[LAB] The article is an attempt at verifying the general opinion about “a vast multitude” of diminutives in Slavic languages, including dialects. An analysis has been carried out of texts recorded by Z. Sobierajski in 1951-1953 and published in a volume of slightly more than 200 pages of texts from 11 locations in western Wielkopolska region (Sobierajski, 1985). [PAR] Contrary to the expectations, the number of diminutives in these texts is negligible. They do not represent more than 0.5% of the registered word forms (whose total number in the volume amounts to 62,711). What is surprising is the redundant, surplus expression of ‘smallness’ by means of the MAŁY (small) type. MAŁY + a diminutive appeared 38 times thus representing 61.29% of the MAŁY lexeme in the texts.