Morphology Personal Name Truncations

Morphology

A large range of the academic literature centering on the sociological as well as the cultural and linguistic properties of nicknaming can be found. This literature mostly focuses on only sociological and/or cultural properties and/or the linguistic properties but mostly with varying working definitions of the term nickname. For example, some researchers (e.g., Slater and Feinman 1985) notice the structural and sociological commonalities among both the formal and the nicknames whereas, according to some (e.g., Alford 1988) only the descriptive forms are the nicknames. The definition of the term nickname used in this paper may overlap with some of the categories however; there should be no surprise at the commonalities found between the informal and the formal names. As Pulgram (1954, 11-14) has said; the nicknames are the antecedents of many formal names.

Social meaning of nicknaming

The social meaning and function a nickname basically depends on the society that uses it. For example, in some societies it is used for the sake of disparaging someone, while in some societies it represents the unity and solidarity and it may also be used to show the social hierarchy in some other societies as well. As, (Alford 1988, 82-85). Price and Price (1972) have discussed the fusion of identity, name and reputation, whereas, Burton (1999) and Moyo (2002) have described the societies that connect the power and status with nicknames and names. Morgan, O'Neill, and Harre (1979) and Kany (1999) have talked about the similar patterns regarding the children's nicknames. A user can also be identified with a group through the nicknames that he uses (Aceto 2002; de Klerk 2002), differentiate the individuals in the communities that don't have a lot of formal names (Collier and Bricker 1970; Dorian 1970), they can also point out the similarities between the addressee as well as the speaker (Dickey 1997; Chevalier 2004).

There also exists a relationship between the gender of person being referred to and the function and form of the nickname being used (Slater and Feinman 1985; Busse 1983; Phillips 1990; Cutler, McQueen, and Robinson 1990; de Klerk and Bosch 1996, 1997; Wierzbicka 1992). For example, it is noticed that the males tend to use the nicknames a lot more than the females and the nicknames used by the males are usually disparaging whereas, the ones that are used by the females tend to be more affectionate. The nicknames used by females are also noticed to end on vowels and have non-initial stress along with being be longer than those used by the men. It has also been observed by Cassidy, Kelly, and Sharoni (1999) that the phonological cues are continuously used by child and adult English speakers in order to find out the gender of a novel pseudo nickname.

Structure of the nicknames

In order to make a truncation of a word, 2 or more syllables are sometimes merged into a single syllable. Furthermore, it can also combine with the suffixes such as those ending with -y, -ie, or -ey, -i ( Jespersen 1942, 538-50; Huddleston and Pullum 2002, 1634-36). Although it is very obvious that all theses suffixes have a diminutive functions but it can also be notices that the other functions are used here as well. For example, according to Huddleston and Pullum the -y suffix can at time have a "decorative or rhythmic" function.

Most of the research done on truncated nicknames is centered on the consonant sequences and the set of phonemes that may take place in truncated monosyllabic stem (Kahn 1976; Dunlap 1990; McCarthy and Prince 1986; Short 1983; Lappe 2001, 2003). A number of studies have shown that using one of these truncated suffixes given in the set {-y, -o, -er, -a, -s} or not using any truncated suffixes is the choice that one has while creating a novel truncation. Furthermore, it has also been observed that this choice is the making of the novel truncation depends on the nature of the last segments of the truncations as well.

When talking about the personal names, "truncated" and "nickname" are the terms that one uses to point out the several distinct phenomenon. Non-standardized nicknames are basically used to mention any one individual in particular and they are mostly connected to longer forms (Richard Nixon! Tricky Dick etc.). Whereas, another type of nicknames are the ones that are called pet names and although they are associated with the relationship or the personal traits they aren't linguistically related to the personal name (Elvis Presley!The King).

For the sake of this research, the writer is going to use the term "nicknames" to refer to the commonly known forms of the personal names. Such familiar forms are normally linguistically related to the full personal name.

