is it zin or tzin??

[Craig Berry]

On Tue, 8 Feb 2000, Michael Mccafferty wrote:

> The two rather seem to be independent creations. Spanish -ito/a seems to
> have a cognate form in French -et (m.) and -ette (f.) in French.
> Just an idea.

I think the idea was not one of word (well, suffix) borrowing, but rather
one of form borrowing.  That is, the ubiquitous use of an honorific and
diminutive suffix in Nahuatl led to former Nahuatl-speaking cultures
making heavy use of the Spanish diminutive, occasionally as if it were an
honorific.  It's an intriguing idea.

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