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In many languages formation of diminutives by suffixes is a regular part of grammar. All nouns, not just proper nouns can be diminuted. The word "diminutive" is used in a narrower and less vague sense here than when referring to English. The basic meaning of diminution in these languages is "smallness of the object named"; endearment, intimacy etc. is secondary and dependent on context. For example, the name of the last Roman emperor of the western part of the Roman Empire - Romulus Augustus - was diminuted to Romulus Augustulus (little Augustus) to emphasise the contrast between the grandness of the name and political insignificance of its bearer, in this case the connotation of diminution is derogatory, no endearment here.
Germanic languagesEnglishDiminutives are common in most dialects of English. Terms such as "undies" for underwear and "movie" for "moving picture" are frequently heard terms in English. Sometimes a diminutive lengthens the original word as seen in the ubiquitous American term "hottie" to denote sexually appealing (or "hot") young man or woman. (Note that analogous expressions in languages in which diminution is a regular part of the grammar would not be called diminutives.) Common diminutives are:
Australian EnglishAustralian English is known for its use of diminutives with the "-za" suffix applied to the shortened version of a person's name, especially one ending in -(r)r- plus vowel. Thus "Barry" becomes "Bazza" and "Gary" becomes "Gazza" though this is not routinely done with all names. Female names may also be shortened, such as "Sharon" becoming "Shazza" and Marion, "Mazza". This use of diminutives is also found in British English. As in other English speaking countries, the suffix -ie is also used for diminutives of given names, creating names such as Petey (from Peter), Dougie (Douglas), Johnny (Jonathan) and Robbie (Robert).
Many other words are replaced with diminutives in Australian English. Emergency-services personnel are often referred to as ambos and firies instead of "ambulance officers" and "firefighters". Similarly, medical professionals are frequently known as medicos. Well-known bodies are also subject to this process, as with the Salvation Army being known as the Salvos or McDonald's being Macca's. Garbage collectors are almost universally known as garbos. ScotsIn Scots diminutives are used much more frequently than in English. The diminutive is formed by the suffix -ie, -ock, -ockie or –ag. Examples include:
GermanGerman features words such as "Häuschen" for "small house", "Würstchen" for "small sausage", "ein bisschen" for "a little bit" and "Hündchen" for "small dog". Diminutives are more frequently used than in English. They are always neutral as for grammatical gender. Some words only exist in the diminutive form, e.g. "Kaninchen" ("rabbit"). The use of diminutives is quite different between the dialects. The Alemannic dialects for example use the diminutive very often. There are two suffixes that can be systematically applied in German:
Suffixation of the diminutive suffixes –chen and –lein to a finally stressed word stem causes umlaut of the stressed vowel. In Bavarian and Austrian German, the -l or -erl suffix can replace almost any usual German diminutive. For example, the normal word for "girl" in German is "Mädchen", and while Mädchen is still used frequently in Austrian German, a more colloquial "cute" usage would be "Mädl" or "Madl". It is very common for Austrians to replace the normal "Bisschen" ("a little" as in "Can I have a little more?") with "Bissl". This has become a very distinctive feature of Austrian German. In Swabian German this is done by adding a -le suffix. For example, a small house would be a "Häusle" or a little girl a "Mädle". Low GermanIn East Frisian Low Saxon, -je, -tje, and -pje are used as a diminutive suffix (e.g. huis becomes huisje (little house); boom becomes boompje (little tree)). Some words have a slightly different suffix, even though the diminutive always ends with -je. For example, man becomes mannetje (little man). In other varieties of West Low German, spoken in the east of the Netherlands, diminutives occasionally use the umlaut in combination with the suffixes -gie(n). Examples: Compare this with the German suffix -chen In Northern Low Saxon, the -je diminutive is rarely used, except maybe Gronings, such as in Buscherumpje, a fisherman's shirt. It is usually substituted with lütte, meaning "little", as in dat lütte Huus- the small house. The same goes for the North Germanic languages. YiddishYiddish also frequently uses diminutives. In Yiddish the primary diminutive is "leh" or "lech." "Mamma" becomes "Mammaleh," "kind" becomes "kindeleh," "Bubbe" (grandmother) becomes "Bubbeleh." The Yiddish manner of diminutives has been incorporated into modern Israeli Hebrew. "Emma" (mother) is "Emmaleh" and "Abba" (father) is "Abbaleh." DutchIn Dutch, the diminutive is formed by adding one of the suffixes-je, tje, -pje, -etje,-kje, -ke, eke, -ske or -ie to the noun in question. In Dutch, not only nouns can get a diminutive but also adjectives and adverbs. The noun however will remain able to be used together with (in)definite articles. In this case -s is added. Some examples;
Some nouns have two different diminutives, each with a different meaning.
