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Diminutive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Diminutive

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In language structure, a diminutive,[1] or diminutive form (abbreviated dim), is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment.[2][3] It is the opposite of an augmentative.

While many languages apply the grammatical diminutive to nouns, a few also use it for adjectives and even other parts of speech (see Dutch, Italian, Latin, Romanian, Portuguese, Russian, Slovene, and Yiddish examples below).

Diminutives are often used for the purpose of expressing affection (see nickname and hypocoristic). In many languages, the meaning of diminution can be translated tiny or wee, and diminutives are used frequently when speaking to small children; adult people sometimes use diminutives when they express extreme tenderness and intimacy by behaving and talking like children. (See Apocopation).

In some languages, diminutives are formed in a regular way by adding affixes to nouns and proper names; in English the alteration of meaning is often conveyed through clipping, either alone or combined with an affix.[1] English diminutives tend to be shorter and more colloquial than the basic form of the word; diminutives formed by adding affixes in other languages are often longer and not necessarily colloquial.

In many languages, formation of diminutives by adding suffixes is a productive part of the language.[2] 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 one the last Roman emperors 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, not endearing.

A double diminutive is a diminutive form with two diminutive suffixes rather than one.

Contents

[edit] Indo-European languages

[edit] Germanic languages

[edit] English

Productive diminutives are not common in Standard English in comparison with many other languages. Nevertheless, most dialects of English feature a fair lot of sidling and sibling diminutives. Terms such as movie for moving picture are oft-heard in English.

Sometimes a diminutive lengthens the original word: e.g., hottie to denote a 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.) Diminutives of first names are often encountered, e.g., Maggie (from Margaret), Sally (from Sarah), or Suzie (from Suzanne); however, they also function as nicknames.

English has also borrowed liberally from other languages when producing new diminutives: e.g., -ette is from French. However, some of those are lexicalized and, in many contexts, do not function as proper diminutives in modern English.

[edit] English diminutives

Loanwords:

[edit] Scots

See also: List of English words of Scots origin

In Lowland Scots diminutives are used much more frequently than in some other forms of English. The diminutive is formed by the suffix -ie, -ock, -ockie (double diminutive) or –ag (the latter from Scottish Gaelic, and probably influencing the other two before it). -ie is by far the most common prefix used.

Examples include

  • -ie: burnie (small burn), feardie or feartie (frightened person, coward), gamie (gamekeeper), kiltie (kilted soldier), mannie (man), Nessie (Loch Ness Monster), postie (postman), wifie (woman)
  • -ock: bittock (wee bit, little bit), playock (toy), sourock (sorrel),
  • -ag: Cheordag (Geordie), bairnag (small child)
  • -ockie: hooseockie (little house), wifockie (little woman)

[edit] Dutch

In Dutch, the diminutive is formed by adding one of the suffixes -je, -tje, -pje, -etje, -kje to the noun in question, depending on the latter's phonology:

  • -je for words ending in -b, -c, -d, -t, -f, -g, -ch, -k, -p, -v, -x, -z or -s: neef → neefje (male cousin), lach → lachje (laugh), schaap → schaapje (sheep)
  • -pje for words ending in -m: boom (tree) → boompje
  • -kje for words ending in -ing: koning (king) → koninkje
  • -′tje for words ending in a vowel, and adding '-tje' without the apostrophe would change the pronunciation: auto (car) → auto'tje (or: autootje)
  • -etje for CVC words ending in -ng, -b, -l, -n or -r: ding → dingetje (thing), bal → balletje (ball), kam → kammetje (comb), kar → karretje (cart)
  • -tje for words ending in -r, -n, -h, -j, -l, -w, or a vowel: zoen → zoentje (kiss), boei → boeitje (buoy), appel → appeltje (apple), ei → eitje (egg), keu → keutje (billiard cue)

Often the suffixes -ke, -eke, -ske, -pie, or -ie are used in different dialects instead of the former mentioned. However, some expressions became standard language:

  • slapie—a buddy who one shares sleeping quarters with
  • koppiekoppie—smart thinking
  • koek en zopie—small food and drinks stalls which only spring up during winters along frozen canals
  • makkie—easy job, piece of cake
  • manneke—little fellow
  • bakkie—cup (of coffee), rig (radio transmitter), trailer

