59.1. Diminutive
Models
| 1) | SḴAXE¸ | ‘dog’ | SḴEḴAXE¸ | ‘little dog, puppy’ |
| 2) | Á¸LEṈ | ‘house’ | E¸Á¸ELEṈ | ‘little house’ |
| 3) | X̱IL¸EM¸ | ‘rope’ | X̱EX̱IL¸EM¸ | ‘string’ |
| 4) | ȽEM¸W̱ | ‘raining’ | ȽEȽEM¸W̱ | ‘raining lightly’ |
| 5) | SḰEM¸X̱ | ‘skinny’ | SḰEḰEM¸X̱ | ‘very skinny’ |
| 6) | DXEṈÁLE | ‘six people’ | DEDXEṈ¸ÁL¸E | ‘just six people’ |
| 7) | STOCEN | ‘sock’ | STETO¸CEN | ‘little sock’ |
| 8) | STO¸LEU¸ | ‘river’ | STOTEL¸EU¸ | ‘creek’ |
| 9) | PUT | ‘boat’ | PU¸PT | ‘small boat’ |
| 10) | PUS | ‘cat’ | PUPS | ‘little cat’ |
‣ 1 When a word is put into diminutive form, it generally refers to something that is smaller than what the basic stem refers to. The English -let suffix, for example, makes diminutive forms. In English, ‘booklet’ is the diminutive of ‘book’ and refers to a small book.
‣ 2 Review the Consonant-Vowel notation used in describing the collective plural reduplication in §41.3. We use that type of notation here, also. C1 stands for the first consonant of the root. The basic rule for making a SENĆOŦEN diminutive form is:
Copy C1 and put E after it to form the diminutive of any SENĆOŦEN word.
‣ 3 Model 1 is a perfect example of both the form and meaning of the SENĆOŦEN diminutive. In SḴAXE¸, the S at the beginning is the S- noun-forming prefix (§55), and the Ḵ is the first consonant of the root. In the diminutive, the Ḵ is copied with an E following it. The diminutive means ‘little dog’ or ‘puppy.’
‣ 4 Model 2 shows the pattern, but it is obscured because the first consonant of the root is not written. Customarily, the glottal stop is not written at the beginning of a word (see point 14 in Notes on Pronunciation). The pattern is easy to see when the words are written phonetically. Á¸LEṈ is /ʔáʔləŋ/. Copy the first consonant, /ʔ/, and put E /ə/ after it to get /ʔəʔéʔləŋ/, which is spelled E¸Á¸LEṈ.
‣ 5 The English translation of a diminutive may not always literally specify ‘littleness,’ as in models 3 and 8. A string is a little rope, and a creek is a little river.
‣ 6 Models 4 and 5 show that the diminutive can apply to verbs and adjectives as well as nouns. The English translation to model 5 with ‘very’ seems to be the opposite of ‘little,’ but when something is ‘very skinny,’ SḰEḰEM¸X̱, it is littler than something that is just ‘skinny,’ SḰEM¸X̱.
‣ 7 Model 6 does not directly show the ‘little’ idea of the diminutive in the English translation. However, when the context is considered, it is easier to see. DXEṈÁLE has the root DXEṈ ‘six’ with the suffix -ÁLE ‘person’ (§22 point 7). DEDXEṈ¸ÁL¸E has the diminutive reduplication and the glottalization on the Ṉ and L that often occurs with the diminutive. DEDXEṈ¸ÁL¸E would be used with the ‘just six people’ translation if the speaker had expected many more than six people. So ‘six’ is just a little part of what was expected. This word DEDXEṈ¸ÁL¸E could also be used in referring to six little people.
‣ 8 The word STOCEN in model 7, is borrowed from English ‘stocking,’ though it refers to any kind of sock or stocking. The S here is interpreted as the S- prefix, then this word, and any borrowed word, takes the diminutive in exactly the same pattern as model 1.
‣ 9 The diminutive in model 7 shows a glottal stop inserted after the stressed vowel. Speakers frequently add this ¸ in conjunction with the reduplication in the diminutive form of words.
‣ 10 Model 8 is one of a few irregular forms of the diminutive. This diminutive differs from others in having stress on the first vowel. We would expect the diminutive of STO¸LEU¸ to be STETO¸LEU¸ following the regular rule. In fact, one of the many L1 speakers who recorded the word for ‘creek’ feels that either the irregular STOTEL¸EU¸ or the regular STETO¸LEU¸ is correct. However, all of the oldest speakers and most of the younger L1 speakers prefer the irregular form as shown in model 8.
‣ 11 Models 9 and 10 obviously have a different pattern in the diminutive. Both of these happen to be borrowed words. This may be a regular pattern for words of the shape CVC, that is, words with only two consonants separated by a single vowel, which is the shape of PUT ‘boat’ and PUS ‘cat.’ As it happens, there are no other CVC words for which we have a confirmed diminutive.
‣ 12 Some words have the diminutive reduplication pattern and meaning, but have no nondiminutive form. The following lists some examples. It is easy to see the ‘diminutive’ meaning in these:
DEDEM¸ ‘wren’
JEJ͸EṮ ‘short’
JEJEM¸I¸EL¸ ‘thin’
PEPḴIYOŦEN ‘fruit fly’
SḴEḴEWÁŦ ‘rabbit’
 | ÁN¸ U¸ E¸IY¸ES TŦE EN¸ SḴEḴAXE¸. | ‘Your dog is very cute.’ |
 | MEMIM¸MEN I¸ U¸ S¸ÁLEW̱ | ‘He’s small but old.’ |
| ȻȽ SX̱EN¸I¸EṈ¸S Ȼ S¸ÁLEW̱S | ‘How old is |
| ȻSE EN¸ SḴAXE¸? | your dog?’ | |
| OPEN SEN I¸ ȾO¸ȻES SĆELÁNEṈ. | ‘He’s seventeen years old.’ |
| 59.1A. Use the SENĆOŦEN dictionary to find four more diminutive words. 59.1B. Write four original sentences in SENĆOŦEN using the four diminutive words you found in the dictionary. |