The variation that is re done in the nicknames is very common and is usually done because of the desire to differentiate different individuals with the same personal name, sociological trends and idiosyncrasies. Moreover, the linguistic patterns on which the nicknames are formed are not only complex but they are also governed by the phonological and morphological constraints with widespread ordering conventions. Even with all these variations there are a lot of languages that have the same patterns for the formation of the nicknames, the most commonly known patterns are the augmentation, truncation and reduplication.

Due to the complexity of the nicknaming patterns the handwritten rules for individual name variant matching are not only time-consuming but also incomplete. Therefore, in this paper we have tried to find out a number of ways through which we could not only build personal name variant resources but also do the matching tasks enthusiastically. The data for the evaluation of this field is very limited as the name variant resources in the English language are not only very rare but also incomplete and literally absent in many other languages.

Because of the huge variety of nicknames available, a lot of questions arise such as; how the nicknames are actually derived? What is their purpose? Why do some have long and phrasal forms while others are short and precise? In order to answer these questions the writer has adopted a deep and wide definition of the word nickname in that covers all the essential points from the pet names to the noun phrases.

1. Nickname: it's an expression used to refer to someone and is different from the actual name of the referent.

A very important theme that has been repeated throughout this paper is that the nicknames are divided into two smaller categories. In this paper the writer has presented the historical as well as the present data (from past and current studies) in order to show that these categories in which the nicknames are divided have always been very distinct in both their usage as well as structure.

Two most common methods of nicknames formation

The two most common methods of nicknames formation are Back formation and truncation. Back formation has its distinctions from truncation as back formation may alter a words meaning or modify its part of speech but truncation forms abridged words from lengthy words but it does not alter the meaning of a word or the part of speech.

For instance the noun renaissance was taken from Latin whereas the verb was revived after a 100 years from back forming by eliminating the -ion suffix. This section of resurrection into resurrect +ion was achievable as English already had Latin words in the fashion of verb and verb+-ion pairs, for example opine/opinion. Many other words then followed the same precedent in which a verb taken from Latin language and a noun ending at ion came into the language simultaneously, for example project-projection and insert-insertion, etc.

Back formation may be analogous to the reassessment of folk etymologies when it becomes the source of false comprehension of morphology of the longer word. For instance, in the case of a singular noun asset; it is a back-formation from the plural assets. In spite of this asset is not a plural, rather it is a loan-word from Anglo-Norman asetz (modern French assez). Also the -s was reassessed as a plural suffix. Numerous words entered English by this way: previously Pease was a mass noun but it was reassessed as a plural which directed to the back formation pea. In the domain of study statistics, the noun statistic was similarly a back-formation. The verb burgle was employed in the 19th century as a back-formation from the word burglar in Britain (which can be matched up to the North American verb burglarize produced by suffixation).

Truncation method for forming nicknames

According to polyglots "truncation" or "shortening" is the procedure in which word formation is done by reducing a word to one of its parts (Marchand: 1969 as cited in Aronoff and Fudeman, 2010).

As put forward by Marchand (1969 as cited in Aronoff and Fudeman, 2010), truncations are not created as words that fit into the average vocabulary of a lingo, rather they are created as terminologies of a particular group such as schools, army, police, the medical profession, etc. where an indication is adequate to designate the whole. For instance; exam (ination), math (ematics), and lab (oratory) invented in school jargon; spec (ulation) and tick (et = credit) in stock-exchange jargon; and vet (eran) and cap (tain) in army jargon. Whilst truncation, the words that are used by some influential groups are also included in the Standard English language due to their frequent utilization whereas the truncation of local people will stay as colloquial speech.

The most common truncation kinds have been listed below:

Back-truncation

The most frequent type employed is the back truncation. In this the commencement is preserved or maintained and the untruncated fundamental can be a simple or a composite. For instance: ad is used as the short form of advertisement; cable is used as the short form of cablegram; doc is used as the short form of doctor; exam is used as the short form of examination; fax is used as the short form of facsimile. Similarly, gas is used as the short form of gasoline; gym is used as the short form of gymnastics and/or / gymnasium.

