Editing Bantu languages (section)

===Reduplication===
[[Reduplication]] is a common morphological phenomenon in Bantu languages and is usually used to indicate frequency or intensity of the action signalled by the (unreduplicated) verb stem.<ref name=":8">Abdulaziz Lodhi, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20090325021837/http://www.african.gu.se/aa/pdfs/aa02004.pdf Verbal extensions in Bantu (the case of Swahili and Nyamwezi)]". ''Africa & Asia,'' 2002, 2:4–26, Göteborg University</ref>

*Example: in Swahili, ''piga'' means "strike", ''pigapiga'' means "strike repeatedly".

Well-known words and names that have reduplication include:
*[[South Africa national football team|Bafana Bafana]], a football team
*[[Zambia national football team|Chipolopolo]], a football team
*[[Eric Djemba-Djemba]], a footballer
*[[Lomana LuaLua]], a footballer

Repetition emphasizes the repeated word in the context that it is used. For instance, "Mwenda pole hajikwai," means "He who goes slowly doesn't trip," while, "Pole pole ndio mwendo," means "A slow but steady pace wins the race." The latter repeats "pole" to emphasize the consistency of slowness of the pace.

As another example, "Haraka haraka" would mean "hurrying just for the sake of hurrying" (reckless hurry), as in "Njoo! Haraka haraka" [come here! Hurry, hurry].

In contrast, there are some words in some of the languages in which reduplication has the opposite meaning. It usually denotes short durations, or lower intensity of the action, and also means a few repetitions or a little bit more.

*Example 1: In [[Tsonga language|(Xi)Tsonga]] and [[Shona language|(Chi)Shona]], ''famba'' means "walk" while ''famba-famba'' means "walk around".
*Example 2: in [[Zulu language|isiZulu]] and [[Swazi language|(si)Swati]] ''hamba'' means "go", ''hambahamba'' means "go a little bit, but not much".
*Example 3: in both of the above languages ''shaya'' means "strike", ''shayashaya'' means "strike a few more times lightly, but not heavy strikes and not too many times".
*Example 4: In [[ChiShona|Shona]] ''{{wikt-lang|sn|kwenya}}'' means "scratch", ''Kwenyakwenya'' means "scratch excessively or a lot".
*Example 5: In [[Luhya language|Luhya]] ''cheenda'' means "walk",'' cheendacheenda'' means "take a walk but not far off", as in buying time before something is ready or a situation or time is right.