THE SUFFIX -RA'A
Reduplication is a method used by Polynesian languages to intensify the meaning of words by doubling them. Also, many words, especially adjectives, in Tahitian are already reduplicated in their normal form. Let's have a look at the word list below, which contains words and their reduplicated forms, as well as pre-reduplicated adjectives.
| roa | "long, very" | roaroa | "extremely" | ||
| 'ere | "dark" | 'ere'ere | "black, dark, darken" | ||
| no'a | "fragrant" | no'ano'a | "fragrant" | ||
| aue | "to shake" | aueue | "shake, shudder, as in earthquake" | ||
| iti | "small, little" | itiiti (itíti) | "tiny, little" | ||
| ito | " " | fa'aitoito | "Good luck!" | ||
| 'oa'oa | "happy" | ||||
| roto | "middle, centre" | rotoroto | "the very centre" | ||
| nehenehe | "beautiful" | ||||
| ruperupe | "beautiful" | ||||
| rave | "to do" | raverave | "to really do" | ||
| fi'u | "fed up" | fi'ufi'u | "really fed up, annoyed" |
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