małi

See also: mali, Mali, and mą́łi

Choctaw

Noun

małi

1. Misspelling of mahli.

Usage notes

This spelling (with 'ł') was adopted by the editors of Cyrus Byington's comprehensive A dictionary of the Choctaw language for Byington's original mahli. In this word, the 'hl' is not a digraph representing /ɬ/ but a consonant cluster /hl/. Byington had used 'hl' for /ɬ/ before vowels and 'lh' elsewhere, conflating /ɬ/ and /hl/. The editors were unaware Byington's 'hl' represented two distinct sounds as their express purpose for using 'ł' was so that "each consonant has but one sound" (page xi). This spelling is never used outside the dictionary.

Masurian

Etymology

Inherited from Old Polish mały.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmawi]
• Syllabification: ma‧łi

Adjective

małi (comparative mnijsÿ, superlative námnijsÿ, derived adverb mało)

1. small, little (having a physically not large size)
2. little (not many in number)
3. little (not old)
4. little (of little importance)
5. poor; meager; humble (not owning much, not rich)
6. little; short (not lasting a long time)

Noun

małi m pers

1. (nominalized) little one; child
2. (nominalized) someone unimportant

Further reading

• Zofia Stamirowska (1987-2024) “mały”, in Anna Basara, editor, Słownik gwar Ostródzkiego, Warmii i Mazur‎^[1], volume 4, Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk, →ISBN, page 98