From: tgpedersen
Message: 49253
Date: 2007-07-01
>What's it doing on a non-Celtic word?
> At 4:28:42 AM on Sunday, July 1, 2007, tgpedersen wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> > As for the -eag suffix; it appears in several of the
> > Celtic cognates I've found to Kuhn's list; it seems to
> > correspond to the typical NWBlock -Vk-suffix
>
> The suffix is <-(e)ag> ~ <-(e)ág>; the <e> is written only
> when it follows a 'slender' consonant. In Sc.Gael. it's a
> feminine diminutive suffix, corresponding to the OIr
> masculine diminutive suffix <-óc>; both are borrowings of
> the Britannic hypocoristic suffix that appears in Middle
> Welsh as <-awc> (Welsh <-og>), from PCelt. *-a:ko-
> 'pertaining to (X)' (whence also Gaulish <-acos>). The
> native Irish reflex of *-a:cos is the adjectival suffix
> <-(e)ach>.