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Alliteration of the Word-initial consonant in Modern Gujarati Compounds
- H. C. Bhayani Like other NIA. languages, in Gujarati also alliteration, rhyme, jingle-formation, sound-symbolism, syllable rhythm and onomatopoeia play quite a significant role in the formation of compounds and phrases. Here I would like to draw attention to those compounds which have alliteration of the initial consonant of their constituents. Gujarati has a large class of dvandva ('copulative') compounds'. The compounds described here form its sub-class. Besides the dvandva compounds that can be dissolved with अने ('and') or के (or') (i.g. नानुमोटुं-नानुं अने मोटुं, or alternatively नानुं के मोटुं), there is a large class of these compounds which can not be so dissolved. They have got certain notable characteristics.
Formally, many of them are marked by various types of rhyhms. Many are reduplicative with vowel-variation of the initial syllable of their first meaningful contituent or are echoic/jingle formations based on the second, meaningful constituent.
Secondly many of them are such that the order of their constituents cannot be reversed. They are irreversible binominals.
The order of the two constituents is determined either by their syllabic structure or by the importance of their individual meanings from socio-cultural view-point in the discourse situation.
- As to the meaning, there is a large clan of synonymous compounds, the meaning of many of these compounds is not just the same of the individual meaning of the constituents, but denote 'these and similar things of actions', 'these and so on and so forth', 'these etc'.
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