Grammatical Diminutive in the Romance Languages

We should begin by defining the grammatical or syntactical diminutive as opposed to a lexical or semantic one. It is difficult to believe that there exists a language or a dialect that does not allow for a diminutive term: Nouns can be modified in all languages by words such as "little" - or "cute", probably the most common substitute within English for a syntactical diminutive. (English does, of course, have a "proper" diminutive - the suffix -kin that appears in "napkin" as well as in such endearments as "lambkin".) However, this combination of lexical terms such as "cute little girl" is different from the type of diminutive that becomes part of the morphology of the word itself. Such a morphological diminutive is present in all Romance languages, although the specific form that the diminutive takes varies from one language to the next as does its frequency and mode of usage.

Most Romance languages also allow other forms of speech to take on diminutive affixes, although

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