Fore-truncation

Fore-truncation is the type of truncation that maintains the ending part. For instance: chute is used as the short form of parachute; coon is used as the short form of raccoon; gator is used as the short form of alligator; phone is used as the short form of telephone; and pike is used as the short form of turnpike.

Middle truncation

The middle word is preserved in the middle truncation or syncope. For instance: flu is used as the short form of influenza; jams or jammies is used as the short form of pajamas/pyjamas. Similarly, polly is used as the short form of apollinaris and shrink is used as the short form of head-shrinker.

Complex truncation

The truncated forms can also be employed in compounds in which one part of the initial compound mostly stays whole. For instance: cablegram is used as the short form of cable telegram; op art is used as the short form of optical art. Similarly, org-man is used as the short form of organization man; and linocut is used as the short form of linoleum cut. There are times when the both divisions of the compound are truncated as in navicert (navigation certificate). Since the boundary between the 2 minds is not always distinct, it is hard to discern if the consequential formation is managed as a blend or truncation. As put forward by Bauer (1983), the simplest way to distinguish between the two is by regarding the forms which maintain compound stress as truncated compounds while those that take easy word stress as not.

Other types of truncations

As specified above, truncation is a reduced form of a word or given name. For instance: when its usage is employed in a close situation as a pet name or as endearment.

They are mostly produced as:

1. Reduce the longer word in English to a single syllable and add '-y' or 'ie' to it. For example: movie is used as the short form of moving picture, telly is used as the short form of television or Aussie is often used for Australian.

2. A shorten the original name. For example: Tony is used as the short form of Anthony, Rosy is used as the short form of Rosemarie and Vicky for Victoria.

3. A baby-talk form similar to the original name's pronunciation. For example: Bess for Elizabeth

4. Next is the name given with minute suffix which are used in some lingos when referring to children and when they are being used for an adult, then the meaning can swing from warmth to disdain.

5. -(c)ito/-(c)ita or -(c)in/-(c)ina in Spanish lingo, for example; Juana is used as the short form of Juanita. Additional consonants can be interjected such as Carmelina and Carmencita from Carmen, or combined, such as in Carmina

6. In German -chen, -lein, -(l)i, -(e)le (mostly applied with names), for instance Hundchen or Hundlein (from 'Hund', which means dog) or Kalli (from 'Karl) or Hausle and/or Hausele (from 'Haus'); a back vowel in the origin is generally circumflexed that is to shift or alter from u, o, a to u, o, a correspondingly

7. An analogous form is -etto/-etta, in Interlingua.

8. The typical truncated finishing in Dutch in the case of words and individual names the same: -tje, -ke. In the case where the name finishes with a t or a d the end is then a -je (for example Bert - Bertje). If the ending consonant of a name is m, it then fishes with -pje (for example Bram - Brampje) or even an -metje (for example Bram or Brammetje) or th end can also be -mie (for example Bram - Brammie). As for the other consonants the truncated form followed is -tje. The truncated form that is mostly employed in southern Netherland is -ke (for example Peer or Peerke). In the Frisian the common truncated finish is -ke (for example Ype or Ypke) but the drawback of this form (and others like -ske and/or -tsje) is that it ends up making the name sound feminine (for example Jetse - Jetske) similar to in Dutch (for example Jan for Jantje and Hans for Hansje). Apart from this there is one more truncated finish; in the eastern Netherland (the female mode is -- chien, for example: Anne for Annechien and Lammert for Lammechien.

9. Similarly in Portuguese, with words ending in -(z)inho and/or -(z)inha, for example Ana for Aninha along with Joao for Joaozinho.

