That familiar little suffix sound you use to convey cuteness (horsey vs. horse, piggie vs. pig) has a telling origin story.

It tells you something both about language and about the common otherness of technology.

A few thousand years ago or so, speakers of a proto-language near present day Ukraine would have used a pair of words roughly translated to “babe child” to refer to a newborn. Over time that second word was used so commonly that its usage eroded and became a simple sound, forming the word “baby” we know so well today. That’s why the blanket your toddler has is called “blankey” and why your childhood friend “Timmy” would much prefer to be called “Tim” now in adulthood. (For linguistics nerds like me, John McWhorter’s “Lexicon Valley” podcast devoted an entire episode to this concept.)

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