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In English we have a lot of very specific words for many animals. Male foxes
are known as reynards or tods, female foxes are known as vixens, and baby
foxes are known as kits.

It's not an isolated instance either. Bucks, does, and fawns. Bulls, cows or
heifers, and calfs.

It's not even isolated by class. Roosters, hens, and chicks.

Does Japanese have this sort of word specificity, is there an affix of some
sort, or are you forced to spell it out, so to speak, as when saying "young
fox" or "baby fox".

I am specifically looking for what to call a "kit" or baby fox, since the
closest translation I can find is キット which is obviously a loan word and
doesn't even necessarily mean a fox kit but it would be good to know what to
do in the future.
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2014-06-21T06:48:21.807
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2016-05-14T10:19:40.480
2014-06-22T04:31:15.737
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question
word-choice translation word-requests
What do you call young animals in Japanese?
You can get a lot of mileage out of prefixing the names of animals with 子【こ】-,
which functions as a diminutive. For example, "kitten" is 子猫【こねこ】; "puppy" is
子犬【こいぬ】; "piglet" is 子豚【こぶた】.

This also works for foxes - the best way to say "kit" is 子狐【こぎつね】.
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2014-06-21T07:07:20.097
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2014-06-21T07:07:20.097
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answer
There's the prefix 子{こ}- 'child', sometimes spelled 仔:

```

    猫（ねこ）　　→　　子猫（こねこ）　　'kitten'  
    牛（うし）　　→　　子牛（こうし）　　'calf'  
    狐（きつね）　→　　子狐（こぎつね）　'kit'  
    羊（ひつじ）　→　　子羊（こひつじ）　'lamb'  
    豚（ぶた）　　→　　子豚（こぶた）　　'piglet'  
    犬（いぬ）　　→　　子犬（こいぬ）　　'pup'  
    鹿（しか）　　→　　子鹿（こじか）　　'fawn'  
    馬（うま）　　→　　子馬（こうま）　　'foal'
    
```

It doesn't work for every word, though. 小鳥{こ・とり} is 'small bird', and for
'chick' you need to use something like ひよこ.

But it does work for your word, 子狐{こ・ぎつね} 'kit'.
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2014-06-21T07:08:11.690
17521
2016-05-14T10:19:40.480
2016-05-14T10:19:40.480
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answer