proto-southwestern-tai revised: a new reconstruction - seals 22

Udon Thani Vietnamese 243
(5) VnU: Anh ta làm việc tốt tốt.
Eng: He works very well.
(6) VnU: Món ăn này bấn bận làm sao mà cháu ăn được.
Eng: This food is very dirty, how can you have it?
(7) VnU: Bác Hồ là người đứng đầu trong cuộc chiến chống Pháp nên người dân
Việt Nam yếu yêu bác Hồ.
Eng: The president Ho Chi Minh is a leader of fighting against France so
Vietnamese people love him so much.
(8) VnU: Cái cuốn sách dáy dày như thế này tôi đọc cả năm cũng không đọc nổi.
Eng: This is a very thick book; I can not complete reading it even thought I
spent all year.
(9) VnU: Con chơi kiểu gì, làm sao áo đén đen như vậy.
Eng: Son! What did you play? Why your shirt is very black like this?
(10) VnU: Chị Hiền nấu món ăn ngón ngon đấy anh ạ.
Eng: The foods that sister Hien cooks are very delicious.
4. Comparison with Standard Vietnamese and Standard Thai
The writer analyses data into two kinds: structure analysis, meaning analysis as the
followings.
The structure of reduplication that the writer found significantly differs from
Standard Vietnamese but parallels complete reduplication of Standard Thai. Reduplication
in Standard Vietnamese is discussed by Nguyen Tai Can (2004). In his discussion he
points out that typically reduplication is complete, with both the base and the copy
pronounced similarly. The closest Standard Vietnamese equivalents of the forms discussed
above are as
follows:
mừng mừng ‘quite happy’ bận bận ‘quite dirty’
đẹp đẹp ‘quite beautiful’ dày dày ‘quite thick’
đông đông ‘quite many’ đen đen ‘quite black’
nhanh nhanh ‘quite fast’ ngon ngon ‘quite delicious’
tốt tốt ‘quite well’ yêu yêu ‘to love quite well’
However, such use of reduplication in Standard Vietnamese is not common, instead
speakers tend to use the adverb hơi ‘quite’or ‘rather’ before a verb, adverb, adjective to
signal an augmented meaning. For example:
hơi mừng ‘quite happy’ hơi bận ‘quite dirty’
hơi đẹp ‘quite beautiful’ hơi dày ‘quite thick’
hơi đông ‘quite many’ hơi đen ‘quite black’
hơi nhanh ‘quite fast’. hơi ngon ‘quite delicious’
hơi tốt ‘quite well’ hơi yêu ‘to love quite well’