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Glite Dictionary
Wagga Wagga

Wagga Wagga

1 8.2
A town in southeast Australia on the Murrumbidgee River known for farming and farm markets
  • proper noun
: Wagga Wagga
  • Situated halfway between Sydney and Melbourne, Wagga Wagga is the largest inland town in NSW.

Examples

  • The 21st Australian National Stereo Photography Convention will be held April 24-26, 2009, in Wagga Wagga, NSW.

    Academic text (2008)

  • The annual agricultural show attracts many people to Wagga Wagga, showcasing local produce and livestock.

  • Situated halfway between Sydney and Melbourne, Wagga Wagga is the largest inland town in NSW.

  • The 21st Australian National Stereo Photography Convention will be held April 24-26, 2009, in Wagga Wagga.

Surface Forms

Wagga Wagga main

Morphology

Wagga + Wagga

Wagga Wagga is a proper name (a reduplicated toponym from an Indigenous Australian language) whose parts are not English lexical items with transparent meanings, so a learner who knows the constituent strings would not be able to infer the town/location meaning. Reduplication as a naming convention is not a predictable English composition pattern that conveys 'town' or 'agricultural centre', making the expression opaque to B1 learners.

Etymology

Wagga Wagga comes from the local Wiradjuri language. In that language repeating a word shows 'many', so Wagga Wagga, from Wagga meaning 'dance', means 'place of many dances', which explains the town's name today.