Re: [tied] -ch

Pavel Adámek wrote:

> In Czech, expressive forms of family relations and personal names
> are derived with the suffix -ch [x] added to first syllable of the word,
> for example:
> bratr > brach, kmotr > kmoch,
> Petr > Pech, Matej > Mach ...

It was the same in Old Polish (with both Slavic and imported names: you
would have been called Pach or Paszek, and I, Piech or Pieszek); we
still have some hypocoristic names like Lech, Stach (< Stanisl/aw) in
current use, and <brachu> is quite frequent as a colloquial vocative.
There are also related East Slavic hypocoristics (cf. -s^a, -s^ka)

> I would like to know in which other languages
> such or similar suffix appears.
>
> My guess is that it is augmentative suffix -sko
> with expressive metathesis to -kso
> and RUKI change to [-xo].

This looks completely ad hoc to me, though I can't offer a convincing
alternative off the top of my head.

Piotr