Hi vika, pleased to meet you.
if there is a word for an old man - starik - what would be a colloquial for - starichok?Yes, it's a common feature to most languages that you can append a simple suffix to a word and thereby denote "small & cute" ("small" really meaning "like my child" I suspect, as
physical size doesn't make much difference).
If memory serves correctly, you append an "-ot" in French (thus Pierre
Peter becomes Pierrot
little Pete) and a "-je" [-yeh] in Dutch. I'll bet there are many other European languages where similar rules apply.
There isn't really an English equivalent. For proper nouns (names) you'd probably shorten the name, and sometimes append a "y" [eeh]. Joshua becomes Josh and/or Joshy, Elizabeth becomes Liz and/or Lizzy, David becomes Dave/Davy.
For standard nouns, however, there's no equivalent that I know of. I suppose you could make "man" "manling", but that just sounds weird.
We'd talk about "little old men", usually meaning the phrase in a friendly fashion. "Old geezer" is also affectionate.
Just to confuse matters, "old" sometimes means "good/faithful" (in the UK at least), as in "How are you doing, old boy/me old mate?" The implication is that the person is like an old friend to you, whether you've really known them years or not.
Hope this helps. There are plenty of brighter intellects than mine around, who will hopefully take the time to provide further enlightenment.
Fisk