10. Again in Italian and the local lingos in Italy, with -ino/-ina along with -etto/etta as in Paolina/Paoletta and Paolino/Paoletto from Paolo and/or Paola. -ello/-ella are also used such as Donato and Donata for Donatello/Donatella. Similarly, -uccio/-uccia are also used, for example Guido for Guiduccio and -etto/-etta, for example Giulia for Giulietta. The -uzzo/-uzza forms, such as in Santa for Santuzza, are characteristic of Sicilian dialect.

11. In Esperanto, -?j- and -nj- affixes (for males and females correspondingly) are applied substituting the final consonant of the origin, thus patro is used for pa-jo (father in English Langauge) and patrino is used for panjo (mother in English Langauge).

12. In Japanese, -chan, -tan, or -pi is employed. For example: Kana for Kana-chan and Akihiro for Aki-chan. If prior to -chan we Geminate (doubling) the consonant or lengthen the vowel, to supply two moras is regular, for instance Setsuko for Settchan and Hiroki for Hii-chan.

13. To form a replica in a variety of lingos like John-John or Didi.

14. In Cantonese and connected dialects, the adding up of a word-final very elevated tone, or altered tone at times merging with the supplementing of prefix 'A' prior to the name. The A syllable is also employed in other dialects taking its birth from the south of China as an expression of warmth and intimacy.

15. In Latin -ulus/-ula mainly popular in the times of the Roman emperor Caligula, whose name means "little boot." He got the name from the soldiers because of the little army sandals he wore when he was juvenile. Similarly the name Ursula is comes from ursa (bear) and signifies "little bear."

16. In Yiddish "-eleh/-leh" such as Leah and/or Leahleh.

As implied from the examples mentioned above, truncations often display (indirectly) a phonological linguistic tendency for reverberations to be employed for slighter being and items. Since smaller creatures have a smaller larynx, they end up making high pitched sounds.

Truncations in various languages

English

The use of nicknames is very common in the English people as well and they use these nicknames in a lot of ways. They often tend to shorten the names to the first syllable such as; for Abraham they use the nickname Abe, for Anthony they often use Tony or Ant, for Benjamin, Benedict the use of nicknames Ben and Benny is very common. Similarly the name Carolyn is often nicknamed as Carol, Lyn or Carrie/Cary, Christopher as Chris, Criffer or Topher, the name Deborah as Deb or Debby. The names like Edwin, Edward, Edmund have seen to have common nicknames such as; Ed, Eddie, whereas, the common names like Elizabeth are noticed to have a lot of nicknames like; Eliza, Betty, Libby, Liz, Lizzy, Lisa, Beth, Bess. For the name Fiona the nickname Fi is very common, for Gabriel its Gabe, for Gregory its Greg and in the same way for Jacob it is Jake, then for a more common name like Jonathan the nicknames are Jon, John, and Nathan and for Joseph the nicknames often heard are Joe, Joey (Aronoff and Fudeman, 2010).

Similarly, the nicknames for some other names such as Katherine are Kate, Katy or Kathy, for Katrina; Kat, Trina are used, for Matthew it's Matt for Megan; Meg and for Michael it's Mike. The similar names like Nathan, Nathaniel have the nicknames such as; Nat, Nate for Peter the nicknames are Pete or Petey, for Priscilla the nicknames often heard are Cilla, Priss, Cilly and Prissy, Ray is the nickname that is often heard for the name Raymond, for the commom name like Robert the nicknames are Rob, Bert, Bob, for the very similar sounding names Samuel, Samantha the nicknames are; Sam, Sammy, for Stephanie the nicknames often used are Steph, Annie and Stephy. The name Victoria has been often nicknamed as Tori, Vick, Vicky and Zachary as Zach (Aronoff and Fudeman, 2010).

Diminutive suffixes specially -ie or -y are often used at the end of the nicknames that are already very short. These suffixes are used to show the love, affection or smallness of the referent and therefore, are usually used for the kids but sometimes the adults are also referred to as with their nicknames having these diminutive suffixes at the end, mostly by the close friends or family members (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2010).

