Small Things and the Suffix "-lingur"
When visiting a petting zoo (húsdýragarðurinn), you will see many adorable things. English uses suffixes like "-let" (piglet) or "-ling" (gosling) to denote smallness. Icelandic uses a very similar suffix: -lingur.
When you attach -lingur to a word, it creates a diminutive—a "miniature" version of the noun. No matter what gender the original word was, a noun ending in -lingur is always a strong masculine noun and follows standard masculine declension patterns.
For example, from jeppi (SUV) we get jepplingur (small SUV), and from bátur (boat) we get bátlingur (small boat).
| We drove to the petting zoo in the new small SUV. | Við keyrðum í húsdýragarðinn í nýja jepplingnum. |
| We put the small boat on the small SUV. | Við settum bátlinginn á jepplinginn. |
It can also be applied to people, such as turning strákur (boy) into stráklingur (little boy).
Animal Offspring
The most common and natural use of -lingur in Icelandic is to name baby animals.
Just like in English, this suffix easily attaches to animal names to signify their offspring. A goose is gæs, making a gosling a gæslingur. A pig is grís, which gives us gríslingur (piglet). A goat (kið) becomes a kiðlingur (baby goat).
| I am afraid of the big goose, but not the gosling. | Ég er hræddur við stóru gæsina, en ekki gæslinginn. |
Because these derived nouns are perfectly regular masculine words, they take the standard -ar ending in the plural:
| Five little piglets ran around the petting zoo. | Fimm litlir gríslingar hlupu um húsdýragarðinn. |
Petting the Animals
At the petting zoo, you will likely want to interact with the furry animals. The adjective for "furry" is loðinn.
| Is this piglet very furry? | Er þessi gríslingur mjög loðinn? |
When you want "to pet" an animal, use the verb strjúka. It is important to remember that strjúka requires the dative case for the person or animal being petted.
Because all -lingur words are masculine, their definite dative ending is always -lingnum. The masculine adjective loðinn will also change to its dative form, loðna.
| The little boy wanted to pet the furry baby goat. | Stráklingurinn vildi strjúka loðna kiðlingnum. |