The suffix "-chen" is used as a diminutive, but a "standard" rabbit is already called a "Kaninchen", with the diminutive. How do you say "small rabbit" then?
Ein Kaninchenlein
or simply
Ein kleines Kaninchen
like you would have to in English?
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If you want to express that one of two animal is smaller, you can say "Kanin" to the other. (Definitely colloquial, but will be understood -- hopefully.) But then, in spoken language you can also say "Kaninchen_chen_" (emphasising the second "chen" to make your point.– RaphaelCommented Jun 11, 2014 at 13:54
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3@Raphael just want to add, that "Kanin" can also refer to the fur of a "Kaninchen", e.g. when used in skinning jargon. "Kanin" refering to the animal is used in "Mittelniederdeutsch" (= old language), only rarely in modern german language– PasoeCommented Jun 11, 2014 at 14:50
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@Pasoe I did not know there were actual meanings of the word; I've heard it used colloquially/jokingly to describe particularly large "Kaninchen", in particular such that are bigger than your average "Hase".– RaphaelCommented Jun 11, 2014 at 14:52
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@Raphael as I said, it is only used in skinning jargon, your usage is probably more common.– PasoeCommented Jun 11, 2014 at 15:02
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1I've never heard "Kanin". Also, the obvious answer to OP's question is Minikarnickel.– jonaCommented Jun 12, 2014 at 16:44
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8 Answers
Ein kleines Kaninchen
works very well.
You wouldn't say "Kaninchenlein"; I don't think we ever stack two diminutive suffixes, evidence to the contrary reserved.
If you're talking about a young rabbit, the following ones also work:
ein junges Kaninchen
ein Kaninchenjunges
ein Kaninchenbaby (informal)
scroll down for English version
German/Deutsch
"Kaninchen" ist schon eine Verkleinerungsform, nämlich von "Kanin". Das kann man nicht noch weiter verkleinern. Ein kleines Hündchen ist ja auch kein Hündchenchen oder Hündchenlein oder was einem sonst noch so einfallen mag. Ein Kaninchen ist ein kleines Kanin. Auch dann, wenn das Wort "Kanin" selbst längst ausgestorben ist.
Aus dem lateinischen "cuniculus" bzw. dem altgriechisch "κόνικλος" (kóniklos) entstand das altfranzösische "conin" und daraus wiederum das mittelniederdeutsche "Kanin". Und das fand man so niedlich, dass man ab einem schwer zu bestimmenden Zeitpunkt allgemein nur noch von Kanin-chen sprach.
Dass das Kanin heute nicht mehr im allgemeinen Sprachgebrauch verwendet wird, ändert nichts daran, dass es die "große" Form des kleinen Kaninchens ist.
Das Kaninchen ist nicht die einzige Verkleinerungsform, deren große Urform sprachlich ausgestorben ist. Das Eichhorn, die Mär, der Frett und die Maid begegnen uns heute (fast) nur noch als Eichhörnchen, Märchen, Frettchen und Mädchen.
English/Englisch
"Kaninchen already is a diminutive, namely from "Kanin". You can't make it even smaller. A little "Hündchen" is not a "Hündchenchen" or a "Hündchenlein" or what ever you might think of. A "Kaninchen" is a small "Kanin". Even when the word "Kanin" itself is extinct.
The Latin "cuniculus" or the Ancient Greek "κόνικλος" (kóniklos) resulted in Old French "conin" from which the Middle Low German "Kanin" resulted. But everybody found this animal so cute, that, beginning from a hard to determine day, everybody just spoke of a "Kanin-chen".
That the "Kanin" as word has gone doesn't mean that it is not the base-form of the diminutive "Kaninchen".
"Kaninchen" is not the only one diminutive who's base form is extinct. The words "Eichhorn", "Mär", "Frett" and "Maid" are distinct or very rarely used, but we still have "Eichhörnchen", "Märchen", "Frettchen" und "Mädchen".
