Diminutive formation in Brazilian Portuguese: a survey

Abstract In a survey, 1,053 Brazilians provided the diminutive form of 60 test words. For example, given desconto participants provided diminutives such as descontinho or descontito. Most responses involved the suffixes -zinho and -inho. However, in many cases -zito and -ito were given as well. Statistical analysis revealed that the final phone and stress pattern of the base word were the most important predictors of diminutive form. A number of age-apparent changes were observed suggesting that certain diminutive forms may be on their way out in words with a particular phonological shape or in certain states. The state of residence, often in interaction with another predictor, proved to be an influencing factor as well. However, similar diminutivization patterns did not hold between geographically contiguous states, but between states with similarly sized populations suggesting an urban versus rural divide in Brazil.