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Dog shmog computer shmomputer | ||
Tags: Filler Words | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5179 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes  Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi | Message 1 of 4 23 October 2012 at 11:34pm | IP Logged |
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I have noticed there is an interesting construction in English when talking about things that one finds anoying: repeat the word and add shm- prefix to the second instance.
Interesting because in Polish we have the same construction with sr- kot srot mysz srysz I have read that it came to English from Jewish immigrants. Could those immigrants be from Poland? Or is this construction originating from Hebrew/Yiddish? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5600 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 2 of 4 23 October 2012 at 11:57pm | IP Logged |
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It is part of Yiddish. To cite the dictionary:
"שמ...préfixe qui, en précédant ou remplaçant l'initiale d'un mot, sert à exprimer, par des formes souvent éphémères, un jugement dédaigneux: עסן-שמעסן: mais qui pense à manger? געלט-שמעלט: l'argent, on s'en fout! שמאָליטיק: (iron.) politique These words are formed often on the fly. I suppose they entered Polish from the Jiddish speakers too. Edited by Cabaire on 23 October 2012 at 11:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4773 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish | Message 3 of 4 24 October 2012 at 8:34am | IP Logged |
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In Russian we have two of these reduplication constructions - the shm- and the m-. The former obviously comes from Yiddish, while the latter is stereotypically associated with non-native speakers from the Caucasus and/or Central Asia. Dunno where it actually originated or how widespread it is in reality.
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 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 4 24 October 2012 at 11:10am | IP Logged |
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And something similar goes on in Bahasa Indonesia and Malaysia, where reduplication generally implies a plural, but sometimes acquires a life of its own
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