In Dutch, in addition to nouns, diminutive forms of adjectives and adverbs may also be created:

  • adjective: groen (green) → groentje (lit. little green meaning rookie)
  • adverbs: groen (green) → groentjes (lit. littly green meaning greenish), net (neat) → netjes, zacht (soft) → zachtjes

Some nouns have two different diminutives, each with a different meaning:

  • bloem (flower) → bloempje (lit. small flower)
  • bloem (flower) → bloemetje (lit. also small flower, but meaning bouquet)

A few words also exist solely in a diminutive form, e.g. zeepaardje (seahorse) and sneeuwklokje (Snowdrop). See other e.g.

When used to refer to time, the Dutch diminutive form can indicate whether the person in question found it pleasant or not.

  • Na een uurtje gezellig gekletst te hebben met haar vriend ging het meisje naar huis.
After chatting to her boyfriend for a little hour, the girl went home.

The diminutive can also be used pejoratively.

  • Hij was vanavond weer echt het 'mannetje'.
He acted as if he was the (little) man of the evening.

[edit] Afrikaans

In Afrikaans, the diminutive is formed by adding one of the suffixes -ie, -pie, -kie, -'tjie, -tjie, -jie, -etjie to the word, depending on the latter's phonology (some exceptions exist to these rules):

  • -ie for words ending in -f, -g, -k, -p or -s: neef → nefie (male cousin), lag → laggie (laugh), skaap → skapie (sheep)
  • -pie for words ending in -m: boom (tree) → boompie
  • -kie for words ending in -ing: koning (king) → koninkie
  • -′tjie for words ending in -i, -o, or -u (usually borrowed from other languages): impi → impi′tjie
  • -jie for words ending in -d or -t: hoed → hoedjie (hat)
  • -etjie for CVC words ending in -b, -l, -m, -n or -r: bal → balletjie (ball), kam → kammetjie (comb), kar → karretjie (car)
  • -tjie for most other words: soen → soentjie (kiss), koei → koeitjie (cow), appel → appeltjie (apple)

Diminutives of words that are themselves diminutives are used, for example baadjietjie (little jacket). Such constructions do not appear in Dutch.

Afrikaans has almost identical usage and grammar for diminutive words as Dutch, the language Afrikaans was derived from. (detailed below) There are differences in Dutch as compared to Afrikaans. One is that suffixes end with -je (e.g. beetje, a [little] bit, mandje, basket) as compared to -ie in Afrikaans (e.g. bietjie, mandjie—same meanings respectively). This reflects the usage of -ie in the dialects of the province of Holland that most of Dutch settlers came from. An other difference is that in the Dutch language also adjectives and adverbs can be conjugated as diminutives as if they were nouns. Diminutives are widely used in both languages, but possibly more so in the Afrikaans language.

In some cases the diminutive in Afrikaans is the most commonly used, or even only form of the word: bietjie, mandjie, and boontjie (bean). In other cases the diminutive may be used figuratively rather than literally to imply affection, camaraderie, euphemism, sarcasm, or disdain, depending on context.

[edit] German

German 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. Some words only exist in the diminutive form, e.g. Kaninchen (rabbit derived from the Latin diminutive cuniculus via the Old French word 'conin'). The use of diminutives is quite different between the dialects. The Alemannic dialects for example use the diminutive very often.

Diminutives are always neutral as for grammatical gender, regardless of the original word. For example, the common German word for girl is das Mädchen, which is neutral because it is a diminutive of die Maid (feminine) – the maiden. While Mädchen is an everyday word, Maid is hardly used nowadays and usually is associated with medieval language (as in fables, novels, etc.).

There are two suffixes that can be systematically applied in German:

  • -chen, e.g. Brötchen for little bread (corresponding with English -kin as seen in napkin, Low Saxon (Low German) and Dutch -je, -tje, -ke, -ken and other forms depending on the dialect area)
  • -lein e.g. Männlein for little man (corresponding with English -let and -ling, Alemannic/Swabian/Swiss -lé (Spaetzlé), -li (Hörnli), Bavarian and Austrian -l, and Latin -culus'/-cula)

Suffixation of the diminutive suffixes –chen and –lein to a finally stressed word stem causes umlaut of the stressed vowel.

