“Holoholo.” If you have spent an extended amount of time here in Hawaiʻi, this word should not be unfamilliar. You may have heard it from local fishermen in an attempt to conceal their intentions from their unsuspecting prey. You may have heard it from a group of aunties reveling at the idea of a leisurely shopping spree. At the very least, you may have seen it written alongside the tourist buses which frequent the streets of Waikīkī. What you may not know, though, is that “holoholo” is an example of what is known as a reduplication. Reduplication is a common feature of the Hawaiian language in which a word is completely or partially repeated, or “reduplicated,” with the purpose of altering its meaning slightly. Thus, “holoholo” is a full reduplication of the word “holo.” Where the latter may mean to “run,” the former means, generally to “run around” here and there. Another form of reduplication is what is called a “partial reduplication.” As the name implies, only a portion of the word is repeated––not the whole; “hoholo” would be an example of a partially-reduplicated “holo.”

Not all Hawaiian words are known to have reduplicated variations. “Kalakupua” and “mauli” are two examples.

If not all indigenous Hawaiian words can be reduplicated, it begs the question, can non-indigenous loan words be reduplicated?

“Enemy,” “broom,” and “holy” are all have been transliterated into the Hawaiian language as “ʻenemi,” “pūlumi,” and “hole” respectively. These selected articles show that the Hawaiian practice of reduplication can, and have, been applied to non-indigenous loan words. “ʻEnemi” becomes “ʻeneʻenemi,” “pūlumi” becomes “pulupulumi,” and “hole” becomes “hohole.”

Have you come across other English loan word reduplications? What about loan words from other languages?