The names whose nicknames have these diminutive suffixes are such as; Alexander, Alexandra for which the nickname used is Sandy, for Amanda the nickname such as Amy or Mandy, for Anne; Annie, for Arthur, Arturo the nicknames like Art or Artie, for the names like Barnaby the nickname like Barney or Swarley, the nickname Dan or Danny for the name Daniel similarly Dave and Davy for the name David. The matching names such as Edwin, Edward, Edmund have the nicknames like; Ed, Eddie, Eddy, for Elaine it's Lainie, for Franklin the names are Frank and Frankie, for George; Georgie, for a common name like Isabella and James it is Izzy and Jamie respectively. Similarly for the name Jonathan the nicknames are Jon, John but with the diminutive suffixes they become Jonnie, Jonny, Johnnie, Johnny, for Katherine the nicknames are Kate, Katie for Kimberly the nicknames is Kim but with diminutive suffix it becomes Kimmy, for Lawrence it is Larry, for the name Louis the nickname is Lou but with the diminutive suffix it is Louie (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2010).

Likewise for Michael a very common name in the English language the nickname is Mike which then becomes Mikey when the diminutive suffix is added to it, for Nicholas the nickname Nick becomes Nicky, for Oliver; Ollie, for Ronald; Ron becomes Ronnie, the name Rosemary with the nickname Rose becomes Rosie/Rosy, for name Stephen the common nickname Steve becomes Stevie. Similarly the name Susan with the nickname Sue becomes Susie, Suzy, Tom the nickname for the name Thomas becomes Tommy, Timothy having the nickname Tim becomes Timmy while, the name William having the nicknames like Will, Bill, becomes Willie, Willy, Billy when diminutive suffixes are added to it (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2010).

There are also some names which have the short forms that are completely different from the actual names such as; the short form Babs for the name Barbara, Chuck, Chaz, Chicka for the name Charles. The names Christopher, Christine has the short form Kit. Dot, Dottie is the short forms for the name Dorothy. The name Edward having Ned, Ted and Teddy (for example Edward "Ted" Kennedy as its short form). Eleanor, Helen having the short forms like Nell, Nellie. Elizabeth having short form nicknames like Bess, Bessie. The name Gerald has Jerry as a short form and the name Henry having Hal, Hank, Harry as short form (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2010).

German

Truncations in German language concerning the first names are mostly founded on the shortening of the word, just keeping the last (Hans) or the first (Max) syllables. Usually, to these truncated names forms the ending "i" is added. It is also possible that the names undergo a sound transformation. The addition of more diminutives can be done as well like -lein or -chen, for example; Gretchen as a diminutive for Grete. The names Anna, Anne having the nickname Anni, similarly, Toni for the name Anton, Schorsh (mostly Bavarian and Swiss German) for the name Georg, Nazi for Ignaz, Hansi for Hans, Hannes for Johannes, Sepp for the name Josef as well as Joseph, Kalle and Kalli for Karl, Grete for Margarete. The nickname Max for the name Maximilian, Susi for the similar names like Susanne, Susanna, Susann and Will for the name Wilhem (Aceto, 2002).

It is also possible that at times the female names have -el in the ending rather than -I or some other short form, especially in the southern Germany such as; Barbara has the short form as Babsi or Barbel, the name Ursula has the multiple short forms like; Uschi, Ulla, Ursel and similarly the name Christina, Christine have short form Trina, Trine (northern Germany), while Tina and Tine have a common short form Christel (Collier and Victoria, 1970).

An ending which is mostly considered typical German for the nicknames is "-z" such as; the name Friedrich has the nickname Fritz, Heinrich and Heini are the names with Heinz, Hinz as their nicknames respectively and Kunz is the nickname for Konrad (Collier and Victoria, 1970).

