Abstract
AbstractWe survey templatic diminutive formation in Hungarian. We conclude that there is an intricate system of endings that are added to bases which are truncated if they contain more than one vowel. Bases are also subject to vowel length changes in both directions, as well as the palatalization of the last consonant. The templatic diminutive forms are not subject to vowel harmony occurring in suffixes which prevails in the regular additive morphology of the language. Nevertheless, these forms conform to the vowel patterns found in disyllabic monomorphemic or disyllabic suffixed word forms.
Highlights
In this paper we examine various types of diminutive formation in Hungarian and show that truncative diminutives exhibit unique behaviour in several respects as compared to all other types of morphological processes
The templatic diminutive forms are not subject to vowel harmony occurring in suffixes which prevails in the regular additive morphology of the language
In this paper we have discovered several aspects in which additive morphology (AM), the regular method of inflection and derivation in Hungarian, is different from truncative morphology (TM), applied in the creation of diminutive forms only
Summary
The reference accent of Hungarian distinguishes between seven short vowels. In the reference accent [ɛ] alternates both with mid the vowels [ø] and [o] and with the low [ɑ] due to backness and/or roundness harmony, cf §3. We categorize [ɛ] as a low vowel because of its behaviour with respect to vowel harmony, the Height Effect (Hayes et al 2010): [ɛ] exhibits less characteristics of neutrality than [e], which in turn exhibits less characteristics of neutrality than [i] or [i]. (2) The consonant system of Hungarian plosives affricates fricatives nasals approximants labial pb f m ʋ dental td ʦ (ʣ) sz n rl postalveolar ʧʤ ʃʒ palatal cɟ ɲ j velar kɡ glottal h. In the same environment [l]þ [j] surface as [jj] ([tol]þ[jɑ] → [tojja] ‘push-3SG.DEF_OBJ’)
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