While I was making a comment on diminutives on another subreddit I came to the conclusion that the word "mother" has the most diminutives of any word in Slovak.
And I was wondering, whether this is in every language or only in Slovak? So, what about your language or the language you are learning? How many diminutives (also negative, if you have such diminutives) for "mother" are there? (or if there is another word than mother that has more diminutives, let us know, it would be an interesting find)
Here is my list of diminutives for mother in Slovak (probably not complete):
matka - cold, formal, nobody calls his mother like this except on forms, documents and in very formal/office/statistical situations
mater - could be poetic (but also derogatory, so be careful)
mať - only used in poetry, literature and speeches
matička - poetic (matička Zem/mother Earth)
matinka - poetic/archaic
mama - used mostly when you are talking about other mothers and not your mother, or about motherhood etc. I have never called my mother mama - except when I was learning to speak and ma ma pa pa da da were the only sounds I could spit out. I and most of my friends call our mothers: mamka, mami, mamik, mamina or mamička
mami (probably from Czech vocative case, but in Slovak we use it instead of mama as a deminutive, when we want to sound more warm, mama sound a little cold and formal for us for some reason)
mamik or mamík - a less common variant of mami, but people use it
mamka (probably the most frequent diminutive that is used even by adults all the time, I like it the most as welll)
mamko - a deminitive used in rural areas, it's originally a vocative of mamka - but Slovak doesn't have vocative (unlike Czech) now and it's used only for some words
mamina (from Czech as well, more common in the western parts of Slovakia)
maminka - more tender form of mamina
mamička (this one is probably the most intimate and when an adult man use this word it will be probably only in some intimate situation or when he is very moved)
maminôčka - very intimate, I haven't heard it very often from males - unless it was on a funeral or something very sad with their mother
mamča - an import from Czech
mamuľka - quite rare
mamulík - Some kids (or husbands ;D) use this when they are begging themother/wife to get something/to allow something)
mamuliatko - this one is quite cute, but if used it's mostly in poetry
mamulienka/mamulinka/mamulenka - it's sometimes used, but it's mostly poetic
mamulienočka - an even more tender way of saying mamulienka
maňka/maňko - some dialects use these diminutives
mac - an eastern variant of mať
mamôčka/mamačka - used more in the wester and middle parts of Slovakia
mamenka/mamenko - eastern and middle parts of Slovakia
Here are some bad diminutive words of mother
macer/macir - estern dialect - could be neutral, but it's used as a derogatory term as well
mamisko - a bad mother
mamičisko - an even worse mother
mamica - an extremely rare term but I have heard it - it can mean a bad mother or a mother with big breasts
There are words like macocha (a very bad mother or stepmother) but those are rather a separate term.
You can create even your own versions like mamulieninka or mamulieninôčka or mamičica (bad) and some people do, but they are not used in normal daily conversation.
There are probably some diminutives I am missing, so, my guess is that it would be like 30+ diminutives for mother we use in the Slovak language.
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