2469: -kin, -tje, and Afrikaans 'oke' Sep 15, 2021

The Dutch diminutive suffix -kin (found in English with the borrowed 'mannequin') is highly productive, and its related form '-tje' morphs into different forms. Depending upon the sound of the word it is affixed onto, it can appear as '-je ' before a fricative, '-etje' before a sonorant, '-tje' before long vowels and diphthongs, '-pje' with stressed vowel or before [m], or '-kje' before '-ng', though then this becomes '-nkje'; some of these can appear as simply '-ie' in slang. Further, in Afrikaans slang, 'ou' (i.e. 'old') took the diminutive form 'outjie' but was reduced as 'oke' in modern slang meaning 'guy; dude; bro'. This is therefore unrelated to 'bloke' of English slang, despite similar sound and meaning.