TNTL 114

Ann Marynissen

Van -(t)ke naar -(t)je. De oorsprong en verspreiding van het Nederlandse diminutiefsuffix -(t)je

Abstract -- This article deals with the historical development and distribution of the Dutch diminutive ending -(t)jein Flanders, which is examined on the basis of a corpus of Flemish historical place names. The ending -(t)je developed by palatalisation from mnl. -(t)kîn. The palatalised suffix arises from the 15th century onwards in the eastern and western part of Flanders, but it is only in the seventeenth and eighteenth century that it supersedes the ending -ken throughout Flanders. The increase of the suffix -(t)je in Flanders is not due to expansion from Holland, but to a polygenetic phonetical process that took place in several regions of the Dutch language area.