Charlie Buttrey

April 17, 2019

If you’ve ever wondered why it’s always “tick-tock” and not “tock-tick,” or “King Kong” and not “Kong King” or, for that matter, why there might be little green men on Mars, but not green little men, wonder no more.

The BBC has the answer.

According to this article, it all comes down to the well-known rule of ablaut reduplication, which explains why “zag-zig” and “clop-clip” sound so weird.

As the BBC article explains, “Reduplication in linguistics is when you repeat a word, sometimes with an altered consonant (lovey-dovey, fuddy-duddy, nitty-gritty), and sometimes with an altered vowel: bish-bash-bosh, ding-dang-dong. 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. Mish-mash, chit-chat, dilly-dally, shilly-shally, tip top, hip-hop, flip-flop, tic tac, sing song, ding dong, King Kong, ping pong.”

Got it?

This explains why you’ll never eat a Kat Kit bar.

 

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