Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2020 July 1

= July 1 =

Looking for Ancient Greek diminutive form
What would the diminutive form(s) of κόραξ (kórax) be? I've seen the options at List_of_diminutives_by_language, but it still seems out of my range as I've never studied Ancient Greek. Romanized answers would be appreciated. Airbag190 (talk) 04:02, 1 July 2020 (UTC)
 * The word κορακῖνος (korakinos) is actually attested in Ancient Greek, but meaning "young raven" rather than specifically "little raven". Speculating on nonattested diminutives seems to me a mug's game. (What's the English diminutive of raccoon? Raccoonling? Raccoonette? Raccoonkin?) Deor (talk) 04:29, 1 July 2020 (UTC)


 * The word κορακινίδιον (korakinidion) is an attested diminutive of κορακῖνος, and so would mean "little young raven". --Lambiam 10:05, 1 July 2020 (UTC)


 * I'm glad we have an attested word, so it's probably problem solved. Since you asked for a Romanized answer, I reckon the Romans probably would have gone for Koraculus. But I'm not sure. https://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deminutivum_Latinum has some good info on Latin diminuatives. Temerarius (talk) 01:38, 3 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Korakinidion is the (ALA-LC) romanization of Greek κορακινίδιον. --Lambiam 08:45, 3 July 2020 (UTC)


 * Yes, I think I have some answers I can work with now. I'll give the resources linked here a look as well. Thanks, everyone. Airbag190 (talk) 03:45, 3 July 2020 (UTC)

Lambiam, I think we might have different definitions of "Romanized." Mine was an inexpert reckon on how a Latin speaker might hear the word and make a diminutive. I think Romanization is a different thing from transliteration, but the WP page disagrees with me. Temerarius (talk) 04:21, 4 July 2020 (UTC)


 * For what it's worth, I only had transliteration in mind when I asked the question. But I'm usually looking at very different language areas, so I can't say it occurred to me that this time, the Romans were right next door. Airbag190 (talk) 12:24, 4 July 2020 (UTC)