-lein

• -el, -'l, -l, -le (chiefly dialectal)
• -li (Switzerland)
• -lin, -elin (chiefly Early New High German)
• -elein (chiefly in poetry)

From Middle High German -elīn, -līn, from Old High German -ilī, -ilīn, from Proto-West Germanic *-ilīn.^[1] Cognate to Dutch -lijn.

• IPA^(key): /laɪ̯n/

• Audio:

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-lein n (plural -lein or -erlein or -leins)

1. suffix used to create a diminutive form; e.g. Kind → Kindlein

• In contemporary Standard German, -lein is usual with words whose stems end in -ch or -g; thus more often Bächlein (“little brook”) than Bächelchen. There is a limited number of other forms that remain in common use, but for the most part -lein now has a poetic and archaic tone. The general diminutive suffix in the written language and in northern speech is -chen, while southern informal use prefers regional suffixes like -le, -li (Swabian/Alemannic) and -erl (Austro-Bavarian).
• Diminutives in -lein generally have umlaut. The endings -e, -en, -el are all deleted before the suffix.
• The plural remains unchanged. However, a few nouns with a plural in -er may carry the same ending over to the plural diminutive, and a few diminutives referring to people allow a plural in -s. This is common with Kindlein → Kinderlein and Fräulein → Fräuleins. Most other such forms are rare.

• -chen
• -erl
• -i