diminutives (was: Foreign Names)

On Fri, 27 Oct 2000, H. S. Teoh wrote:

> On Fri, Oct 27, 2000 at 05:52:37PM -0400, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> [snip]
> > Well, Korean names are "Chinese" names, so I'm somehow not surprised.  At
> > least with my sister there's only two of us!  And Koreans call each other
> > by the two-syllable given names (or some longer diminutive thereof), so
>
> Hehe, "longer diminutive". ;-)
<wry look>  I've never understood the terminology myself.  I'm trying to
remember if diminutives are usually longer or shorter with "English"
names but I think they can go either way.

YHL