Dutch

The use of nicknames in Dutch is very common. For example for Wilhelmus they often use Willem, Wim or Pim (Aronoff and Fudeman, 2010).

Polish

Multiple affixes are used in the creation of a diminutive in Polish. Some of these for the feminine nouns are -cia, -sia, -?ka, -ka, -enka, -unia, -lka and the ones for the masculine nouns are -u?, -u?, -ek, -czek, -ciek, -lki, -e-ki, for example; the name Agnieszka becomes Aga, Aleksandra becomes Ola and Ole-ka, Aleksander gets multiple names like; Olu?, Alek, Olek, Anna gets multiple names like; Anusia, Anka, Ania, the name Anna-Maria get the nickname Ania, Barbara becomes Basia or Ba-ka, Bart-omiej gets the nicknames Bartek and Bartu? while, Bartosz gets Bartek, Bartu? As nicknames. Dariusz is a name which gets Darek, Dareczek as nicknames, Edward becomes Edek, Edzie, El-bieta; Ela, El-unia while, the nicknames for Emila are Emilka, Emilie (Bybee, 2001).

Similarly the names like; Grzegorz becomes known by the nicknames Grzesiek, Grze?, Henryka by Henia, Henryk by Henio, Heniek. The name Iwona gets multiple nicknames such as; Iwcia, Iwa, Iwka, Jakub is also known as Kuba, Kubu?, the nicknames for Jaros-aw are Jarek, Jaru?, for Jan are Janek, Ja?, Janeczek, for Joanna they are Joasia, Asia and for Janusz the nickname is Januszek, for Katarzyna the names are Kasie-ka, Ka-ka, Kasia, Kasiunia, for Krzysztof they are Krzysiek, Krzy?, for Maciej; Maciek, Maciu? And for the name Ma-gorzata the nicknames are; Ma-gosia, Gosia, Ma-go-ka, Go-ka, Gosie-ka. Likewise Miros-aw has the nicknames Mirek, Mireczek, Mirko, Miru?, Pawe? has Pawe-ek as a nickname, and for Piotr they are Piotrek, Piotru?, for Roman; Romek, Romeczek, Romu?, for Ryszard; Rysiek, for S-awomir; S-awek. Tadek, Tadzio are the nicknames for Tadeusz, Tomcio, Tomu?, Tomek, Tomaszek, Tomeczek are the ones for the name Tomasz, W-adek for W-adys-aw, W-odek is the nickname for W-odzimierz, whereas, the name Witold and Wojciech have Witek and Wojtek as the nicknames respectively, similarly for Zofia the names are Zosia, Zo-ka and for Zbigniew it is Zbyszek (Benua, 1995; 2001).

French

There are a number of diminutive nicknames present in the informal French, but they aren't as symmetrical as the ones in the English language. Truncations are usually formed in French by dropping the last syllable in both the male as well as female names. The examples for such nicknames are; the name Catherine which has the nickname Cathy, Christelle having the nickname Chris, Frederic known by the nickname Fred, Gregory known as Greg, Jean-Michel as Jean-Mi and Joannie as Jo. The name Marie-Charlotte has Macha as a nickname, Marie-Josee having Marie-Jo as a French nickname, Philippe as Phil, Stephane known by the nickname Steph and Stephanie known by the nickname Steph (Pierrehumbert, 2003).

First syllable is also sometimes dropped in French to form the nicknames such as; the name Christophe becomes Tophe when the first syllable is dropped (Pierrehumbert, 2003).

At times the central syllables of the names are dropped as well, for example; the nickname for the name Augustin becomes Gus, for Emmanuel and Emmanuelle it becomes Manu (Pierrehumbert, 2003).

One other method through which nicknames are formed in French is by doubling anyone syllables of a name such as; the name Andre gets the nickname Dede when its syllable is doubled, similarly Annie gets Nini as a nickname, Kikine becomes the nickname for Christine, Totophe for the name Christophe, Jojo for the name Joseph, Juju for Julie. The name Louis gets the name Loulou and Titine becomes the nickname of all the female names that end at -- tine (Pierrehumbert, 2001).

