You know how in English, sometimes there will be a suffix on the end of a word that gives a different flavour to it, making it more descriptive?
The best examples I can think of are diminutives like -ette, as in kitchenette or maisonette. Sometimes they are used to turn a male name into a female one, like Pauline or Georgette or Georgina.
In Italian, this process is even more common, and the products are known as i nomi alterati. As an example, take the cat or il gatto.
a gattino is a little cat
a gattuccio is a small and cute cat
a gattone, on the other hand, is a big cat, and
a gattaccio is a cat that is wild and scary and best avoided.
As I understand it, there are a range of suffixes to choose from, that fall into those four basic categories. And there don’t seem to be any rules that make sense for we poor foreign language students on how to choose which endings for which nouns. When we read out our homework for example, some of our offerings got a nod and an OK, and some others just got a surprised laugh. “Yes, I suppose you could say that, the grammar is correct – but no Italian would ever say it.” Baffling.
My offering was that my little car, a cinque cento – literally five hundred, for the size of the engine – was called a Fiat bambino. Unfortunately, it didn’t pass Marcella’s ‘that sounds weird’ test. You wouldn’t call a small car a bambino, apparently. Maybe a macchinetta? When we explained to her that that was the actual brand name for the car in this country, she was flabbergasted. No, it can’t be! She was almost in tears. It seems it breaks all the rules that we poor non Italians are too stupid to understand.
As an aside, I’m wondering whether my little hiccups in brain function are a consequence of the sheer quantity of stuff I’m asking that poor overtaxed organ to get through this year. Not only full time work as a practising doctor, but also scheduling, and learning French and Italian to boot. My understanding is that we should try to keep our minds active, but maybe there are limits?