Interpreting a Foreign Idiomatic Reduplication

I recently watched the Argentine movie The Secret in Their Eyes and I can see why it won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. I absolutely loved it. The reason I mention the movie is a particular line of dialog that intrigued me.

The phrase "pata pata".

I immediately thought of the reduplicative, idiomatic English expression "chop chop", which to me means "hurry up". The way it was used in the movie seemed to go along with my interpretation. Then I looked it up and the confusion set in.

SpanishDict gives the following definitions for pata:

feminine noun

1. leg (pierna de animal)

• las patas delanteras; the forelegs


• las patas traseras; the hindlegs


• pata negra (cooking); = type of top-quality cured ham

2. foot (pie de animal); paw (de perro, gato); hoof (de vaca, caballo)

3. leg (informal) (de persona)

• a pata; on foot


• ir a la pata coja; to hop


• a cuatro patas; on all fours


• pata de palo; wooden leg

4. leg (de mueble); arm (de gafas)

5. (expresiones) (informal)

• estirar la pata; to kick the bucket


• meter la pata; to put one's foot in it


• poner algo patas arriba (también figurative); to turn something upside down


• tener mala pata; to be unlucky


• pata de gallo; hound's-tooth check material (tejido)


• patas de gallo; crow's feet (arrugas)

And msn encarta Dictionary gives the following for pata pata:

noun South Africa 1. dance sensual dance style: a dance style in which couples feel each other's bodies with their hands 2. music music for sensual dancing: urban South African dance music kwela which people dance to in pata-pata style 3. sex: sexual intercourse ( slang ) [Mid-20th century. < Xhosa and Zuluphatha "feel, touch"] ??? So apparently the reduplication of a word that appears to primarily reference an animal's foot or leg turns it a type of sexual dancing. Interesting. I welcome any explanations. P.S. As previously defined here on this blog "reduplication" is a morphological process that occurs in many languages to different degrees and for different purposes. Basically, it is the repetition of all or part of a word.

Alpine Equipment Epithets

I have been meaning to mention a post that appeared on Johnson, The Economists' language blog, and now seems like an appropriate time as we are in the midst of ski season here in Michigan. The post is about the friendly animosity that occurs between skiers and snowboarders and the names that are used by each to provoke the rivalry in Poland.

According to Johnson, skiers call a snowboard a parapet (windowsill) and snowboarders call skis boazeria (wainscots), thus the title of the post, "Windowsill v Wainscots".

In addition to the brief article, what I found interesting were a couple of comments from readers included this one from AcrossTheStreet:

"Colorado has lighthearted names for its alpine battle of rafters and fly-fishers: Row v Wade."

And this one from Jeremie1:

"In Spain snowboarders are just known as "surferos", as far as I know, but the surferos do use a malicious nickname for skiers, who distinguish themselves by using ski sticks: they are known as "palilleros" - from "palillos", or little sticks, such as toothsticks."

My son, a snowboarder, calls skiers "two-plankers".

So how about you: are you a windowsiller or a wainscotter, a rafter or a fly-fisher, a surfer or a palilleros?

What other labels are out there?

Image Credits

Translation Dead Giveaway

Having read all three of the books in Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, I found it surprising that it wasn't until page 424 of the hardcover edition of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest (the third book in the trilogy) that I noticed a dead giveaway that the book was translated from a different language (Swedish in this case).

"I won't make any promises. My marriage broke up because Erika and I couldn't keep away from each other," he said, and then he added in English, "Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt."






I wonder... do other countries really associate "Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt" with Americans as much as we associate "C'est la vie" with the French and "Que sera sera" with the Spanish?


C'est la vie. =That is life.

Que sera sera. = What will be will be.