There are four types of reduplication in Yami: Complete root reduplication, partial root reduplication, affix reduplication, and Ca- reduplication.

　　Complete root reduplication refers to the exact copy of the root being reduplicated, such as rako-rako ‘bigger' (< rako ‘big'), vato-vato ‘stones, tapi-tapi ‘planks', baka-baka ‘cows', lima-lima ‘hands', tao-tao ‘people, totem', and sozi-sozi ‘anger, fuming'.

　　Partial reduplication of the root can be further classified into seven types according to its reduplicated syllable structure: 1) CV-, 2) CVCV-, 3) CVC-, 4) CVV-, 5) VCV-, 6) V-, 7) a-CCV-, as illustrated in Table 4. The seven types of syllable structure can be generalized as having two patterns: (1) reduplicating the first syllable of the root, and (2) deleting the coda of the second syllable of the root and reduplicating the remaining syllable. A noun root is reduplicated to express plurality, comparative degree, transformation, distribution, or toys, whereas a verb root is reduplicated to refer to a repeated action, frequent action, or a tool used frequently to carry out a certain action.

Table 4: Examples of partial reduplication of the roots

　　Affix reduplication occurs frequently with ni- and paN- (See Section 6.3 for detailed discussion of verbal affixes). In the following examples, ni- ‘perfective' is reduplicated and added to bound roots prefixed with a- :

(1) Reduplicated ni-

ni-ni-ahap ‘everything that has been taken away'

ni-ni-akot ‘everything that has been moved away'

ni-ni-akan ‘everything that has been eaten'

ni-ni-angayan ‘everywhere that one has been to'

　　There are two ways for the paN- prefix ‘distributed' (See Section 6.1.1 for the morphophenemics of N-) to be reduplicated and prefixed to the root. The prefix paN- can be first added to the root kotas ‘pick leaves' to form a new stem pangotas . The new stem is reanalyzed as pa-ngotas and the root, ngotas , undergoes further CVCV- partial reduplication, as in pa-ngota-ngotas . The prefix ka- ‘then, afterwards' is then added to the reduplicated stem to form ka-pa-ngota-ngotas ‘then one keeps picking leaves', as in (2i). The second way is to first partially reduplicate the CVCV- of the root ciring ‘word' to form the new stem ciri-ciring ‘words, language'. Then prefix paN- is added to the new stem to form another new stem pa-niri-ciring . Finally the prefix ni- ‘perfective' is added to form ni-pa-niri-ciring ‘already cursed', as in (2ii).

(2) paN- reduplication

(i) ka-pa-ngota-ngotas < ka-pa-ngotas < ka- + paN- + kotas ‘then one keeps picking leaves'

(ii) ni-pa-niri-ciring < ni-paN-ciri-ciring < ni- + paN- + ciring ‘already cursed'

In Ca- reduplication, the first consonant of the root is copied and followed by the vowel /a/, as in pa-pira ‘how many'. It usually occurs in numbers (See Section 9) to indicate plurality, as shown in (3). The list of abbreviations used to gloss the following Yami examples can be found in the Appendix.

(3) ya pa-pira o ka-kteh mo ?

AUX Ca-RED-many NOM Co-sibling 2.S.GEN

ya ra-roa sira kaka a mehakay .

AUX Ca-RED-two 3.P.NOM older.sibling LIN male

‘How many brothers and sisters do you have?' ‘I have two older brothers.'

detailed, alternative analysis of Yami reduplication can be found in Rau & Dong (2005).

One of the identical vowels a is deleted.

When two vowels are juxtaposed in root reduplication, they are diphthongized as follows:

eo → ow, ew: on e-o ned ‘deep in the heart' → on ow ned , on ew ned

ao → ow: ot a-o ta ‘vomit' → ot ow ta , ov a-o van ‘gray hair' → ov ow van , op a-o pag-en ‘pound, hit' → op ow pagen

ai → ey: in a-i napo ‘ancestors' → in ey napo , is a-i sanan ‘hotels' → is ey sanan , il a-i lamdam-en ‘test, sound out' → il ey lamdamen

oa → wa: av o-a vong ‘shadows' → av wa vong

oo → ow: ob o-o bot-an ‘place where one defecates' → ob ow botan

note:raroa is derived from doa ‘two'. /d/ is weakened into /r/ intervocalically.