-ik, -ak, -uk

[Iran01]

There may be many academic studies about the subject.

In my opinion all those suffixes are bnadzayn, onomatopoeic, i.e. based on sound. In this case based on baby talk.

Just as we saw above that the -ik suffix is evident in many languages one way or other, mostly sounding "ee", as in mommy and daddy. It is customary when talking to a baby to play silly games, apparently babies like it when when we say matik instead of mat(finger), totik instead of vot (foot), qtik instead of qit (nose), achuk instead of achq(eye) etc.

As to the -uk, the best known is "manuk" (child) is supposed to be the diminutive form of "menu" a native Armenian word to mean small. The -uk ending makes it even morendearing. Therefore manuk will be "little little one", sometimes we use "marduk" as well. No, not that marduk the evil spirit.

 

I guess it is part of the explaniation!

Actually in Persian if you know someone very well , you add "-i" or "-u" at his/her name. It is mainly used by grown up youth. By other words you try make a diminutive form of your grown up friend and take him back to childhood :

Arpai / Arpau

Shauntu

Edwardi

...

 

 

Anyway, the -ak, -ik has several forms in other dialects/languages:

 

The suffix -ag is very common in Ossetic language, it roughly means possesion of some quality, like profession or nationality:

barag, axuyrag, somixag, amerikag, fiduag etc

http://www.iranianlanguages.com/forum/view...ighlight=suffix

 

The -ik even appears as -ij in northern Iran!

[shaunt]

"Actually in Persian if you know someone very well , you add "-i" or "-u" at his/her name. It is mainly used by grown up youth. By other words you try make a diminutive form of your grown up friend and take him back to childhood :

Arpai / Arpau

Shauntu

Edwardi"

 

I know for my name, some relatives of mine add an -ulik to name. So it ends up being Shauntulik. Haha, sounds a bit childish.

 

"The suffix -ag is very common in Ossetic language, it roughly means possesion of some quality, like profession or nationality:

barag"

 

Interesting. We too use the word "barag." In Armenian it means "thin" as opposed to "thick."

 

Zhurvan, I'm going to make a thread regarding various loanwords in the near future. So keep an eye out, .

[Harut]

just wanted to point out that the fact that there are words ending with -ak, -uk, -ik, other -endings, whether making them diminutive or giving them other specific meanings, does not mean that every word that ends with the similar way belongs to the same category. the same way, just because some -endings or words with a specific ending may have originated from another language, or the method is of foreign origin, does not mean that all words with similar -endings are from the same language origin.

[kakachik77]

"Actually in Persian if you know someone very well , you add "-i" or "-u" at his/her name. It is mainly used by grown up youth. By other words you try make a diminutive form of your grown up friend and take him back to childhood  :

Arpai / Arpau

Shauntu

Edwardi"

 

I know for my name, some relatives of mine add an -ulik to name. So it ends up being Shauntulik. Haha, sounds a bit childish.

 

"The suffix -ag is very common in Ossetic language, it roughly means possesion of some quality, like profession or nationality:

barag"

 

Interesting. We too use the word "barag." In Armenian it means "thin" as opposed to "thick."

 

Zhurvan, I'm going to make a thread regarding various loanwords in the near future. So keep an eye out, .

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shauntulik is from Russian influence