By The Landlord
It's a lyrical sort of bird call, an audible, written and visual echo, one for musical and verbal emphasis, a ring-ring, a ding-ding, a tut-tut, a chop-chop, a knock-knock, a sing-sing. Some bands themselves have jumped on this trend in their names ... from Talk Talk to The The, Duran Duran to Django Django, Everything Everything, and arguably The Ting Tings, Mr Mister, not to mention Wet Wet Wet and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Repetitive, but oddly appealing, like verbal swinging bells, these are rock and pop's echoing mating-call rebel-rebel yells.
So this week, whether in colloquial, conversational or formal or proper name contexts, they must appear in lyrics or song titles, but not simply repeating, it's all about words that double, or sometimes even triple components to create a contained phrase. Ideally these will be examples of those most inventively used, catchy and poetic.
Some might be a bit fifty-fifty, or seem a no-no or a bit so-so, but they would count, as well as now-now, chop-chop, there-there, or well-well, and even triple versions of those, as would words that arguably echo within themselves, such as choo-choo to tutu.
Whatever words are used in doing so, they should not simply repeat over and over, but create a new phrase where repetition is integral, and even create a catchy trigger wherein you can’t hear that word without a repeat of it.
Some songs might employ repeats of those classic songwriting theme words such as money, love, fun, you, girls, baby, dance, radio, now, or never, but others could repeat a particular name as the subject of the song for musical and emotional emphasis. Whatever repeated words or sounds are used, it should take on its own tautonym-like identity.
There's something strangely banal and unimaginative, but also weirdly appealing about proper names that repeat within themselves. There's Thomas Thomas the science-fiction writer to Richard Richards the space-shuttle astronaut, or father of footballers and pundits Gary and Phil Neville – Neville Neville. There's TV and movie actor Edward Edwards, or more audible than written examples in the form of The Wicker Man's Edward Woodward or Plan 9 from Outer Space's director Ed Wood, and even a couple of other almosts in the form of astronomer Galileo Galilei, or even singer-songwriter Kris(toffer) Kristofferson. And who can forget Egypt’s most famous diplomat and former Secret General of the United Nations, Boutros Boutros-Ghali?
Boutros Boutros-Ghali
We all repeat ourselves and for some it's a form of calling card. Take for example this rolling non-stop sequence around a different bar, that in Martin Scorsese's classic gangster flick Goodfellas (1990) where the camera cleverly glides around with Henry’s point of view to meet many characters, including Jimmy Two Times who always says everything twice:
Place names might also serve as colourful examples cited in lyrics, such the rather appropriately named famous prison on the east bank of New York's Hudson River - Sing Sing. There's many ways to interpret that meaning (might prisoners there 'sing like a bird' to confess crimes?), but its name was actually derived from the Sintsink Native American tribe from whom the land was purchased in 1685.
Sing Sing Prison
Or alternatively we could take visit to Songsong in Northern Mariana Islands, also part of the US.
So in that context, our lyrical journey will hopefully take us around the world, perhaps from Alang-Alang in Mandaue, the Philippines, to a whole host of echoing Bs, such as Germany’s Baden-Baden, Bela-Bela in Limpopo Province, South Africa, or in parallel, Bella Bella, in British Columbia, Canada, or Bora Bora in French Polynesia, Budge Budge in West Bengal, Bulbul in Syria, or Bulo Bulo in Bolivia.
Today I've discovered a wine region I'd like to visit in Italy, one which comes with increasingly hyperbolic exclamation marks and might have qualified for last week's topic of superlatives – Est! Est!! Est!!! di Montefiascone.
Est! Est!! Est!!! di Montefiascone
In another musical turn, it might be worth hearing some music in Hum Hum, which is in Bangladesh, or Loop Loop in Washington, but I might hesitate before visiting Kila Kila in Papua New Guinea. Like the letter B, the letter P also lends itself to poetic repeat names, such as Paw Paw in Michigan, the tasty sounding Piripiri in Piauí in Brazil, the various Phi Phi Islands in Thailand, or Puka-Puka in French Polynesia. Then again you might want to take a trip to Tan-Tan in Morocco Tawi-Tawi or Tipo-Tipo in the Philippines, or Torres Torres in Spain.
