I live in Alsace, which is in France but has a German-like dialect (Alemannic)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alsatian_dialect

-ele is used a lot to denote something small, cute, adorable; maybe think of it as kind of like ちび (chibi) or -ちゃん (-chan) in Japanese.

Mann (man) => Mannele https://cookingwithbrendagantt.net/mannele-st-nicholas-bread...

Katz (cat) => katzele (kitty)

The suffix can be liberally (ab)used with any - native or foreign - word or (sur)name to emphatic or comedic effect.

Here I kinda guessed the -le use was such but around here I would have said "OSele" (oh-ess-uh-luh)

Similar in English, the ie suffix is used to create a diminutive. Sweet -> sweetie. You can make cute cuter by saying cutie.

as seen also in Spätzle, Müsli, or, to pick something more relevant on HN, the words Brötli (or Zöpfli)

-li is a different version of the same ending

*suffix.

A prefix goes before something.

Indeed. Thanks for the correction; I edited the original message