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04/12/2006 Archived Entry: "Watch That Nickname!"

At Smart Bitches Trashy Books they are talking about difficulties authors might have in forming pet names or diminutives in foreign languages. "OK, so I'm taking a long time to make my point, and my point is this: different cultures have different methods of creating diminutive forms of names. And when a name from a certain culture or time period isn't given the proper diminutive, it can really jar on the ears. Take, for example, my French friend, Edouard. Some of his American friends call him Ed, sometimes even Eddie baby, which makes me laugh, mostly because it sounds so WRONG. On the other hand, a very French diminutive (albeit one that would probably only be used on a little kid), Dou-Dou, makes me laugh even harder. But this is a pretty good illustration of how diminutives sometimes focus on the stressed syllable."