10. Diminutives in Finnish child-directed and child speech

There are various means to form diminutives in Finnish, for example regular suffixation (e.g. isä ‘father’ + i > isi ‘daddy’) and modification of the stem possibly combined with suffixation (e.g. kissa ‘cat’ > kisu ‘pussycat’, maha ‘stomach’ > masu ‘tummy’). The article first deals with the different types of Finnish diminutives and then examines the diminutives of two Finnish-speaking children. In early child language, a trochaic bias is observed. In diminutive formation, there is a tendency towards transparent inflection: when forming diminutives by stem modification, different morphophonological alternations are eliminated and transparent inflection patterns are favoured.