In Turkish, a natural and colorful way to express variety, abundance, or manner is by simply repeating a word. This lexical reduplication is called ikileme.
Expressing Variety and Abundance
Repeating a descriptive or quantitative noun before another noun turns it into an adjective of abundance or variety. For instance, repeating renk (color) makes renk renk (colorful / in many colors), and çeşit (kind) makes çeşit çeşit (all sorts of).
Similarly, repeating grouping words like demet (bunch) or yığın (pile) means "bunches of" or "piles of".
| There are colorful, various spices at the herbalist. | Aktarda renk renk, çeşit çeşit baharat var. |
| Let me buy bunches of fresh mint from the herbalist. | Aktardan demet demet taze nane alayım. |
| Let me look at those piles of mint. | Şu yığın yığın nanelere bakayım. |
Describing the Manner of Actions
Repeated words also act as adverbs to describe how an action is performed. For example, repeating yavaş (slow) creates yavaş yavaş (slowly).
You can also use grouping words right before a verb to describe the physical manner of an action, like bringing items "by the sackful" (çuval çuval) or leaving them "in piles" (yığın yığın).
| We walked slowly towards the cumin sacks. | Kimyon çuvallarına doğru yavaş yavaş yürüdük. |
| They brought the cumin in sacks and left it in piles. | Kimyonu çuval çuval getirdiler ve yığın yığın bıraktılar. |
The Scent of the Market: Buram Buram
Some reduplications are fixed expressions. To describe a strong, pleasant, wafting scent—like fresh spices—Turkish uses the special phrase buram buram. It almost exclusively pairs with the verb kokmak (to smell) to mean a scent is radiating strongly through the air.
| This cinnamon smells strongly without being opened. | Bu tarçın açılmadan buram buram kokuyor. |
| Was the kitchen smelling strongly of spices? | Mutfak buram buram baharat kokuyor muydu? |