Based on the observations of reduplication process this study would like to address some basic questions.
In this study, we discuss the partial reduplication process (Onset change, Onset deletion, and Onset addition) from the Hadoti data. For instance, in Sanskrit, /sa-swar/ ‘sound’ shows a regular pattern of perfective reduplication where the second consonant from the onset cluster of the base gets omitted in the reduplicant keeping the following vowel intact ( Kager 1999: 214). While reduplicating, some of them show a very systematic and predictable pattern. In the case of partial reduplication, many languages throughout the world have different ways for the reduplicant creation. Reduplication is used in Hadoti for several reasons, such as when it appears with a noun to express the number (singular and plural), the verb to mark the continuative and emphasizing process of the work and as an adjective to emphasize the quality of the things. ‘Echo- formation fully refers the partial repetition of a phoneme or syllable of the base’ ( Asad 2015: 39). Hadoti has three types reduplication process, namely, complete, partial (echo-words), and onomatopoeic (non-lexical). However, in phonology, the process of reduplication is not considered as affixation but as a process in which segmental contents are completely repeated/copied or changed from the base and forms the reduplicant in the language. The process pertains to a standard morphological feature of language wherein there is a repetition of stem/root of a word either completely or partially. In Hadoti, the reduplicant gets attached as a suffix. Within reduplication, the position of a reduplicant may vary from language to language, and reduplication may occur either in the form of prefixes or suffixes to the base or stem (left and right edge of the base). Reduplication in linguistics is a purely morphological process, where it is simply a kind of affixation through which it forms the morphological categories in languages. It becomes a scholarly need to study Hadoti and its features and processes like reduplication linguistically, for a better understanding of the language and enrichment of the theory. Interestingly, partial reduplication or an echo-word formation found in Hadoti as well as in another variety of Rajasthani, namely, Marwari, have not received much attention in morphological and phonological studies so far. Hadoti displays productivity in its reduplication process. It is also spoken in the neighboring regions of Madhya Pradesh. Hadoti is a regional variety spoken in and near Kota region of the Indian state of Rajasthan. In contrast, if the last syllable of the base or stem is closed, then reduplicant violates the SSP. If the final syllable of the base or stem is open, then reduplicant follows the sonority sequencing principle (SSP).
In other words, in the reduplication process, generally a syllable structure shows the nucleus as optionally surrounded by less sonorous segments that are available before the nucleus (onset) and after the nucleus (coda). The concept of sonority as a prosodic feature is a fascinating aspect to study with respect to reduplication because sonority refers to the loudness of a speech sound relative to that of other speech sounds with the same length within a word but across the syllable boundaries. While some of the earlier studies by Clements (1988), Gouskova (2001, 2002), Baertsch & Davis (2008), Kar (2010), and others have investigated the efficacy of the sonority scale in several areas, the present study attempts to describe operation of sonority in Hadoti reduplication process (henceforth, HR) using the grammatical framework of Optimality Theory (OT), propounded by Alan Prince & Paul Smolensky in 1993. Hadoti, being one of them, shows some interesting phonological features in connection to the sonority of segments in the reduplication process. Reduplication is a common phenomenon among many South-Asian languages.