Creating new spanish words by adding dimunitives

Question

Please help me out, I am not sure about this. Can you add diminutives to Spanish words where this is not traditionally done and create new words that most people would understand? e.g. take a random word - invitacíon. Could you say invitacíoncitas (or invitacíonitas, I think it sounds better, is the "cita after an n" rule strict?) to mean "little invitations"/pequeñas invitacíones? Do native Spanish speakers understand, and more importantly, appreciate "invented" words such as these? Please note that I am referring to an informal written context here.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Yes, you would be understood. However, in most places it would be regarded as baby-speak or informal.

Also, you need to bear in mind that the choice of suffix to construct a diminutive varies from region to region.

In Leon, north-west Spain, the suffices "-in" (dinerín) and "-ina" (galletina) are preferred, and often it's not even regarded as baby-speak.

Other regions such a Aragón, north-east Spain, the suffices "-ico" (dinerico) and "-ica" (galletica) are preferred.

In my experience, in Spain the most neutral choice of suffices is "-ito" (dinerito) and "-ita" (galletita).

As pointed out by pHonda, another possibility are the suffices "-illo" (dinerillo) and "-illa" (galletilla). My impression is that these suffices are more common in the south of Spain.