It is not a coincidence that ‘little, tiny’ and ‘ petite’ are adjectives meaning “small” and are pronounced with a closed mouth, or that ‘large, huge’ and ‘humongous’ are articulated with open mouths. The Berkeley linguist John Ohala has noted this trend across languages: English has ‘teeny’ and ‘wee’ for “small” and "Humungous’ for “large”. Spanish has ‘chico’ versus ‘gordo’. French ‘petit’ versus ‘grand.’ Greek ‘mikros’ versus ‘versus ‘makros’. Japanese ‘chiisai’ versus ‘ookii’ ~ Page 124
Loading
1 comment
Dinesh said: