Uncle Dimmy says ¡Hola!
Uncle Dimmy is a fun, funny and friendly linguist. His domain of expertise is the Spanish language. And when asked politely, Uncle Dimmy gives you the diminutive form of any Spanish word that is "diminutizeable" (Uncle Dimmy created that word. Did Uncle Dimmy tell you he's a geek for morphology (the study of words)?
Spanish words that are diminutizeable (able to be converted into a diminutive form) include:
- nouns (animal → animalito)
- adjectives (coraje → corajito)
- adverbs (ahora → ahorita)
Uncle Dimmy would call nouns, adjectives, and adverbs lexical categories because Uncle Dimmy is a linguist.
You: "Uncle Dimmy, Uncle Dimmy, would you please tell me what the diminutive of café is?"
Uncle Dimmy: "Eager learner, would you first not like to know how morphological derivation affixes morphemes to lexical items? And perhaps how phonological rules act on phonemes? Not to mention anything of phonotactics..."
You: "Nah, Uncle D. Just trying to say little cup of coffee in Spanish."
Uncle Dimmy: "The diminutive of café is cafecito."
You: "Gracias, ¡Uncle Dimmy!"
Screenplay by Esteban Gilberto (alias)
\ ゜o゜)ノ
Sources:
- The Handbook of Hispanic Linguistics
- http://revistahumanidades.unab.cl/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/A7.-CASTILLO-ORTIZ.pdf
Uncle Dimmy is available for Spanish diminutive inquiries here: https://uncle-dimmy.gomix.me/
Chaucito.