Diminutives in language
From UniLang Wiki
This page is meant to be a general overview page and a kind of summary about how various languages make use of diminutives in language. Another main function will be to provide links to more detailed pages in the corresponding language sections.
In many languages diminutives are created by adding endings to the word. The effect of using a small form of a word can be to indicate affection or familiarity, but depending on context or intonation even derision.
Dutch diminutives are a common, even omnipresent, feature of the language. This is mostly achieved by adding the ending -je (sometimes modified by another consonant, e.g. tje, pje) to a noun. So a small appel would become appeltje.
There are several forms to German diminutives, quite common being -chen or -lein, but also different German dialects may have their own typical diminutive, such as -le, -li, -el.
The most common approach for Spanish diminutives is the ending -ito /-ita. You can for example use it with persons, so you might affectionately refer to your young nephews Carlos and Racquel as Carlito and Racquelita.
In Portuguese, diminutives are formed by adding suffixes to the words. There are over 20 different suffixes, though only some of them can be applied to each word. You can add these suffixes to nouns, adjectives or adverbs. The result varies, it can make something more familiar, smaller, more important, intensify the meaning of it or simply have no effect at all. You can see the concept of diminutive goes much further when you think of it applied to words that aren't nouns.
Italian is like Portuguese. There are more than 10 ways to form Italian diminutives, and much more to alterate the nouns in other ways.
English doesn't really make use of a standard diminutive ending that can be used anywhere, but you do come across diminutive forms such as in gosling, eaglet or lambkin.
In Catalan, diminutives are formed with the suffixes -et and -eta (masc/fem). So my nickname would become Pa-integralet, or Pa-integraleta if I was a girl. When the word ends in a stressed vowel, an N is added, like in the name Adrià, which becomes Adrianet.
In Basque diminutives are formed either with suffixes (tto, ño,etc...) or by softening the consonnants. You can use both. For instance, tipi becomes ttipi or even ttipito (very small).
In Serbian diminuties are formed by adding two types od suffixes -ица, and -ић. For instance пр�?т (finger), пр�?тић (little finger). Or бака (granny), бакица (little granny).
In Thai, diminutives, which are only applied for human beings and animals, are formed by adding a -น้อย (nOi) particle after nouns. Like in เด็�? (kid), เด็�?น้อย (little kid). You can use -น้อย on people's names too, like โซน้อย (a baby Sou, or a baby of Sou).
Although Faroese doesn't make much use of diminutives some do exist. The most commonly seen is -lingur. Like German this diminutive changes the gender but into masculine. One example: ketta f (cat), kettlingur m (kitten)
A quite wide variety of diminutive forms and endings can be found in Polish, and for almost all words (see Polish diminutives for details); as an example see some of the diminutives, for instance, of the word matka 'mother': mama, mamusia, mamula, matula, mameńka, matusia, matuś, matuchna, mamina, mamunia, mateczka, mateńka and so on... The Poles often use diminutive forms for also people's names, e.g.: Józef -> Józek, Józeczek, Józio, Józiunio. Polish diminutives normally preserve the original words' genders, even if the ending indicates another gender.
more to come...
