When you have a rhyming reduplication, the duplicated element rhymes with the original element in the phrase.  A good example is "lovey-dovey".

I started thinking about rhyming reduplications recently after my friend Anne wrote a list of them on Facebook.  Below is what she wrote (definitions added):

"Helter-skelter (disorderly haste)
Harum-scarum (reckless)
Pell-mell (in a jumbled manner)
Raggle-taggle (motley)
Hobson-jobson (altering a foreign word to fit your language)
Hurly-burly (commotion)
….and my favorite, higgledy-piggledy (in a confused manner)."

Anne’s friends added more:

Roley-poley (pudgy)
Hugger-mugger (disorderly confusion)
Willy-nilly (in a haphazard manner)
Heebie-jeebies (a feeling of anxiety over something)
Hither-and-thither (to move at random)
Hokus-pokus (a "magical" incantation used by magicians)
Itsy-bitsy (very little)
Handy-dandy (a game where you guess in which closed hand a person is hiding an object)

There are other phrases that are simply called reduplications because they don’t rhyme.  Here are a few:

Topsey-turvy (utter disorder)
Zigzag (making sharp, angular turns left and right, left and right)
Riff-raff (disreputable people)

Reduplications sound so great!  It’s not surprising that three of them from above can be found in nursery rhymes:

Higgledy Piggledy My Black Hen

Roley Poley Pudding and Pie

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Reduplications are great to teach kids.  Children love how they sound and they encourage rhyming.

Feel free to mention other reduplications in the comments below (we welcome them in any language).

-Mama Lisa

My daughter just recited a longer version of it which I had never heard:

"Easy, peasy, lemon, squeezy."

(listen here)

She couldn’t believe that I, Mama Lisa, had never heard the full expression before!

It seems to come from a British commercial from the 1970’s for Lemon Sqezy dish detergent.

Does anyone remember such a commercial?

Mama Lisa

Photo: Sqezy at Starbrands Limited

In the US, most people don’t say "mother’ and "father" when talking to their parents.  Even when I was a kid and people spoke more formally to adults, not many kids would address their parents that way.  Although you do hear people speak this way in very old movies.  It seems old-fashioned.  Nowadays, we say "ma", "mom" or "mommy" when addressing our mothers, and "da", "dad" or "daddy" to our fathers.

I asked Frances Turnbull who grew up in South Africa, and now lives in England, what they call their parents in those countries.  Here’s what she wrote:

South Africans adopted a lot of Americanization, so I grew up with "mom" and "dad", although more Afrikaans people go with "ma" and "pa". The UK generally goes with "mum" and "dad", the Irish with "mam" (mammie). Down south (towards London) it’s pronounced "m-uh-m", whereas up north (towards Scotland, Manchester) they pronounce it "m-ooh-m". Personally, I call my own mother "mom" (all UK Mother’s Day cards are to "mum"), while my daughter calls me "mum", pronounced "m-ooh-m".

Bolton, near Manchester, has a gorgeous dialect, but they are very particular. When my daughter started school doing the alphabet, they specially asked me to learn to say "u" as "ooh" because my daughter was getting confused (they think "uh" sounds too close to "ah"). So bus is "b-ooh-s", and look/cook/book sound like the "oo" from "boot"… as well as other peculiarities (hair as her, so, u comb ur her …). As for "mother" and "father", I have never met anyone who uses them in that sense, and as I understand it is used when kids are raised by nannies.

I asked Monique Palomares about what they call their parents in France.  Here’s what she wrote:

We typically say "father" and "mother" as "papa" and "maman". We don’t use "père" or "mère " on their own nowadays, you can only find that in literature. Maybe in some high class circles they do, but the man in the street says "mon père" and "ma mère" when talking about his parents, but address them as "papa" and "maman" or however they say it in their family. I address mine as "pa" and "ma" and say "papa" and "maman" about them to my siblings and other relatives.  I refer to them as "mon père" and "ma mère" to everybody else.

Please let us know how you refer to your "mother" and "father" in your language and what you call them when talking to them. 

Thanks!

Mama Lisa

Monique Palomares works with me on the French version of Mama Lisa’s World.  Frances Turnbull is the owner of Musicaliti, children’s music and movement sessions and shows in Bolton, UK, using percussion instruments and fun games.

