This post is tip-top

Image: Sketchplanations

I saw an article about ablaut reduplication and it made my heart go pitter-patter.

It sounds boring, but I’m not going to be wishy-washy about it -- this is no flim-flam. It’s really cool.  So, let’s not dilly-dally any further.

In short, the vowels in reduplicated terms almost always follow this order:  I comes before A, which comes before O. 

We seldom flip-flop this order. Even though hardly anyone is consciously aware of this rule, we all implicitly follow it.  It can even unconsciously guide the selection of brand names, like KitKat, TicTac, TikTok, JibJab, or (if you are in the UK) a brand of crisps called NikNaks.  Brand names can get lost in the mish-mash of products that we see every day, but ablaut reduplication helps these stand out.

The only counter-example that comes to mind immediately is this landmark sign on the Chicago skyline.

(The Tip-Top-Tap was a very popular nightclub during the Jazz Age but it has been closed since 1961. Karma. That’s what happens when you flip-flop.)

You might think this is a weird knick-knack of the English language, but it is seen in other languages also.

Feel free to use this factoid when you are chit-chatting at your next social gathering. You will feel like an intellectual King Kong.