Diminutives in Japanese

Question

I was trying to explain the concept of diminutives to my Japanese friend and can't quite find a good analogy in Japanese.

I think the ''ko'' prefix acts a bit like a diminutive but I can't think of any good examples.

Is it a diminutive and can someone give me some examples?

Also although ''chan'' is an honorific I feel it is a diminutive honorific.

Would this be correct to say.

Can anyone give me some insight into Japanese diminutives?

Examples are welcomed.

Answer 1

Dialects have words like 安っちい or …っこ as you mentioned, but that's rare in Standard Japanese. I can only come up with 犬っころ (Is it a dialect too?). Or, suffixes for personal nicknames like ゆきぴょん for ゆき could be that kind.

If your friend was familiar with music, you could use terms like "sonatine".