11

The usual Latin diminutive suffix is -ulus (or -ula or -ulum). However, it sometimes appears as -olus, like in filiolus, aculeolus, petiolus, and bestiola. (And perhaps Venezuela, Venetiola, is a small Venice.) When is -olus used instead of -ulus? It seems that a vowel is followed by -olus and a consonant by -ulus, but I have not seen this rule explicitly stated. Does some grammar describe the choice of the diminutive suffix?

Background: I read recently about a children's parliament (which promotes children's ideas and teaches them the basics of democracy), and I wondered what I would call it in Latin. I thought a diminutive of curia would be a nice translation. Trying to attach -ula to curia produced curiola, as my intuition immediately rejected curiula. The problem is that I have no idea why I thought so. Therefore I would like to know how the vowel (o/u) is determined.

Improve this question
4
  • 2
    There is also -culus, and -unculus (where c and unc do not add anything, but are consistently used to form diminutives. This page also says -lus itself is used. Sorry for the lame sources, but I think they might add something to the discussion
    – Rafael
    Mar 16, 2017 at 15:24
  • 1
    @Rafael I know that -ulus is not the only diminutive suffix. I just wanted to focus the question on comparing -ulus and -olus. I would certainly want to know more about the -(un)c- before -ulus, but that should go to another question. (Feel free to ask!) I'm not sure I buy the -lus suffix, especially if the only example is porc-ulus.
    – Joonas Ilmavirta ♦
    Mar 16, 2017 at 15:36
  • Gobius can be named "Gōbulus" (Name of a gobie native to the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the Americas), "Gobiusculus", the two-spotted goby. And perhaps, for sure, "Gobiōlus". I think the preference is 'flattering' towards -olus, in words finished in -is/ -es (iolus, eolus), being overwhelming in popular latin
    – rivusculus
    May 23, 2021 at 8:52
  • 1
    @Nivaldia We've converted your answer to a comment, since it doesn't provide the sort of sources the asker is looking for. If you want to add more detail (such as a grammar or a list of attested words in -iolus vs -iulus), feel free to post another answer!
    – Draconis ♦
    May 23, 2021 at 20:31

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
12

A word search confirms that -olus is used instead of -ulus after a vowel.

A Perseus search for words ending in -olus reveals (among a few false positives, like malevolus) that every diminutive form follows a vowel. A similar search for -[vowel]ulus, such as -iulus, only returns false positives.

This is confirmed in Allen and Greenough's Latin Grammar:

[Diminutives] are formed by means of the suffixes -

-ulus (-a, -um), -olus (after a vowel), -culus, -ellus, -illus

Improve this answer
5

As brianpck says, after a vowel only -olus is possible (and -ulus is not).

One other place where -olus can appear is after V (consonantal U) or QU, since a general habit in older Latin documents was to write O instead of U (V) after these consonant sounds. (It's not clear whether this O represented the sound /o/, or was just a different spelling of the sound /u/.) E.g. parvolus and servolus exist as variants of parvulus and servulus, and the forms equolam and aquolam can be found in Plautus.

Improve this answer
1
  • 2
    And the name Scaevola, although like with parvolus and servolus about, it was also written Scaevula.
    – cmw ♦
    May 15, 2021 at 11:21

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.