etymology - Knick-knack and bric-a-brac?


There are several interesting words to describe the same idea:


Knick-Knack and Bric-a-Brac, both defined as:



Small, decorative object(s) of little value.



Bric-a-Brac derives from French and is Uncountable. Knick-Knack is Countable. Apart from these differences, I can’t see why there are different words. Perhaps different classes or regions use different words?


In addition, we have gewgaw and doodad.


In some languages different phonemes can carry emotional significance.


For example, in local Spanish the same idea can be expressed as cachibache. The /tʃ/ can carry the idea of worthlessness.


Other Spanish examples with /tʃ/:



chuchería-junk, junk food


chunche-a piece of unidentifiable junk


casucha-a shack or crappy house


pueblucho-a one-horse town



In Korean, the usage of the /f/ sound used to be heard as immodest*



piksali pault-fault confusion


bijinisu fureynduli -business friendly



(sorry, can't reproduce Hangul here.)


Do repetitive syllables have any emotional significance?


[EDIT] Thanks to the many wonderful and helpful comments which have been posted I am going to rework this question to express my original intent. Initially what I was thinking had to do with emotional content, but I don't think I expressed it very well.


After investigating further in Psycho-Linguistic topics I realize there is emotional content to F1-F2 and F2-F1 placement, and that individual phonemes can carry emotional significance. However, I need to collate this new information in order to reformulate my original idea into a more cogent and cohesive argument.


*"Huffing and Puffing about /f/ing everything" -Hyojin Cho Kim




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