Each language has its own unique words that don’t exist in other languages.  Here are two links to blog posts about words that exist in other languages, but not in English.  The 1st one includes an infographic…

21 Emotions for Which There are No Words in English

25 Handy Words That Simply Don’t Exist In English

Here are some of my favorites from both posts:

Gezelligheid (Dutch) – "Comfort and coziness of being at home, with friends, with loved ones, general togetherness."  Some people think this concept is at the heart of Dutch culture.  How nice!

Hygge (Danish) – "Comfort and coziness. The feeling of enjoying food and drink with friends and family"

Duende (Spanish) – "A climactic show of spirit in a performance or work of art, which might be fulfilled in flamenco dancing, or bull-fighting, etc."

Gigil (pronounced Gheegle; Filipino) – "The urge to pinch or squeeze something that is unbearably cute."

Hat tip: The Dish

The kanji character of the year is unveiled for the 1st time at Kiyomizu Temple each year.

Ayako wrote from Japan:

This year’s Kanji character is "gold" 金 (kin).

Many topics related to "gold" happened:

金環日食 – A Solar Eclipse occurred in Japan for the first time in years.

金メダル、- Gold Medals: Japan won a lot of gold medals at the London Olympics this year.

ノーベル賞 – Nobel Prize: Shinya Yamanaka, a Japanese physician and researcher won The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine this year.

Thanks for sharing Ayako!

–Mama Lisa

One drawing my daughter did was an illustration of the expression "follow your nose". 

"Follow your nose" can mean two different things… one is to do something based on intuition, to trust your feelings.  The other is used when giving directions and means go in a straight line (though I’ve personally never heard it used the 2nd way here in New York).

Here’s my daughter’s illustration of the literal meaning of "follow your nose".  Notice the little nose in the bottom right part of the drawing!

This is a great way to teach idiomatic expressions in any language.  Have your class, or child, draw a picture of a saying and explain its idiomatic meaning.  Have fun with it!

-Mama Lisa

When reading the first book, you quickly come upon the term "Mma" (pronounced "ma") used before a woman’s name and "Rra" (pronounced "ra" with a rolling "r") used before a man’s name.  I was curious and looked them up.  They’re both terms of respect used in the Setswana language. "Mma" is like "Ma’am" or "Madam", or a more respectful form of "Mrs."  "Rra" is like "sir", or a very respectful form of "Mr."

"Dumela" can be used before "Rra" and "Mma" to say, hello sir or ma’am. 

You can hear a Botswana Greeting Song called Dumela below…

"January is named after the two-headed Roman god Janus, god of thresholds and beginnings… With his two heads he looks at the past and the future, behind and before… Which I guess is what we are all doing today."

-Ernestine Shargool

Hi Lisa,

I wanted to tell you about this year’s Kanji.  We choose the best kanji at end of each year in December – it’s an annual event.  This year it’s "絆”which sounds like kizuna.  That means " bond ".  I agree that kizuna is really the best fit because the huge quake that hit Japan last March. 2011.  It’s a special year for Japan.  Kizuna has deeper meanings  than just the word "friendship".

Now in Japan we consider our KIZUNA (bond) with our family and also appreciate kizuna with many foreign countries.

I can find this kanji around here in shops or newspapers.  Also the online newspaper, Daily Yomiuri shows pictures of the Kiyomizu temple priest at Kyoto writing this kanji  "絆”with our shodo (Japanese calligraphy).  Sincerely, Ayako

Thanks for writing about kizuna.  It’s interesting.  The Japanese people are in our hearts and minds after all they’ve been through this year. 

-Mama Lisa

Here’s our email conversation…

Lisa:

Do you get together with your family for Santa Lucia?

Gian Carlo:

Yes, with my son and my brother.  Here usually people celebrate with their family. An old proverb says: "Natale con i tuoi e Pasqua con chi vuoi", i.e. Christmas with your family and Easter with whoever.

Lisa: 

We’ll celebrate on Christmas day with a special meal.  We usually make Italian American food in my family.  Some Italian Americans have a seafood feast on Christmas Eve.

