasion to look again at your Dictionary of Reduplication. I realized once again how much useful work you have put into compiling it. Your bibliography is comprehensive and very useful. I should like to congratulate you on your assiduous effort to investigate so comprehensively a complex morphological aspect of the Middle Eastern Languages.»


(† Ehsan Yarshater, Professor Emeritus, Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University)





The present dictionary is an analytical, comparative and etymological presentation of reduplication over a wide spectrum of languages. The range of featured languages – Arabic, Armenian, Kurdish, Persian and Turkish – include three separate families connected only by geographical proximity, each with an extremely rich literary tradition. The dictionary covers multiple independent phenomena in several unrelated languages, the underlying idea being that their reduplications are all somehow connected, and that there exists a general «field» of reduplication. The book is not limited to a single field, but rather for several largely separate ones, such as linguistic relations, the theory of reduplication and etymology. Several other related or unrelated languages such as Icelandic, Japanese, Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Hittite, etc. have been included for comparative purposes.





The preliminary findings of this study indicate that reduplication in the languages under study, and in nearly all other languages, deal mostly with the fundamental, primary human requirements. Another strong proof of the «universality» of reduplicates are that they closely follow the same and similar formation, development and rule in most related and unrelated languages. In consequence of the universality of reduplication and its near identical development in all related or unrelated languages, it even legitimizes the creation of a grammar of reduplication in the future. A few of the essential features of this book include: a complete revision and updating of the semantics; a particular attention to the cognitive aspects; and, many etymologies that cannot be found elsewhere.