Native to the Central German dialects,-chen has widely replaced the southern-based-lein in standard usage. Cognate withGerman Low German-ken,-ke as well asDutch-tje and-ken. More at-kin.
Words ending in the suffix-chen are always neuter, whatever the gender of the basic word.
Generally, with few exceptions, diminutives with-chen have anumlauted stem vowel. Double vowels must be singled as the combinationsää andöö are not permitted in modern German orthography (e.g.Härchen fromHaar,Bötchen fromBoot).
Words ending in-ch (and some others) use the double suffix-elchen, e.g.Strichelchen fromStrich. However, the suffix-lein is more common for these words in writing (Strichlein).
The plural diminutive is generally unchanged, but some words with a plural in-er may carry this ending over to the plural diminutive, yielding-erchen. This is standard inKindchen →Kinderchen; most other forms (likeLämmerchen, etc.) are slightly informal or dated.
Luxembourgish diminutives, unlike German, keep the gender of the basic word. With few exceptions, diminutives exhibit umlaut if possible. Stems ending in-k,-g,-ch,-ng use the extended suffix-elchen. Some diminutives are irregular:Wäin →Wéngchen.
When the syllable immediately before-chen is stressed, the plural is of the form-ercher, otherwise-cher:Kätzchen →Kätzercher, butÄppelchen →Äppelcher. Nouns with an irregular plural often exhibit a similar irregularity in the plural diminutive:Hand →Hänn and analogouslyHändchen →Hännercher.