There are also a number of words that exist solely in a diminutive form.
When used to refer to time, the Dutch diminutive form can indicate whether the person in question found it pleasant or not.
(I had to wait an hour in line before it was my turn.)
(After chatting to her boyfriend for a little hour the girl went home.) Romance languagesLatinIn the Latin language the diminutive is formed also by suffixes.
Similarly, the diminutive of gladius (sword) is gladiolus, a plant whose leaves look like small swords. ItalianIn Italian, the diminutive for people is usually expressed by changing masculine (usually -o) to -ino and feminine (usually -a) to -ina, whereas for inanimate objects, the pattern is -o to -etto and -a to -etta. -ello and -ella also exist, though often as the result of the italicization of words from other Romance languages. The new word is then pluralized as a word in its own right. The animate/inanimate rule is extremely loose. Examples which have made it into English are mostly culinary, like linguine (named for its resemblance to little tongues ("lingue", in Italian)), and bruschetta. The diminution is often figurative: an operetta is similar to an opera, but dealing with less serious topics. "Signorina" means "Miss", whereas "signorino" would be a pejorative belittling of a man. The augmentative also exists: -one. RomanianRomanian uses suffixes to create diminutives, most of these suffixes being of Latin or Slavic origin. Feminine
Masculine
SpanishMore detail at Spanish nouns. In Spanish, -o and -a become -ito and -ita, respectively — as in "perro" (dog) and "perrito" (puppy). In other instances, the suffix "-illo" or "illa" is used. A well-known example of this is "tortilla". Words ending in -e or consonant take -cito/a or -ecito/a, as in big "grande" → "grandecito/a" and cross "cruz" → "crucecita". There are irregular forms, like foot "pie" → "piececito", and sometimes two forms exist with different uses: hand "mano" gives the expected "manita" but also "manecilla" "clock hand". There is at least one common duplicated diminutive: small "chico" → "chiquito" → "chiquitito". Names can be somewhat more arbitrary. A list of common (and not so common) names and their diminutive forms:
PortugueseIn Portuguese, the most common diminutives are formed with the suffixes "-(z)inho", "-(z)inha", which replace the masculine and feminine endings "-o" and "-a", respectively. The forms with "z" are normally added to words that end in stressed vowels, such as "café", "cafezinho"; "pouco", "pouquinho" (a very small amount). Popular diminutives may have different forms: "e.g.", "poucochinho". Diminutives of nouns are widely used in colloquial language. Occasionally, they may also be applied to adverbs ("e.g.", "só"/"sozinho", both meaning alone), adjectives ("e.g.", "tonto"/"tontinho", meaning "silly" and "a bit silly") and even verbs ("'e.g.", "correndo"/"correndinho", both meaning "running", but the latter having a sense of endearment). FrenchFrench diminutives usually end in -ette, such as fillette (young girl) or courgette (small marrow = zucchini) and this frequently carries over into English as well. While informal French often produces diminutive effects simply by cutting a word in half (McDo from McDonalds, fixs from fixations 'ski bindings'), the ending -oche is sometimes used. For example, cinoche (ciné) and MacDoche (McDonalds). Slavic languagesBulgarianBulgarian has an extended diminutive system. Masculine nouns have a double diminutive form. The first suffix that can be added is -che. At this points the noun has become neuter, because of the -e ending. The -ntse suffix can further extend the diminutive (It is still neuter, again due to the -e ending). A few examples:
Feminine nouns can have up to three different, independent forms (though some of them are used only in colloquial speech):
Note, that the suffixes can be any of -ka, -chka, -tsa. Neuter nouns can have only one diminutive suffix -ntse.
