Re: [tied] Re: Modern Greek patronymic suffix -POULOS

I admit near-complete ignorance as regards the possible sources of <-ko> in Japanese. A large number of Japanese _female_ names (and a small number of masculine ones) end in <-ko>, which does seem to function as a diminutive suffix, but I believe it's simply the Japanese _common noun_ <ko> 'child' agglutinated to the name (e.g. Akiko 'Summer-child', Yoshiko 'Good-child', Yukiko 'Snow-child', etc.). The consonant /k/ occurs so frequently cross-linguistically that its accidental appearance in analogously functioning morphemes in unrelated languages is relatively likely.

Piotr

----- Original Message -----
From: "george knysh" <gknysh@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, January 03, 2003 1:06 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Modern Greek patronymic suffix -POULOS


> If an
> Iranic connection for a -KO ending seems possible in
> the West, is it also possible in the East, or do we
> have to do here with completely coincidental and
> foreign developments (i.e. foreign to the speculative
> Western ones)? There are, I think, some Japanese names
> (and perhaps words too?) which end in -KO. One theory
> about the settlement of the Japanese isles had it that
> there was an ancient component from the steppes of
> Eurasia (along with others from elsewhere incl.
> Polynesia). Could this Japanese -KO be therefrom, or
> is it explained by different rules/contacts?*****