It is found that the male names in French when nicknamed end at -ot, but this trend is not very common. For example the name Charles get the nickname Charlot, the name Jean gets Jeannot as a nickname, Julot becomes the nickname for Jules and Pierrot becomes the nickname for Pierre (Pierrehumbert, 2001).

This trend of the nicknames ending at -ot was also noticed in the female names but very rarely. For example, the nickname Margot for was formed for the name Marguerite (Pierrehumbert, 2001).

The nicknames ending at -et was used as well around Renaissance but this trend has become outdated now, for example, the name Henri and Jacques having the nicknames Henriquet and Jacquet respectively (Kennedy and Zamuner 2001).

During the first half of the 20th century the names ending at -ette were used for the female names, in fact some of these names were actually made official as well, for example, the name Anne becoming Annette, Jeanne; Jeannette, Marie; Mariette and Paule; Paulette (Kennedy and Zamuner 2001).

There are also some names which are not actually truncations but they are the only female versions of the male names such as; Antoine which is a male name becomes Antoinette which is a female name, Pierre, a male name becomes Pierrette, a female name and Nicolas which is a male name as well becomes Nicolette the name of a female (Kennedy and Zamuner 2001).

The names ending at -on are rare and sometimes even outdated, but are used for both genders such as; the name Antoinette has the nickname Toinon, Francoise has the nickname Fanchon, Riton is the nickname for Henri, Marion for Marie, Louison is the nickname that is used for Louis as well as Louise (Kennedy and Zamuner 2001).

Ending of the name at "-ou" is rare as well, such as; the name Anne has the nickname Nanou (Huddleston, and Pullum, 2002).

There is also a special case in which the nicknames end at -ick / -ic, which is basically the French writing for in Breton for the truncated form, "-ig" is used for both male as well as female names. In Breton the meaning of this "-ig" form is "Little…." In the French form this diminutive "ick" or "ic" became in fashion in the second half of the 20th century for the official names, for example; the name Annick (originally known as Annaig in Breton), from Anne. The name Soizic (original: Soazig), from Fransoaz. Similarly, the name Loic which was probably derived from the French Louis and Yannick (original: Yannig), from Yann, which means "John" in Breton (Huddleston, and Pullum, 2002).

In French the diminutive "-ig" is given only to the Christian names where as in Breton it can be given to any type of adjectives, names or nouns (Huddleston, and Pullum, 2002).

A lot more than the ending of the name with the diminutive "-ig" is evident in the name Soazig. A Christian name's truncated form can be created by dropping the first syllable in Breton. "Fransoaz" becomes very common "Soaz" then, the name is "Soazig" when it is given to a child but it isn't the official name. This is another one of the differences between the French and Breton diminutive endings, because in French the diminutive suffix "-ick" is used in the names as permanent and official part of the name and therefore, has lost its diminutive sense, whereas, in Breton it is used in the names of the Children (Huddleston, and Pullum, 2002).

Truncation is often produced in French words by either cutting of the end of the word and the addition of an o or by the truncation of a word that comes after an o, for example; dico is used for dictionnaire, McDo is used for McDonalds, catho is used for catholique, gyneco is used for gynecologue and psycho is used for psychologie (Alford, 1988).

Sometimes the ending -oche is also made use of, such as; fastoche (easy-peezy is used for facile, easy), cinoche is used for cinema and MacDoche is used for McDonalds. Names and the words can, in addition, be shortened or abbreviated without O. such as; Jean-Phi from Jean-Philippe, 'ski bindings', cine (another informal word for cinema) and fixs from fixations. All these words are the very common and informal version of the actual terms (Alford, 1988).

