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Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 85 Small and Cute: Diminuves 470 / 600

It’s interesting that the very word sunce is likely originally a diminutive as well.

However, in Kajkavian areas – generally the area around Zagreb, and north and

northeast from Zagreb – another suffix to create masculine and neuter diminutives

prevails: -ek (-eko for neuters). Since Zagreb is Kajkavian-influenced, you will find

such words in Zagreb as well, usually:

medo teddy bear → medek

(NW Croatia)

srce heart → srčeko

These words are common when people talk to small children. In NW Croatia,

diminutives are generallly much more used than in other regions of Croatia: people

will tell children to eat juhica and meseko which basically has no meaning except to

sweeten the words juha soup and meso meat.

Similar to diminutives, but distinct, are hypocorisms, also known as pet names or

nicknames. They are alternative words for things and people used within family,

especially by children. One hypocorism is already mentioned above: medo for the

usual medvjed bear.

Words mama Mom and tata m Dad are also, historically, a kind of hypocorisms.

Hypocorisms for personal names are mostly fixed in language; as in English, they

usually involve shortening of names (in Croatian, to two syllables) and simplifying

them:

Branimir → Branko

Ivan → Ivo / Ive

Juraj → Jure / Jura

Katarina → Kata

Petar (Petr-) → Pero ®

Tomislav → Tomo ®

Vladimir → Vlado ®

Zvonimir → Zvonko / Zvone

Some nicknames have two forms; ones with -e are characteristic for Dalmatia, while

ones with -o or -a are characteristic for inland Croatia. In Kajkavian regions, you

would also hear forms ending in -ek:

Ivan → Ivek (NW Croatia)

Compare this to English names William → Bill or Robert → Bob. Many such nickames

are used as real names as well.

Diminutive-making mechanism is also applied to names and nicknames that end in -a

or behave so, to make diminutive names:

Branka → Brankica

Kata → Katica

Ruža → Ružica

Ivo → Ivica m

Jure → Jurica m

Pero → Perica m

This is similar to English Bill → Billy, Rose → Rosie and Bob → Bobby.

Interestingly, a couple of verbs in Croatian have diminutive versions too! They are

usually formed by inserting -k- before the verb ending. The process is not regular,

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