[edit] Austro-Bavarian

In Bavarian and Austrian German, the -l or -erl suffix can replace almost any usual German diminutive. For example, the standard 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 regular 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.

A familiar example of the -erl diminutive is Nannerl, the childhood name of Maria Anna Mozart, the sister of the celebrated composer. Historically, some common Austro-Bavarian surnames were also derived from (clipped) first names using the -l suffix; for example, (Jo)hann > Händl, Man(fred) > Mändl (both with epenthetic d and umlaut), (Gott)fried > Friedl, and so on.[5][6]

[edit] Swabian

In Swabian German this is done by adding a -le suffix (the e being distinctly pronounced, but not stressed). For example, a small house would be a Häusle or a little girl a Mädle. A unique feature of Swabian is that not only nouns may be suffixed with -le, which has no counterpart in other German dialects, High German, or other languages: wasele (diminutive of was, what) or jetzetle (diminutive of jetzt, now) or kommele (diminutive of kommen, come). (In both Spanish and Italian, these may be formed similarly, e.g. igualito – diminutive of igual, same and pochino or pochettino - diminutive of poco, a little/a few). Many variants of Swabian also have a plural diminutive suffix: -la. E.g.: oi Mädle, zwoi Mädla.

[edit] High Alemannic

In High Alemannic the standard suffix -li is added to the root word. A little would be äs bitzli (literally a little bite) as to ein bisschen in Standard German. The diminutive form of bitzli is birebitzli.

Vowels of proper names often turn into an umlaut in Highest Alemannic, whereas in High Alemannic it remains the same. Proper names: Christian becomes Chrigi, in Highest Alemannic: Chrigu. Sebastien becomes Sebi resp. Sebu. Sabrina becomes Sabsi resp. Säbe. Corinne becomes Cogi resp. Cogä. Barbara becomes Babsi resp. Babsä, Robert becomes Röbi resp. Röbu. Jakob becomes Köbi resp. Köbu. Gabriel becomes Gäbu in Highest Alemannic.

[edit] Low German

In 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)). Compare this with the High German suffix -chen (see above). Some words have a slightly different suffix, even though the diminutive always ends with -je. For example, man becomes mannetje (little man). All these suffixes East Frisian Low Saxon shares with Dutch (detailed above).

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):

  • man → mānnegie (EN: man → little man)
  • kom → kōmmegie (EN: bowl → little bowl)

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.

Historically, some common Low German surnames were derived from (clipped) first names using the -ke(n) suffix; for example, Ludwig > Lüdeke, Wilhelm > Wilke(n), Wernher > Werneke, and so on.[7] Some of these name bases are difficult to recognize in comparison to standard German; for example, Dumke, Domke < Döm 'Thomas', Klitzke < Klitz 'Clement', etc.

[edit] Yiddish

Yiddish frequently uses diminutives. In Yiddish the primary diminutive is -l or -ele in singular, and -lekh or -elekh in plural, sometimes involving a vowel trade in the root. Thus Volf will become Velvl, Khaim: Khaiml, mame (mother): mamele, Khane: Khanele, Moyshe: Moyshele, kind (child): kindl or kindele, Bobe (grandmother): Bobele, teyl (deal): teylekhl (mote), regn (rain): regndl, hant (hand): hentl, fus (foot): fisl. The longer version of the suffix (-ele instead of -l) sounds generally more affectionate and usually used with proper names. Sometimes a few variations of the plural diminutive forms are possible: balebos (owner, boss): balebeslekh (newly-wed young men): balebatimlekh (petty bourgeois men).

