Posts about Reisu every Monday and Thursday

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Dua & Xai

When we talked about kinship terms we used the affixes -dua and -xai. These suffixes can be used in many areas. -dua is an augmentative, and -xai is a diminutive. -Dua tends to make things larger in size or greater in power. -Xai tends to make things smaller in size, or cuter.

Some examples:
Feridua - Super store
Ferixai - Convenience store
Lazadua - Ocean (One of the major oceans of the planet)
Lazaxai - Sea (Smaller, but still major bodies of water ex: Mediterranean sea)
Kopodua - Boulder
Kopoxai - Pebble

These can also be attached to names. Adding -xai to someone's name or a nick name is a term of endearment. The words it's attached to depends on what level of endearment is intended. Adding -dua is an informal honorific, unless used with a person's title where it becomes very formal.

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