Would
you notice a man wearing a white shirt? I can hear your resounding NO, sitting
in Kilpauk. Now would you notice the same man if he wore a white shirt, white
pants, white cap, white shoes, white gloves, white watch and white goggles? You
would spot him from a mile, right? That’s the power of repetition. It can make
sameness, stand apart.
Tautonyms
(or ditto names, as I call them) use the same principle to incredible effect by
repeating syllables twice. ‘Tata’ is perhaps, the best example. It’s a behemoth
of a conglomerate and yet, the name is approachable, full of warmth and evokes
instant affection. A teensy bit of the credit should go to the duplicative
sound arrangement of the name.
Child-friendliness
is one more reason for the adorability. Names like ZooZoo (the Vodafone creature
with balloon body and egg head) and Tintin (the amiable Belgian comic character) roll off the tongue, very easily
for kids, as they are very similar in structure to baby words like ‘Papa’,
‘Mama’, ‘Nana’, ‘Didi’, ‘Thatha’, ‘Dada’, ‘Kaka’, ‘Chacha’ and ‘Dhudhu’.
The
juvenile innocence of Tun
Tun
brings a smile to your face even before you see the fat lady emoting. The
nickname Chi Chi makes Govinda more endearing
than he could ever imagine. Lady Gaga blasts away the icy visage of Stefani Joane Angeline Germanotta. Tuktuk morphs the rickety motor
vehicle into a plump cutesy boy. Bulbul creates a lively little girl aura around the nightingale. Twenty-Twenty feels far lighter and
unboring compared to the uptight Test Match.
The
winsome nature of repetition is further attested by the formidable success of chartbusters
such as ‘Mehbooba Mehbooba’, ‘Dhak Dhak’, ‘Chaiya Chaiya’, ‘Hamma Hamma’, ‘Kandukondein
Kandukondein‘, ‘Yathey Yathey’, and ‘Waka Waka’.
I
suspect that our ancestors might have known about the power of reduplication
much earlier. May be that’s why they injected the chants ‘Shiva Shiva’,
‘Govinda Govinda’ and ‘Ram Ram’ into the pedestrian parlance.
Zsa
Zsa Gabor and Moon Moon Sen are among the celebrities who’ve mikled this
strategy. Bisou Bisou and Miu Miu are some fashionable brands that have
followed suit. So I guess it helps to be of the same mould.