Many other diminutives of Slavic origin are commonly used, mostly with proper names:

  • -ke: Khaim/Khaimke, Sore/Sorke, Khaye/Khayke, Avrom/Avromke, bruder/bruderke (brother). These forms are usually considered nicknames and are only used with very close friends and relatives.
  • -[e]nyu: kale/kalenyu (dear bride), harts/hartsenyu (sweetheart), zeyde/zeydenyu (dear grandpa). Often used as an affectionate quasi-vocative.
  • -tshik: Avrom/Avromtshik, yungerman/yungermantshik (young man).
  • -inke: tate/tatinke (dear daddy), baleboste/balebostinke (dear hostess).
  • -ik: Shmuel/Shmulik, Yisroel/Srolik.
  • -tse or -tshe: Sore/Sortshe, Avrom/Avromtshe, Itsik/Itshe.
  • -(e)shi: bobe/bobeshi (dear grandma), zun/zuneshi (dear son), tate/tateshi (dear daddy).
  • -lebn: tate-lebn, Malke-lebn. This particle might be considered a distinct compound word, and not a suffix.

These suffixes can also be combined: Khaim/Khaimkele, Avrom/Avromtshikl, Itsik/Itshenyu.

Some Yiddish proper names have common non-trivial diminutive forms, somewhat similar to English names such as Bob or Wendy: Akive/Kive, Yishaye/Shaye, Rivke/Rivele.

Yiddish also has diminutive forms of adjectives (all the following examples are given in masculine single form):

  • -lekh (-like): roytlekher (reddish), gelblekher (yellowish), zislekher (sweetish).
  • -ink (-ling): roytinker (cute red), gelinker (cute yellow), zisinker (so-sweet).
  • -tshik or -itshk: kleynitshker (teeny-tiney), altitshker (dear old).

Some Yiddish diminutives have been incorporated into modern Israeli Hebrew: Imma (mother) to Immaleh and Abba (father) to Abbaleh.

[edit] Icelandic

A common diminutive suffix in Icelandic is -lingur:

Examples:

  • grís → gríslingur (English: pig → piglet)
  • bók → bæklingur (English: book → pamphlet/booklet)
  • jeppi → jepplingur (English: jeep → SUV)

[edit] Swedish

A common diminutive suffix in Swedish is -is:

Note that the usage of -is is not limited to child-related or cute things. For instance,

[edit] Romance languages

[edit] French

French diminutives can be formed with a wide range of endings. Often, a consonant or phoneme is placed between the root word and the diminutive ending for phonetic purposes: porcelet < pourceau , from lat. porcellus.

Feminine nouns or names are typically made diminutive by adding the ending -ette: fillette (little girl or little daughter [affectionate], from fille, girl or daughter); courgette (small squash or marrow, q.e., zucchini, from courge, squash); Jeannette (from Jeanne); pommettes (cheekbones), from pomme (apple); cannette (female duckling), from cane (female duck). This ending has crossed over into English as well (e.g. kitchenette). Feminine nouns may also end in -elle (mademoiselle, from madame).

Masculine names or nouns may be turned into diminutives with the ending -ot, -on, or -ou (MF -eau), but sometimes, for phonetic reasons, an additional consonant is added (e.g. -on becomes -ton, -ou becomes -nou, etc.): Jeannot (Jonny), from Jean (John); Pierrot (Petey) from Pierre (Peter); chiot (puppy), from chien (dog); fiston (sonny or sonny-boy), from fils (son); caneton (he-duckling), from canard (duck or he-duck); chaton (kitten), from chat (cat); minou (kitty, presumably from the root for miauler, to meow); Didou (Didier); Philou or Filou (Philippe).

Some masculine diminutives are formed with the masculine version of -ette: -et. For example: porcelet, piglet, from porc; oiselet, fledgling, from oiseau, bird. However, in many cases the names for baby animals are not diminutives—that is, unlike chaton/chat or chiot/chien, they are not derived from the word for the adult animal: poulain, foal (an adult horse is a cheval); agneau, lamb (an adult is either a brebis, female sheep, or a bélier, male sheep). French is not unique in this, but it is indicated here to clarify that not all names of animals can be turned into diminutives by the addition of diminutive endings.

In Old French, -et/-ette, -in/-ine, -el/-elle were often used, as Adeline for Adele, Maillet for Maill, and so on. As well, the ending -on was used for both genders, as Alison and Guion from Alice and Guy respectively. The Germanic side of Vulgar Latin bore proper diminutives -oc and -uc which went into words such as L pocca and pucca, to become F poche (pouch); -oche is in regular use to shorten words: cinéma → cinoche.