Gian Carlo:

In my family we usually eat salt meat, risotto, other food (not always the same) and panettone (sometimes pandoro). Sometimes mascarpone cheese with sugar and rum.

I’m curious… What is Italian American food?

Lisa: 

What I think is Italian American (you can let me know if you eat this type of food) is food like…

Eggplant Parmesan –we cook the eggplant in slices – dipped first in egg and then breadcrumbs and fry or bake the slices.  Then in a baking dish, we put a layer of tomato sauce, then a slice of eggplant, then a slice of mozzarella and then we repeat… making a stack of 4 or 5 slices of eggplant like this and then bake it.

We also make stuff like Baked Ziti.  The way we make it is  – first, you cook the ziti… then in a baking pan you put a layer of sauce, then a layer of ziti, then a layer of a cheese mixture (consisting of ricotta, mozzarella cubes, eggs, parmesan and herbs). The next layer is ziti first, then sauce and then the cheese mixture.  You repeat the layers and bake it.  We have many variations of dishes like this.  Do you eat anything like that?

When I visited Italy way back, I remember having more dishes like spaghetti and clam sauce.

Gian Carlo:

Yes, we eat this (or similar) food, named "melanzane alla parmigiana", where the word parmigiana does not refer to parmesan cheese, but, according to some people, means "as people living in Parma do", i.e. with layers of vegetables; according to other people it comes from a Sicilian word meaning shutter, that makes you think of the slices; according to other people it comes from a Turkish word meaning… eggplant.

Of course also the name of parmesan cheese comes from Parma.

Here we don’t cook this food [like baked ziti]. It seems to me to be a Sicilian food and, since it seems very good, I’ll try to cook it.

We have hundreds of ways to cook spaghetti, and in general pasta; and rice too. For example today I ate spaghetti all’amatriciana (this name comes from Amatrice, a village in Lazio region) and (this evening) risotto alla milanese (the name of course comes from Milan, here in Lombardy).

Lisa:

We also exchange gifts.  Well, Santa leaves them out beneath the Christmas tree in the middle of the night for the kids to open on the 25th.

Gian Carlo:

Santa is Santa Claus, I suppose. Here the same, but gifts can be left by Babbo Natale (Santa Claus, but literally Father Christmas, as Père Noël in France) or by Gesù Bambino (Child Jesus).

Lisa:

Do you say something like "Happy Santa Lucia" for the holiday?  We say Merry Christmas if we know the people celebrate.  Otherwise, we say Happy Holidays… this is particularly important in the U.S. where there are people of so many different religious and ethnic backgrounds.

Gian Carlo:

We don’t say "Happy Santa Lucia". We say "Buon Natale" (Merry Christmas, but literally Good Christmas). We also say  "Buone Feste" (Happy Holidays, but literally Good Holidays) and, in this case, we refer to all (holi)days near Christmas (until Epiphany). We also say "Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo" (Merry [good] Christmas and Happy New Year).

Ciao e Buon Natale -Gian Carlo

***

Thanks for sharing with us traditions in Italy around December and January!

Buone Feste!

Mama Lisa

A candle apple is called a "pomme d’amour" in French.  That’s literally "apple of love"!  How cool is that?!

What’s it called in your language?  Please let us know in the comments below.

In American English "You’re on a roll" means you’re going from success to success.  Here’s a drawing my daughter did of the literal meaning of being on a roll!

What a great idea to help kids learn new sayings!

Mama Lisa

My son’s friend just picked up his cell phone, talked into it, hung up and said, "My friend just butt dialed me."  I said, "What?" He said, "You never heard of butt dialing?  It’s when someone accidentally calls you by pressing a button on their phone in their back pocket with their butt."

Come on folks… it’s a bit of a strange term, but we’ve got to keep up with the new lingo!  Later he told me that it’s not new lingo.  It’s been around for years.  But it’s new  for me!  Ha!

I think in English we would say, "The Law of Buttered Bread Always Falling Buttered Side Down."  That’s how I came up with this doodle. -Mama Lisa

Murphy’s Law in Russia…

What are the names for ladybugs in your language?

Ladybugs belong to the Coccinellidae family, from a Latin word meaning "scarlet".  But they also have many other names: in English, they’ve been called ladybug, ladybird, lady beetle, lady clock, lady cow and lady fly. 