The suggestion that the things that we are talking about are familiar to us is what make them the truncations such as; the spot I frequently visit for leisure, rather than cinema, the impartial word for a movie theater or my friend Jean-Phi, rather than my new coworker Jean-Philippe (Alford, 1988).

Esperanto

Nicknames are formed by Esperanto when the suffix -njo is used for the female names and ?jo is used for the male names. For example the names of the females such as Elizabeto has the nickname Elinjo which is formed by Esperanto, Mario has Manjo, Sofio; Sonjo, fratino; franjo, the name onklino has the nickname onjo and patrino has panjo (Bybee, 2002).

While, the male names such as; Aleksandro has a nickname Ale-jo, Jo-jo is the nickname for the name Johano, Pe-jo for Petro, fra-jo for frato and o-jo is the nickname formed by Esperanto for the name onklo (Bybee, 2002).

Swedish

First syllable of names is what the male truncations are usually based on, they are shortened if they are long and end with "-e" such as; the name Anders has the nicknames Adde, Ante; Andreas has the nicknames Adde, Ante. Bengan, Benke are the nicknames of the name Bengt; Bo has the nickname Bosse; Daniel has Danne; Filip has Fille; Fredrik has Fredde; Gustav has Gurra; Henrik has Henke; Henning has Henke; Jan has Janne; Joakim has Jocke. Similarly, the Kristian gave rise to the name Krille; Kristoffer to Krille, Stoffe; Lars to Lasse; Leif to Leffe; Magnus to Mange; Mikael to Micke; Oskar to Orre; Per to Pelle, Perra. The name Pontus was used in the formation of the nickname Putte; Roland was used in the formation of Rolle; Sebastian for the creation of Sebbe, Basse; Sven to form Svempa, Svenne; Tobias in the making of Tobbe; Torsten in the creative of Totta; Ulf gave rise to Uffe; Viktor to Vicke and Vilhelm to Ville (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2010).

These forms are probably very old and most probably the oldest evidence of this is in the name Sibbi dating way back to the 800 AD on the Rok Runestone (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2010).

Spanish

The Spanish people forms the diminutives by the addition of one of the many diminutive suffixes; -cito/a, -ecito/a, -ito/a, -cillo/a, -ete/a, -ico/a, -illo/a, -cico/a -zuelo/a, -uelo/a, -in, -ino/a such as; the name Juana has the nickname Juanita or Ju. Jorge has the nickname Jorgito and it is further modified to Jor. Antonio is the name having multiple diminutive suffixes; Antonin, Antonito, Antonete, Tono and Antonillo (McFarlane, 2004).

Some people have two first names like; Maria Teresa, Jose Luis, Juan Carlos etc. Truncation is formed by combining two names into one such as; from Maria Teresa the names Maritere, Mayte, Marite are formed. Maria Luisa combined to form Marisa. Mamen, Mamme, Mayca are formed by the combination of Maria del Carmen. Maribel, Marisa by the combination of Maria Isabel. The name Luzma is formed by the combination of Luz Maria and Marifer, Mafer by combining Maria Fernanda. Maria Salvadora is combined to form Marisa. Juan Carlos is used to make the name Juanca. Juan Esteban has been used to form the nickname Juanes and Juan Manuel to form the name Juanma (McFarlane, 2004).

There are a lot of Spanish nicknames that do not match the original name at all. However all these diminutives have a -ch- [t?] sound such as; Alberto formed Berto, Beto. Alfonso is the name from which Fonsi, Fonso, Fon, Poncho were formed. Anastasio was used in the formation of Tasio, Tacho. Cheto is created by Aniceto, Tono by Antonio, Bea, Beti from Beatriz, Cacho from Carlos, whereas; the name Concepcion is used to make the names Concha, Conchita, Conchi. The name Diego is used to form Yago. Lola has been created by Dolores, Edu, Lalo from Eduardo while, Neto and Chano are created from Ernesto and Feliciano respectively (Carstairs-McCarthy, 2010).