[Lingtyp] query: verbal diminutives

[Elena Skribnik]

Dear Eva,

yes, Russian also has diminutive forms for addressing babies at least 
for 'sleep' (спать > спатиньки) and 'eat' (кушать > кушенькать).

But actually I would like to add (North) Mansi (known also as Vogul, 
<Ob-Ugric <Finno-Ugric) to your list. It has two diminutives: -kwe 
(positive) and -ris*j* (slightly pejorative): *ɑːɣi ‘girl, daughter’> 
ɑːɣi-kwe **‘dear/little girl/daughter’, **piɣ ‘boy, son’  > piɣ-risʲ 
**‘(little) boy***’*, **xum ‘man’→ xum-risʲ ‘weak, sickly man’. Both 
suffixes are also used with verbs to express positive emotional 
attitude, in case of ***-risʲ *with a shade of pity:*

**

*sɑːwx*ɑ*ːlj-ke-mpuŋkpin-imɑljuːlj-i-kwe-t*

*

manybirch-dim-poss.sg<1sgheadbow-cvbstand-prs-dim-3pl

‘Many lovely birches (of mine) stand bending their heads (and I like it).’

ɑkweːkw,wɑːɣ-tɑːlpɑt-əm-risj-ən

grandmotherstrength-dercaritivebecome-mir.pst-dim-2sg

‘Grandmother, poor you became tired!’

*

Best regards, Elena


Am 15.12.18 um 12:38 schrieb Moshe Taube:
> One should also mention the diminutive forms of the infinitive 'sleep' 
> in Ukrainian, спати, when addressing small children, e.g. спатки, 
> спатоньки, спаточки, спатусі, спатуні, спатунечки, спатусічки. There 
> are similar forms in other Slavic Languages. This has given 
> /shlofinken/ in Yiddish, dim. of /shlofn./
> /
> /
> Moshe
>
> On Sat, Dec 15, 2018 at 11:57 AM Geoffrey Khan <gk101 at cam.ac.uk 
> <mailto:gk101 at cam.ac.uk>> wrote:
>
>     Dear Eva,
>
>     In some Neo-Aramaic dialects (Semitic) diminutives of verbs can be
>     expressed through a type of sound symbolism by raising the pitch,
>     e.g. ˁzaqzəq ‘to shiver (whole body)’ [flat, pharyngealized, low
>     F2) vs. zaqzəq ‘to throb (e.g. finger)’ [plain, higher F2]. See:
>
>      Khan, Geoffrey. 2016. /The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of the Assyrian
>     Christians of Urmi/. 4 vols. Studies in Semitic Languages and
>     Linguistics 86. Leiden-Boston: Brill, vol. 1, p.180.
>
>      Best wishes,
>
>     Geoffrey Khan
>
>     On 14/12/2018 12:34, Lier, Eva van wrote:
>>
>>     Dear colleagues,
>>
>>     We are looking for examples and literature on verbal diminutives
>>     in and across languages.
>>
>>     Currently, we have some information on verbal diminutives in
>>     various languages. Some examples include: German /hüsteln /(‘to
>>     cough lightly’), Italian /dormicchiare /(‘to doze’), Croatian
>>     /grickati /(‘to nibble’), Czech /tr//̌epotat /(‘to flutter’),//
>>     Slovene /igri//čkati/ (‘to play around’), Russian /xaxan’kat
>>     /(‘to giggle’), Finnish /luk-ais-e /(‘skim through (a text)’ <
>>     /luk- /‘read’), San’ani Arabic /tSaynai /(‘to pretend not to
>>     hear’ < /Saanaj /‘to not hear’), Hebrew /kifcec /(‘to jump around
>>     < /kafac /‘to jump’), Passamaquoddy /ə̆p//ə-ss-//ìn
>>     /(sit-dim-animate.intransitive.2 < ‘sit down, little one!’),
>>     Huave /jujyuij /(‘to shake gently’), and Lardil/laala/ (‘to jab
>>     lightly’ < /latha/ ‘to spear’).
>>
>>     These examples show that the morphological patterns that we
>>     subsume under “verbal diminutives” fulfill a number of semantic
>>     functions, such as iterative/frequentative/durative, low
>>     intensity, distributivity, and attenuation. These functions may
>>     extend (pragmatically) to playfulness, tentativeness,
>>     pretense/irrealis/fictiveness, trivialization, aimlessness,
>>     affection/intimacy, and contempt/pejorativeness. In some cases
>>     (see Passamaquoddy above), verbal diminutive marking implies that
>>     an event participant is a child or an otherwise small entity.
>>
>>     Also, verbal diminutives can be expressed by various
>>     morphological means, including affixation, reduplication, and
>>     non-concatenative morphology. In some cases, the verbal
>>     diminutive markers are related to nominal diminutives; in other
>>     cases, they seem to have different origins, such as spatial
>>     markers. The productivity of verbal diminutive formation
>>     apparently differs between languages.
>>
>>     We would be grateful for any references and/or examples of verbal
>>     diminutives in the language(s) of your expertise, including their
>>     semantics/pragmatics, formation, (diachronic) origin,
>>     productivity and usage frequency.
>>
>>     We will post a summary.
>>
>>     Many thanks in advance!
>>
>>     Eva van Lier, Jenny Audring, Sterre Leufkens
>>
>>     Eva van Lier, PhD
>>
>>     Department of Linguistics
>>     University of Amsterdam
>>
>>     www.uva.nl/profiel/e.h.vanlier
>>     <http://www.uva.nl/profiel/e.h.vanlier>
>>
>>     P.C.Hoofthuis, kamer 6.45
>>     Spuistraat 134, 1012 VB Amsterdam
>>
>>
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>
>     -- 
>     Geoffrey Khan
>     Regius Professor of Hebrew
>     University of Cambridge
>
>     Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
>     Sidgwick Avenue
>     Cambridge CB3 9DA
>     UK
>
>     _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
> -- 
> Professor Moshe Taube (Emeritus)
> Tamara and Saveli Grinberg Chair in Russian Studies
> Department of Linguistics / Department of Russian
> and East-European Studies
> The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
> Mt. Scopus 91905 Israel
>
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