-lein

Etymology
From, , from , , from. Cognate to 🇨🇬.

Usage notes

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