[edit] Italian

In Italian, the diminutive is expressed by several derivational suffixes, applied to nouns or adjectives to create new nouns or adjectives with variable meanings. The new word is then pluralized as a word in its own right. Such derived words often have no equivalent in other languages.

  • -ello, -ella: finestra → finestrella (window → little window), misero → miserello (miserable);
  • -etto, -etta, the most used one along with -ino: casa → casetta (house → little house), povero → poveretto (poor), cane → cagnetto (dog);
  • -icchio, -icchia, mainly of regional use, often pejorative: sole → solicchio (sun → weak sun);
  • -ino, -ina, the most used one along with -etto: paese → paesino (village → little village); also in baby talk and after other suffixes: bello → bellino (pretty), giovane → giovanotto → giovanottino (but there are no limits to suffixation, which could continue);
  • -otto, -otta, often attenuating: aquila → aquilotto (eagle → baby eagle), stupido → stupidotto (stupid → rather stupid);
  • -uccio, -uccia, hypocoristic or pejorative (also in southern forms -uzzo, -uzza).

Such suffixes are of Latin origin, except -etto and -otto, which are of unclear origin.[8]

Moreover, there are some additional hypocoristic suffixes which are used to create new adjectives from other adjectives (or, sometimes, from nouns): -iccio, -igno, -ognolo, -occio (of Latin origin, except the last one, whose origin is unclear).[9]

[edit] Italian loanwords

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; with signorino (man) they have the same meanings as señorita and señorito in Spanish.

The English demonstrative affixes would be ablauts of -one: -on, -un, -en (big-un, littlun, littl'un, little-un); but this is colloquial and seldom.

[edit] Latin

Main article: Latin Wikipedia: Diminutivum (Latinum)

In the Latin language the diminutive is formed also by suffixes of each gender affixed to the word stem. Each variant ending matches with a blend of the variant secondary demonstrative pronouns: In Old Latin, ollus, olla, ollum; later ille, illa, illud (illum-da to set off ileum).

  • -ulus, -ula, -ulum, e.g. globulus (globule) from globus (globe).
  • -culus, -cula, -culum, e.g. homunculus (so-small man) from homo (man)
  • -olus, -ola, -olum, e.g. malleolus (small hammer) from malleus (hammer)
  • -ellus, -ella, -ellum, e.g. libellus (little book) smaller than librulus (small book) from liber (book)

Similarly, the diminutive of gladius (sword) is gladiolus, a plant whose leaves look like small swords.

Adjectives as well as nouns can be diminished, including paululus (very small) from paulus (small).

The diminutive ending for verbs is -ill-, placed after the stem and before the endings. The diminutive verb changes to the first conjugation, no matter what the original conjugation. Conscribere write onto is third-conjugation, but the diminutive conscribillare scribble over is first-conjugation.

The Anglicisation of Latin diminutives is relatively common, especially in medical terminology. In nouns, the most common conversion is removal of the -us, -a, -um endings and trading them for a mum e. Hence some examples are vacuole from vacuolum, particle from particula, and globule from globulus.

[edit] Portuguese

In Portuguese, diminutives can be formed with a wide range of endings but the most common diminutives are formed with the suffixes -(z)inho, -(z)inha, replacing the masculine and feminine endings -o and -a, respectively. The variants -(z)ito and -(z)ita, direct analogues of Spanish -(c)ito and -(c)ita, are also common in some regions. The forms with a z are normally added to words that end in stressed vowels, such as café → cafezinho. Some nouns have slightly irregular diminutives.

Noun diminutives are widely used in the vernacular. Occasionally, this process is extended to pronouns (pouco, a little → pouquinho or poucochinho, a very small amount), adjectives (e.g. bobo → bobinho, meaning respectively silly and a bit silly; só → sozinho, both meaning alone or all alone), adverbs (depressinha, quickly) and even verbs (correndo → correndinho, both of which mean running, but the latter with an endearing connotation).

