It's a Diminutive World, After All

Colombians have a funny way of talking.  Despite the fact that it's a big country (twice the size of Texas) of big mountains, big rainforests, big cities, and big boobs, the people don't have that big Texan need to dwell on all things large.  On the contrary, in nearly every uttered phrase in Colombia, you can find a noun, adjective, or adverb that gets shrunken with a wee -ito or -ico suffix when it passes a Colombian's lips.



For example, Colombians don't ask for a coffee, they order a cafecito con lechecita, roughly linguistically equivalent to a thimble-sized coffee with a shrew-teet's full of milk.  If they're a little hungry (tienen hambrecito), they're likely to order an arepita con quesito, or, literally, a pint-sized cornmeal patty with cheese from a runt cow (they'd call the animal a vaquita, not a vaca).

Of course, they don't always literally mean objects of dwarfish proportions, it's just, in my opinion, a more charming way to talk about familiar nouns.  In fact, only with baby animals (that I know of) is the diminutive literal.  Puppies and kittens would be called perritos and gaticos, respectively.


In all other cases, the diminutive is a friendlier nuance of the original.  If you'd rather not drink cafecito, well, then why not a juguito or a chocolatico calientico ?  We can eat junticos in a momentico.

Anything can be reduced in this country. The thin (flaco) can get even thinner (flaquito). Even the obese can and often do get verbally diminished. Tactless Colombians (there are many) will call out 'Hey gordito,' to get a colleague's attention.  Ouch.

It's a wonder (merveillita) that the country that linguistically reduces nearly everything also produced the renowned artist Fernando Botero, who painted and scuplted fat people, fat horses and birds, and even fat fruit. No, no, not gordo....gordito.