answered Jun 11, 2014 at 20:42
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1Was die Niedlichkeit als Grund angeht, wäre ich nicht so sicher. Es dürfte auch das lateinische Wort, das ja selber eine Verkleinerungsform ist, eine Rolle gespielt haben, vgl. die Dialekt- bzw. umgangssprachlichen Formen Ka(r)nick(e)l. Da -l in diversen süddeutschen Mundarten ein Diminutivmarker ist, könnte man das zum Anlass genommen haben, den Diminutiv auch im Hochdeutschen einzuführen. Commented Jun 11, 2014 at 21:30
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2You reason that "Kaninchenchen" is not possible -- but where is an answer to the question?– RaphaelCommented Jun 12, 2014 at 5:42
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@Raphael: The answer is the first two sentences: »"Kaninchen already is a diminutive, namely from "Kanin". You can't make it even smaller.« Its just a "Kaninchen". Period. Commented Jun 12, 2014 at 9:35
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2@HubertSchölnast Yea, no; the OP asks "What do I say to a small Kaninchen?". Other answers provide, well, actual answers to that question.– RaphaelCommented Jun 12, 2014 at 10:35
In German, the diminutive morpheme [DIMIN] is always realized as the final suffix of a lexical word paradigm and, like most morphemes, it cannot be reduplicated. (Inflective morphemes for number [NUM=Sg|Pl] and case [CAS=Nom|Acc|Dat|Gen] would follow in syntactical word forms, but these grammemes are mostly empty {∅}, e.g. Kindchen[Sg ¬Gen, Pl], but Kindchens[Sg Gen] and Fräuleins[Sg Gen, Pl].) This derivanteme may appear directly after a simple noun stem SBST (usually umlauted, e.g. Bäumchen, incl. names as in Hänschen, Hansi), or after a complex SBST that has been formed from a noun SBST, verb VB or adjective ADJ base with single suffixes like {e, en, ung; heit, keit} or a hierarchical combination {VB > er > ling/in > schaft/tum}, see Eisenberg 2006:280ff (Das Wort).
[DIMIN] uses at least three morphs {chen, lein, i}, whereof the former two have many regional allomorphs {ken, ke, che, sche; li, le, el}. The i morph is often considered a separate morpheme, because it keeps the masculine or feminine gender, whereas the other two result in neuter nouns. (Proper derivative morphemes always determine the gender of the derived word.)
The preferred morph in (non-poetic) Hochdeutsch is chen, but certain phonologic restrictions apply which afford lein in some words, e.g. Büchlein. Although it disturbs the flow of reading (except in Fraktur with long s ‹ſ›), chen is also used after a simple s coda, e.g. Häuschen /hɔʏsçən/ might be misread /hɔʏʃən/ by inexperienced readers. Some special cases have been conventionalized, of course, e.g. Fräulein vs. Frauchen or Bavarianisms Dirndl, Hendl.
There are also some words whose base has fallen (almost) out of use, making them semantically opaque, e.g. Märchen, Mädchen, and others that are only conventional in the diminutive, e.g. Kaninchen, Seepferdchen. These – to answer your question – require an alternative grammatical or lexical solution, which is of course available for other words as well.
ein kleines Kaninchen – small, tiny, little rabbit
ein junges Kaninchen – young 'rabbit
ein Jungkaninchen – 'young rabbit
ein Kaninchenjunges – rabbit offspring
ein ?Kaninchenbaby – informal, just born
ein Babykaninchen – informal variant of Jungkaninchen
ein Minikaninchen – informal, focus on miniature size
ein Zwergkaninchen – special breed
A few false diminutives exist, which look like real ones but don’t derive from a stem, most prominently Eichhörchen which has spawned a whole family of ~hörnchen that have nothing to do with Horn. Nevertheless, they’re occasionally retrofitted, like Eichhorn or Ahörnchen und Behörnchen ‘Chip and Dale’ from Ahorn and A/B, but mostly for comedic effect I believe:
Was ist gelb und hüpft von Baum zu Baum? Ein Posthörnchen!
PS: Another false diminutive is Plätzchen ‘cookie’ which does not stem from Platz, but is related to Placebo.
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Large parts of this answer are of a too general nature for this question, but it's in total well put together.– RaphaelCommented Jun 12, 2014 at 5:42
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2+1: that's the kind of answer we love to see here. Well researched and nicely written up.– TakkatCommented Jun 12, 2014 at 6:13
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1I have a problem with your use of the term SBST. It may be common in linguistics, or even high school, but I, like many other users here, have German only as a second language (actually it's my fifth) and it's unlikely that I will encounter it in my 5 years of night school. I tried to look it up but didn't find anything, and even my dictionary doesn't mention it. Please explain, now it sounds pedantic.– stevenvhCommented Jun 12, 2014 at 7:23
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@stevenh, oops, SBST is a common abbreviation in German linguistics for Substantiv which more or less is the same as English noun. I could (maybe should) have used ‘N’ instead.– CrissovCommented Jun 12, 2014 at 9:12
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1@Crissov - I could have assumed it was that, but I'd rather not assume too much :-). It's strange because in an all caps abbreviation normally each letter represents a word. I understand that it's common for German-speaking people (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) but like I said many people who study German as a foreign language may not know it. Well, it can easily be solved by adding "SBST = substantive" when you first use it. Peace.– stevenvhCommented Jun 12, 2014 at 10:46
Honestly, "kleines Kaninchen" is your best bet. My German teacher taught me that since the word already ends in -chen, it cannot be put into the diminutive form.
