Learn about diminutives in Korean
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Intro |
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| Michael: What are diminutives and how are they formed in Korean? |
| Kyejin: And are they commonly used? |
| Michael: At KoreanClass101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: So-yeong Seo is walking home with her daughter, Seo-hyeon Song. So-yeong sees a cute puppy and points it out to Seo-hyeon and says, |
| "Look at that puppy!" |
| So-yeong Seo: 저 강아지 좀 봐! (Jeo gangaji jom bwa!) |
| Dialogue |
| So-yeong Seo: 저 강아지 좀 봐! (Jeo gangaji jom bwa!) |
| Seo-hyeon Song: 귀여워요! (Gwiyeowoyo!) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| So-yeong Seo: 저 강아지 좀 봐! (Jeo gangaji jom bwa!) |
| Michael: "Look at that puppy!" |
| Seo-hyeon Song: 귀여워요! (Gwiyeowoyo!) |
| Michael: "How cute!" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: To begin, what is a diminutive? We use diminutives in many languages to denote smallness, cuteness, or to speak with added softness or familiarity. In English, we use diminutives all the time, although you may not have thought much about it before. For example, we use name forms like "Jimmy" or "Willy" or add the same "y" sound to other objects or animals to create diminutives. |
| In English, we also tend to place the adjective “little” in front of objects as a form of a diminutive. "Let’s go for a little walk this afternoon." "Do you see that little house over there?" "Would you like a little cup of milk to add to your coffee?" |
| So, what are diminutives, or |
| Kyejin: 지소사 (jisosa) |
| Michael: And how are they formed in Korean? |
| Michael: In Korean, we use diminutives in much the same way.. We add a suffix like |
| Kyejin: 아지 (aji). |
| Michael: after nouns. Of course, as with any language, there are also exceptions or special cases. In this way, Korean is no different. |
| Michael: For instance, let’s take a closer look at the dialogue we just heard. |
| Do you remember how So-yeong says "Look at that puppy!" |
| Kyejin: 저 강아지 좀 봐! (Jeo gangaji jom bwa!) |
| Michael: The Korean diminutive was used for the word for “puppy” in the dialogue, and it’s formed with the suffix which we just mentioned a moment ago. |
| Kyejin: 아지 (aji) |
| Michael: The Korean word for dog is |
| Kyejin: 개 (gae), |
| Michael: and the suffix gets fused into this word, giving us the diminutive |
| Kyejin: 강아지 (gangaji) |
| Michael: meaning “puppy.” Then, how about “calf”? We do the fusing again, and thus get the word |
| Kyejin: 송아지 (songaji) |
| Michael: from the word, “cow” |
| Kyejin: 소 (so). |
| Michael: What about the horse, |
| Kyejin: 말 (mal)? |
| Michael: The baby horse, “foal”, would be |
| Kyejin: 망아지 (mangaji) |
| Michael: with this suffix added. |
| Michael: Now, let’s talk about the word for “cat” |
| Soeyeon: 고양이 (goyangi) |
| Michael: In modern Korean, this word itself does not imply the smallness of infancy of a cat. However, the origin of this word has to do with the diminutive suffix, |
| Kyejin: -앙이 (angi). |
| Michael: Cat was called |
| Kyejin: 괴 (goe) |
| Michael: in old-Korean, and back then they added that very suffix to describe the smallness of cats. And the word was gradually reformed into the way we call cats now, |
| Soeyeon: 고양이 (goyangi) |
| Kyejin: The same suffix can be fused to the Korean word for “branch” |
| Kyejin: 가지 (gaji) |
| Michael: And we get the word |
| Kyejin: 가장이 (gajangi) |
| Michael: meaning baby branch or twig. |
| Michael: Now, let’s talk about morphemes/words that have diminutive sense. The first one is |
| Soyoen: 아기 (agi), 새끼(saekki) |
| Michael: meaning “baby” or “infant”. We can add these in front of nouns to convey their smallness or cuteness. Here’s an example: |
| Kyejin: 아기 돼지 (agi dwaeji) |
| Michael: piglet. Then, how about “kitten”? It’s |
| Kyejin: 새끼 고양이 (saekki goyangi) |
| Michael: Next, we’ll consider this morpheme, |
| Kyejin: 알 (al) |
| Michael: which is often used on small individual, round items, typically grain. Try attaching |
| Kyejin: 알 (al) |
| Michael: to the Korean word for uncooked rice |
| Kyejin: 쌀 (ssal) |
| Michael: And we get the word |
| Kyejin: 쌀알 (ssaral) |
| Michael: Now, let’s move on and talk about how else smallness or intimacy can be implied in Korean similar to how it’s done in English. First, we’ll talk about the case of using names. We add these particles |
| Kyejin: 아 (a), 야 (ya) |
| Michael: after the name to address a friend, younger person, animal, etc. We normally say the name without the family name when we are refer to somebody this way. For example: |
| Kyejin: 소연아 (Kyejina). |
| Michael: Kyejin. Names that end in a consonant like this, the particle |
| Kyejing: 아(a) |
| Michael: is used, For names that end in a vowel, you would add |
| Kyejin: 야 (ya) |
| Michael: For example, the name Nara, which ends with a vowel, you would say: |
| Kyejin: 나라야 (naraya) |
| Michael: These diminutives are common in Korean, especially when it comes to little creatures. The quicker you use these diminutive forms as you practice speaking in Korean, the sooner you will start to sound like a native speaker! |
| Cultural Expansion |
| Michael: Do you remember how we said “kitten”? Yes, it’s |
| Kyejin: 새끼 고양이 (saekki goyangi) |
| Michael: and the smallness was implied by the word |
| Kyejin: 새끼 (saekki) |
| Michael: here. However, please make sure that you don’t place that word after the noun or say that word on its own. Otherwise, you might be saying a swear word in Korean, unintentionally! Also, there are various regional dialects in Korea. And each dialect has its own version of diminutives. |
| For example, on Jeju Island, the diminutive |
| Kyejin: 강아지 (gangaji) |
| Michael: is pronounced as |
| Kyejin: 강생이 (gangsaengi). |
| Michael: The word cat, or |
| Kyejin: 고양이(goyangi), |
| Michael: is pronounced differently according to the region too. People living in the Jeolla Province would pronounce it as |
| Kyejin: 고앵이 (goaengi). |
| Michael: You will hear people living in the Gyeongsang Province pronounce it as |
| Kyejin: 꼬내기 (kkonaegi). |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Kyejin: 안녕히 계세요. (annyeonghi gyeseyo.) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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