-i

Significado (Inglés)

1. (informal, morpheme) Forms pet names from given names, kinship terms, and terms of address.
2. (derogatory, endearing, informal, morpheme, sometimes) Forms nouns from adjectives and verbs denoting someone characterized by that word.
3. (colloquial, derogatory, informal, morpheme, sometimes, usually) Forms clippings, with a meaning of -ist, -ian, -an
4. (colloquial, informal, morpheme) Forms clippings.
5. (informal, morpheme, rare) Forms gender-neutral nouns.

Conceptos

-ito

-ita

-iño

-iña

Sinónimos

-chen

-lein

-erl

Traducciones

-eta

-et

-y

-ette

-ine

-et

-etto

-ino

-ina

-etta

-ie

-je

-ke

-pje

-tje

Pronunciado como (IPA)

[i]

Etimología (Inglés)

Cognado con neerlandés: -je

Cognado con inglés: -y

In summary

From (especially Alemannic) Middle High German -ī, from Old High German -īn, from Proto-West Germanic *-īn (diminutive suffix). Generalized in Modern German through pet names like Rudi (Middle High German Ruodī). Cognate with English -en as in chicken, maiden.
Not directly related with English -ie, -y (from Old English -iġ), nor with Dutch -ie, -je (from Proto-West Germanic *-ikīn, whence German -chen). However, the vowel /i/ has an onomatopoeic quality to it, which is likely to reinforce its development or preservation in diminutives.