Reduplication can also be used to mean a variety of different grammatical meanings. The rules about constructing and using reduplication are the same as in the previous examples, but there is now significant change to the root. This achieves an affixation effect by adding a phonological change to the word upon repetition which ties the two–nominally–different words together.
To use this class of reduplication, the initial consonant, and sometimes the tone of the word is used, and then the specified rime (with the tone if needed) is applied so the initial consonants are the same, but the rimes are different. Examples of how this looks are given in the sections below. Of special note, if the "affix" starts with a front vowel or /j/ then the lateral consonants are modified to their counterpart fricatives in keeping with the phonological processes.
On occasion, the modified reduplicated word might end up being the same as the original word. In that case, speakers use prosodic lengthening and loudness to indicate that the word is being reduplicated and that the second iteration is not to be taken as a plural.
Relating to a psychological state or emotional experience.
| Buōn | trōi | ||
| 1.int | perf | floating | mental-state |
| "I was mentally disassociating." | |||
In NCs, it is an adverbial causative construction meaning "because of x". Tone is the reciting tone of the root word.