Now for some controversy: she also taught me that "Häschen" is indeed the diminutive of "Hase" (hare), but that the word is used interchangeably for little hares and little rabbits (which it should NOT be).
And to top it all off, she knows the differences between hares and rabbits! She put them right underneath her very incorrect message about the word "Häschen"!
(On another note, Wiktionary says this: "While English speakers tend to mistakenly use the word “rabbit” for hares, the German tendency is the reverse: Hase is sometimes mistakenly used instead of Kaninchen, and it tends to be the preferred word whenever the distinction is irrelevant or impossible to tell.")
There is also Zwergkaninchen, but you probably mean kleines Kaninchen /age unrelated
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Since rabbit has two translations in German
Häschen (from Hase)
kleines Kaninchen (from Kaninchen)
kleines Häschen would be possible too - just from my feeling the first one fits best.
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3It has been commented on other answers: a rabbit (ein Kaninchen) is NOT a hare (eine Hase). They're different species, for Pete's sake.– stevenvhCommented Jun 12, 2014 at 12:53
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1What is wrong with you? I just try to help. dict.cc translates rabbit with both. Go out and ask some people: Less than a half will even know the difference between a "Hase" and a "Kaninchen" Commented Jun 12, 2014 at 12:55
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2I'm perfectly alright, thank you :-). It's not because people don't know the difference that there isn't any. And if dict.cc translates "rabbit" as "Hase" it's definitely wrong. Suppose you love horses and someone comes here to tell you that horses and donkeys are actually the same species.– stevenvhCommented Jun 12, 2014 at 13:26
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2I told you the difference doesn't matter (that) much in German. Langenscheidt (Großes Schulwörterbuch), which I have here on my desk, translates rabbit as: 1. zo. Ka'ninchen n; 2. zo. Am. allg. Hase m. May I humbly suggest to move on to other, more worthy causes?– IngmarCommented Jun 12, 2014 at 13:36
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Wonder what Bugs Bunny is. A rabbit, isn't he? What's he in German? Ein Hase, oder?– ZaneCommented Jun 12, 2014 at 18:04
Usually, little difference is made between 'bunny' and 'rabbit' in German. Thus, most Germans would refer to a small rabbit as 'Häschen' (diminutive of 'Hase' - bunny).
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1A bunny is not a Häschen! According to the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) "bunny" is the children's name for a rabbit. Eine Hase (a hare) and ein Kaninchen (a rabbit or bunny) are two completely different animals.– stevenvhCommented Jun 12, 2014 at 8:13
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1Who cares? Not the majority of German speakers, that's who. "Hase" has become an almost all-inclusive term. We also call that, uh, springtime giver of eggs "Osterhase", not Easte rabbit (or bunny). So while you are technically correct it really matters little in daily life.– IngmarCommented Jun 12, 2014 at 9:01
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1@Ingmar - So, do Germans in general also think ducks and geese are the same species? I don't think so. Why not, if rabbits and hares are all the same, then I should say ducks and geese are the same as well. Or swans, for that matter. Or a horse and a donkey...– stevenvhCommented Jun 12, 2014 at 10:50
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4Well, the vox populi does distinguish between those animals; and yet, sometimes different species are grouped together in the public perception. This is the case with rabbits and hares, or, dare I say it, apes and monkeys. You can certainly stress the differences, you can call people stupid who don't, but you won't make that fact go away. I didn't invent that, by the way, just telling how it is. Make of that what you will.– IngmarCommented Jun 12, 2014 at 10:59
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1I agree with @Ingmar, the same goes for Tintenfisch, Krake(n), Oktopus for instance. English certainly doesn’t distinguish some animals (with basic lexemes) which German does (or rather Germans do).– CrissovCommented Jun 12, 2014 at 16:39
"Kleiner Hase" would be the most direct translation
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Or if you want to use a diminuitive, "ein kleines Häschen". See also "Hase-Kaninchen-Unterschied": tierchenwelt.de/funfacts/wo-ist-der-unterschied/… Commented Jun 11, 2014 at 19:39
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