Pejorative vs. Diminutive

[Bill Jancewicz]

Hi Arok,

Naskapi [nsk] has both diminutive and pejorative, but diminutive tends to be more productive:

mischin 'shoe'
mischinis 'little shoe'
mischinischiis 'old worn out shoe (good for nothing)'

The pejorative normally applies to inanimate nouns. I have heard that In some related languages it can also be used to describe people (‘my brother, that scoundrel’) but we have not found this to occur in Naskapi. (Yet. Maybe it exists and we don’t hear it much!)

Warmly, Bill J

On May 7, 2013, at 4:42 PM, Arok Wolvengrey wrote:

> Greetings.  I'm working on a paper concerning diminutives and pejoratives - and in particular comparing Plains Cree (which lacks a distinct pejorative) and Saulteaux (which has one).  This has me wondering about the distribution of these forms across the Algonquian family.  I'm hoping some of you can comment on the distribution of diminutives versus pejoratives in as many Algonquian languages as possible.  In particular, how widespread are diminutive and pejorative forms?  Is the pejorative restricted just to Ojibwe or do other language have distinct pejoratives?  Thank you for any information you can share.