The name ladybird was originally "Our Lady’s bird" in England.  This name referred to the fact that the ladybug is red and so was the Virgin Mary’s dress when pictured in the Middle Ages. Also, the most common ladybug has seven spots and there are the Seven Joys and the Seven Sorrows of Mary.  In Spanish, ladybugs are called mariquita, meaning little Mary.  In German "Marienkäfer" – Mary’s bug. All those names are related to the Virgin Mary.

Ladybugs have other names related to cows or hens.  We were working lately on a Swedish rhyme that goes…

Guld-höna, guld-ko!
Flyg öster, flyg vester,
Dit du flyger der bor din älskade!

Gold-hen, gold-cow!
Fly east, fly west,
You’ll fly to where your sweetheart lives.

"Guld-höna" and "guld-ko" is literally "gold-hen" and "gold-cow" in Swedish.  In English, the creature is sometimes referred to as "lady cow".  In the Occitan language of the troubadours, there’s "galineta" (little hen) and "buòu de Nòstre Sénher" (Our Lord’s ox).  In French, there’s "poulette de la Madone" (Our Lady’s little hen) and "vache à Dieu" (God’s cow).

Many centuries ago, people seem to have related the seven spots on ladybugs to the seven brightest stars of the Pleiades or Seven Sisters in the constellation of Taurus (the Bull). The Pleiades have different vernacular names related to hens.  In French there’s the term "la Poussinière" (the Chicks House).  In Italian, they’d say "le Gallinelle" (the Little Hens) or "la Chioccietta" (the Little Broody Hen).  That’s the relation between ladybugs and hens.

Whatever name they get, they seem to bring luck. So what are the names for the ladybug in your language and are there any rhymes about this sweet little creature in your country?  Please let us know in the comments below!

Written by Monique Palomares, who works with Mama Lisa on the French and Spanish versions of Mama Lisa’s World.

The Idiom: The Frog in the Well – 井底之蛙 (jǐng dǐ zhī wā) – is a Chinese idiom that refers to a narrow-minded person who doesn’t see the larger world around them. 

The Story: The story is about a frog who lives happily in a well.  He has no idea what’s outside of that well.  One day a turtle comes along and tells him about the great wide world, and the beautiful blue ocean.  The frog becomes embarrassed when he realizes he’s been living in such a small sheltered world.

The Book: Irene Tsai retells this story in the bilingual Chinese English book called "The Frog in the Well".  It’s a wonderful book for children who are learning Mandarin Chinese.  It has the English version and the Chinese translation with the pinyin text.  (Pinyin is an official system used to phonetically spell Mandarin Chinese words using the Roman alphabet.)  Kids can read along while looking at the colorful illustrations.

You can order The Frog in the Well on Amazon or check out Chinese English Bilingual Books for more info about it.

Enjoy!

Mama Lisa

That’s what you’d think would happen of you let a bull loose in a real china shop. Wouldn’t he charge into all those shelves of china?

What you think would happen, actually wouldn’t. Watch this video from Discovery Channel’s MythBusters to see how graceful bulls really are…

Interestingly, I found a similar-sounding Arabic proverb, “A storm in the shop of a glass-dealer.” This proverb means a thing is out of its place and doesn’t belong there.

Note: A less literal interpretation of the expression “Like a Bull in a China Shop” refers to someone who’s insensitive and offends people, not caring if they hurt them emotionally.

Many thanks to Michael Laderman for pointing out the video above!

Hope you enjoyed it!

Mama Lisa

I normally make Jack-o’-Lantern’s out of pumpkins using a normal knife.  This year I bought a cheap kit for carving pumpkins.  I found that it made a huge difference using the carver I got (pictured at the bottom in the photo above).  The top tool is for scraping out the inside of the pumpkin.  I used it in conjunction with a large spoon.  The two together worked well.

Also, I felt more comfortable letting my 9 year old daughter and her friend use the carver above.  Normally, when the tool is a knife, I do all the carving.  But with the tool above, I felt comfortable letting them carve under my guidance.

Next year, I’ll definitely use these tools again. Having the right tools for the job is important.