Xique-Xique in Brazil is also the name of an instrument (also xaque-xaque – a former Word of the Week) or we could end up for some African ZZZs in the Ivory Coast's Zanzan or Liberia's Zorzor.
A Brazilian xique-xique, also evocatively known as a xaque-xaque
But as strict definition, tautonyms are more formally confined to the scientific names for birds and animals, created variously by Linnaeus, Humboldt and other pioneers of categorisation. There are many, comprising first the generic name and then specific name, which in these cases are the same, and some of which overlap with common usage and some even take triple form. Oddly double or even triple tautonyms exist in zoology, but are never allowed to occur in botany.
Like place names, these would also add further colour to the topic, but what might come up in the musical menagerie? The ever-present Rattus rattus of course is a favourite of a certain British punk band, while another increasingly common one in cities, Vulpes vulpes is the red fox, and in triple form, the Scandinavian variety. Many are rather wonderful in sound and appearance, overlap with words from other languages too, which hopefully opens up songs from other countries.
Some are surprising not as described. Cricetus cricetus is not an insect or a sportsperson, but the name for European hamster, but still sounds fantastic. Others are more of a handful such as Petaurista petaurista, and you want catch that easily as its the red giant flying squirrel.
Stand up for the Cricetus cricetus - also known as a hamster
Back down on the ground, perhaps we can quietly glimpse a Dama dama, the European fallow deer? Or Gazella gazella, which is the mountain gazelle variety. Some names follow their common ones – Giraffa giraffa or Gorilla gorilla, and also in the trees there are other monkey cousins Indri indri, or the Papio papio, anotehr name for the Guinea baboon.
A far more evasive primate the strange, nocturnal Madagascan lemur, the aye-aye has a Latin name that isn't a tautonym (Daubentonia madagascariensis) but with special thin middle finger and its common name, it is surely worth a song mention.
Meanwhile in the reptile world, there's the common or green Iguana iguana, the Naja naja, another name for the Indian cobra or a Natrix natrix grass snake.
And in the water perhaps we could fish around for rather poetic toad examples such as Bombina bombina (European fire-bellied toad), Bufo bufo (common toad) or Pipa pipa which is Suriname variety.
Butis butis - or crazy fish
And in actual fish form, perhaps these might glimmer in the lyrical net: Badis badis — blue perch or blue badis, the fantastic Boops boops or bogue, Brama brama – Atlantic pomfret, Brosme brosme — a cusk, Butis butis — the duckbill sleeper, also known as the crazy fish! Then there’s a Hucho hucho — also known as Danube salmon or huchen, Huso huso — beluga sturgeon, Vimba vimba — vimba bream, all the way to the colorful Zebrus zebrus — zebra goby or Zingel zingel — er, zingel of course.
A Song Bar favourite: the Bubo bubo, or Eurasian eagle-owl
But it is birds, arguably because of their musical calls that dominate the tautonym world, from Alle alle — little auk or dovekie, to Apus apus — common swift. Another great sounding name – Bubo bubo for Eurasian eagle-owl, to Grus grus — common crane. Pica pica is the Eurasian magpie, while the pleasant sounding Pipile pipile is the Trinidad piping guan. Suiriri suiriri is of course the suiriri flycatcher and a Sula sula is the red-footed booby. Finally, perhaps because of their evolution, but also oddly inappropriate considering their size, are the rather dinosaur like names of Troglodytes troglodytes — a rather dramatic way to describe the tiny Eurasian wren, as is Tyrannus tyrannus for the eastern kingbird.
A bit of a mouthful? Coccothraustes coccothraustes, or hawfinch
So then, it’s time to enjoy some excellent phrasal echoes and lyrical tautonymic treats. Judgment of your sense of poetic repetition comes with a return to the chair by the marvellous Maki! Place your songs in comments below for a second double bell ring at 11pm on Monday UK, but playlists published next week. For now, here's the first ... ding-ding. Let's sing-sing ...
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