Portuguese and Hungarian Hypocoristics

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the characteristics of hypocoristics in Portuguese and Hungarian. The study is divided into two main parts: the first analyses the processes of hypocoristic formation, primarily from a morphological perspective; the second examines the proportion, gender distribution and formation patterns of the hypocoristics used as given names in both languages. The main conclusions of the study are as follows: the processes of hypocoristic formation show significant overlap between the two languages, although they occur in different ways. Furthermore, certain types of hypocorisation occur in Hungarian that are not typical of Portuguese. Hypocoristics used as given names are more frequent in Hungarian; however, their gender distribution is similar in both languages, and no significant differences are observed among the most common formation patterns.