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A diminutive is a word obtained by modifying a root word to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment, and sometimes to belittle something or someone.
More than one diminutive suffix can be applied to add more emphasis: e.g. rei, "king" → reietó (habitual epithet directed to a little child); panxa "belly" → panxolineta Diminutives can also be applied to adjectives: e.g. petit, "small" → petitó. Historically other suffixes have formed diminutives as well:
Grammatical abbreviations are generally written in full or small caps to visually distinguish them from the translations of lexical words. For instance, capital or small-cap PAST (frequently abbreviated to PST) glosses a grammatical past-tense morpheme, while lower-case 'past' would be a literal translation of a word with that meaning.
For the Rapa Language the implementation of reduplication has specific implications. The most evident of these are known as iterative, intensification, specification, diminutive, metaphorical, nominalizing, and adjectival. [53] Iterative: naku 'come, go' → nakunaku 'pass by frequently' ipuni 'hide' → ipunipuni 'hide and seek' Intensification:
In Australian English, diminutives are usually formed by taking the first part of a word, and adding an ending such as a, o, ie, or y. Sometimes, no ending is added. [1] While the form of a diminutive is arbitrary, their use follows strict rules. [citation needed] Diminutives are not used creatively.
Yiddish has two diminutive degrees. [8] The first degree is the regular diminutive. The second degree is a stronger, more affectionate diminutive. The second degree is also known as the iminutive. [9] In order to form any diminutive, there sometimes needs to be a vowel shift (i-mutation/ i-umlaut). [8]
Nouns whose stems end in -ul- (either the root itself, or due to the noun in question being a diminutive already), when their diminutive is formed, the stem-final, -ul- changes either to -ell- or -ill-. It is difficult to find any regular correspondence between the context surrounding -ul- and whether the diminutive's stem ends in -ell- or -ill-.
Double diminutive means two diminutive suffixes, like -ock-ie in the Scots section. I've added a sentence on that, though it could use a good everyday example, which I can't think of. — Eru · tuon 15:11, 17 June 2011 (UTC) [ reply ]