>It's true that suffixes with -k- are not uniquely
>Slavic, but it's also true that they are extremely
>productive in Slavic.
Thus considerably influencing neighboring
languages: German, Hungarian, Romanian. (In
Hungarian, most of diminutivals are of the
-ka, -ke type, incl. in anthroponyma: (Anne->)
AnnuSka, (Rose ->) Rózsika, (Elisabeth ->)
Erzsike, (Joseph ->) JóSka/Józsika, (Andrew ->)
Bandika, (Alexander ->) Sanyika, (John ->)
Jan(cs)ika, (Helen ->) Ilonka etc.)
(In German, names ending in -ke, where this
suffix can be mistaken for the Germanic -ke(n),
cf. Pommerenke, Kasulke vs Frauke, Söhnke,
Männeken.)
(In Romanian, many a (masc.) -cu ending is a
counterpart of the (fem.) -ca ending, and can
be seen as similar to the Slavic -ko ending.
IMHO, this is well shown in the variants for
John: Iancu - Janko/Jantcho [BTW, Jankó in
Hungarian, -kó].)
>Piotr
George