[edit] Romanian

Romanian uses suffixes to create diminutives, most of these suffixes being of Latin or Slavic[citation needed] origin. Not only names, but adjectives, adverbs and pronouns can have diminutives as well, as in Portuguese, Polish and Russian.

Feminine suffixes

  • -ea (ramură / rămurea = tree branch)
  • -ică (bucată / bucăţică = piece)
  • -ioară (inimă / inimioară = heart)
  • -işoară (ţară / ţărişoară = country)
  • -iţă (fată / fetiţă = girl)
  • -uşcă (raţă / răţuşcă = duck)
  • -uţă (bunică / bunicuţă = grandmother)

Masculine suffixes

  • -aş (iepure / iepuraş = rabbit)
  • -el (băiat / băieţel = boy)
  • -ic (tată / tătic = father)
  • -ior (dulap / dulăpior = locker)
  • -işor (pui / puişor = chicken)
  • -uleţ (urs / ursuleţ = bear)
  • -uş (căţel / căţeluş = dog)
  • -uţ (pat / pătuţ = bed)

Adjectives frumos > frumușel (beautiful ; pretty)

Adverbs repede > repejor (fast ; quite fast)

Pronouns dumneata (you, polite form) > mata > mătăluță (used to address children respectfully in a non-familial context)

nimic ( nothing)> nimicuța

nițel (a little something)

[edit] Spanish

See also: Spanish naming customs

Spanish is a language rich in diminutives, and uses suffixes to create them:

  • -ito/-ita, words ending in -o or -a (rata, rat → ratita. Ojo, eye → ojito. Cebolla, onion → cebollita),
  • -cito/-cita, words ending in -e or consonant (león, lion → leoncito. Café, coffee → cafecito),
  • -illo/-illa (flota; fleet → flotilla. Guerra, war → guerrilla. Cámara, chamber → camarilla),
  • -ico/-ica, words ending in -to and -tro (plato, plate → platico),
  • -ín/-ina (pequeño/a, little → pequeñín(a). Muchacho/a, boy → muchachín(a))
  • -ete/-eta (Pandero, tambourine → pandereta).

Other less common suffixes are

  • -uelo/-uela (pollo, chicken → polluelo),
  • -zuelo/-zuela [pejorative] (ladrón, thief → landronzuelo),
  • -uco/-uca (nene, children → nenuco),
  • -ucho/-ucha [pejorative] (médico, doctor → medicucho),
  • -ijo/-ija (lagarto, lizard → lagartija),
  • -izno/-izna (lluvia, rain → llovizna),
  • -ajo/-aja (miga, crumb → migaja),
  • -ino/-ina (niebla, fog → neblina).

Some speakers use a suffix in a word twice, which gives a more affectionate sense to the word.

  • chico, boy → chiquito → chiquitito/a, chiquitico/a, chiquitín(a).
  • pie, foot → piecito → piececito, piececillo.

Sometimes alternating different suffixes can change the meaning.

  • (La) mano, hand → manita (or manito), little hand, or manilla or manecilla, hand (clock).

[edit] Baltic languages

[edit] Lithuanian

Lithuanian 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. Suffixes 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.[10] Lithuanian diminutives are especially prevalent in poetic language, such as folk songs. Examples:

  • ąžuolas (oak) → ąžuolėlis, ąžuoliukas
  • brolis (brother) → brolelis, broliukas, brolytis, brolužis, brolužėlis, brolutytis, broliukėlis, etc.
  • klevas (maple) → klevelis, klevukas, klevutis
  • pakalnė (slope) → pakalnutė (Lily-of-the-valley, Convallaria)
  • saulė (sun) → saulelė, saulytė, saulutė, saulužė, saulužėlė, etc.
  • svogūnas (onion) → svogūnėlis (bulb)
  • vadovas (leader) → vadovėlis (textbook, manual)

[edit] Latvian

In Latvian diminutives are widely used and are generally constructed with suffixes applied to the noun stem. The most common are those with -iņš/-iņa or -ītis/-īte. Others include: -ēns, -elis/-ele.

Examples:

  • la

strawberry silver and gold investment