Hungarian Diminutives

The Hungarian language has many diminutives. Many diminutives are formed with the suffix variants -ka-/ke, but the word to which they are attached is sometimes modified. The suffix variant -ka is attached to words that end with back vowels, and the variant -ke is attached to words that end with front vowels. Let us look at a few examples.

The word cica means kitten. The diminutive is cicuska and means little kitten. The word egér means mouse, and the diminutive egérke means little mouse. However, to say little bird, the variant -ka is used because madár is bird and madárka is little bird.

The word for village is falu and small village is falucska. Notice the same pattern in the words szellő and szellőcske, words which mean breeze and small breeze. Since falu is a word with only back vowels, the variant is -cska, and since szellő has only front vowels, the variant is -cske.

With mese/mesécske, the final vowel is lengthened before the suffix. The words mean fairy tale and little fairy tale. Many Hungarian diminutives have the suffix variant -cska and -cske. Let us analyze a few more.

The word for wave is hullám and little wave is hullámocska. A similar pattern occurs with nyúl and nyulacska, words that mean rabbit and little rabbit. Notice that the vowel of nyúl shortens with suffixation.

In the next three examples, we can observe different linking vowels. The word for circle is kör and little circle is köröcske. The front rounded vowel of the root is present in the suffix variant. In the pair csepp/cseppecke, the linking vowel is the front unrounded vowel of the root. The two words mean drop and droplet. Finally, the word virág means flower and virágocska means little flower.

Diminutives are common in Hungarian. The examples illustrate the principle of vowel harmony. One set of suffix variants is for words that end in a back vowel, and the other is for words that end in a front vowel.