CzechIn Czech diminutives are formed by suffixes, as in other Slavic languages. Every noun has a grammatically correct diminutive form, regardless of the sense it makes. This is sometimes used for comic effect, for example diminuting the world for "giant" to mean "little giant". Diminutives can be diminuted further by adding another diminutive suffix. E.g.: "Júlie" (Julia), "Julka" (little Julia), "Júlinka" (very little Julia). Czech diminutives can also express familiarity, meliorative, and affection. Hence, "Julka" may well mean "our", "cute" or "beloved" Julia. Example: "k-diminutives" /-ka/ (feminine noun forms)
/-ko/ (neuter noun forms)
/-ek/ (masculine noun forms)
/-ík/
Other common diminutive suffixes are /-inka/, /-enka/, /-ečka/, /-ička/, /-ul-/, /-unka/, /-íček/, /-ínek/ etc. Note the various stem deformations, such as palatalization, vowel shortening or vowel lengthening. RussianRussian has a wide variety of diminutive forms for names, to the point that for non-Russian speakers it can be difficult to connect a nickname to the original. Diminutive forms for nouns are usually distinguished with an -ik, -ok (-yok) (masculine gender), -chk-/-shk- and -on’k-/-en’k- suffixes. For example, "voda" (вода;, "water") becomes "vodichka" (водичка, "little water"), "kot" (кот, "male cat") becomes "kotik" (kotik), "koshka" (кошка, "female cat") becomes "koshechka" (кошечка), "solntse" (солнце, "sun", neuter) becomes "solnyshko" (солнышко). Often there are many diminutive forms: "mama" (мама, "mom") becomes "mamochka" (мамочка), "mamen’ka" (маменька), etc. Adjectives and adverbs can also have diminutive forms with suffix -en’k-: "siniy" (синий, "blue") becomes "sinen’kiy" (синенький), "bystro" (быстро, "quickly") becomes "bystren’ko" (быстренько). Names can be somewhat more arbitrary, but still follow a loose pattern. A list of common names and their diminutive forms:
Some names can also be modified with a -ka ending to add a further level of familiarity, but are not normally used for adults who are not family members. PolishIn Polish there are multiple affixes used to create the diminutive. Some of them are -ka, -cia, -unia, -enka, -lka for feminine nouns and -ek, -ciek, -uń, -eńki, -lki for masculine (among others). For example:
The diminutive suffixes may be stacked to create forms going even further, for example, malusieńki is considered even smaller than malusi or maleńki. Similarly, koteczek (little kitty) is derived from kotek (kitty), which is itself derived from kot (cat). Note that in this case, the suffix -ek is used twice, but changes to ecz once due to palatalisation. Here is a list of common names:
Baltic languagesLithuanianLithuanian is known for its array of diminutive forms. Diminutives are generally constructed with suffixes applied to the noun stem. By far, the most common are those with -elis/-elė or -ėlis/-ėlė. Others include: -ukis/-ukė, -ulis/-ulė, -užis/-užė, -utis/-utė, -ytis/-ytė, etc. Prefixes may also be compounded, e.g.: -užis + -ėlis → -užėlis. In addition to denoting small size and/or endearment, they may also function as amplificatives (augmentatives), pejoratives (deterioratives), and to give special meanings, depending on context[1]. Lithuanian diminutives are especially prevalent in poetic language, such as folk songs. Examples:
Other language familiesPersianThe most frequently used Persian diminutives are -cheh (چه-) and -ak (ک-).
Other less used ones are -izeh and -zheh. Scottish GaelicIn Scottish Gaelic diminutives are used much more frequently than in English. The most common diminutives are:
e.g.
Turkish
Turkish diminutive suffixes are -cik and -cegiz (-cegiz):
ArabicIn Modern Standard Arabic the usual diminutive pattern is Fu`ayL (CuCayC), with or without the feminine -ah added.
Interlingua
Interlingua has a single diminutive suffix, -ett, for diminutives of all sorts.
Use of this suffix is flexible, and diminutives such as mama and papa may also be used. To denote a small person or object, many Interlingua speakers simply use the word parve, or small:
Esperanto
For generic use (for living beings and inanimate objects), Esperanto has a single diminutive suffix, -et.
For personal names and familial forms of address, the affixes -nj- and -ĉj- are used, for females and males respectively. Unusually for Esperanto, the "root" is often shortened, in an unpredictable manner, before being added to.
Classical GreekSeveral diminutive derivational suffixes exist in Classical Greek. The most common ones are: -ιο, -ισκο, -ιδιο, -αριο. Modern GreekDiminutives are very common in Modern Greek. They express small size (σπίτι 'house' σπιτάκι 'little house'; metaphorically λάθος 'mistake' λαθάκι 'negligeable mistake') or affection (μάνα 'mother' μανούλα 'mommy'). The most common suffixes are -άκης, -ούλης, -ίτσα, -ούλα, -άκι. Several of them are common as suffixes of surnames, originally meaning the children (little ones) of some person, e.g. Παπάς 'priest' Παπαδάκης Papadakis (surname).af:Verkleiningswoord cs:Zdrobnělina de:Diminutiv es:Diminutivo fa:مصغر (دستور زبان) fr:Liste de diminutifs gl:Diminutivo nl:Verkleinwoord ja:名前の短縮型 no:Diminutiv nds:Diminutiv pl:Zdrobnienie pt:Diminutivo sk:Deminutívum fi:Deminutiivi sv:Diminutiv wa:Raptitixhante cawete
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