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According to Dictionary.com, the suffix "-ness" (as in "happiness", not as in "Inverness") comes from Old English, so is presumably Germanic. Does it have a cognate in any other living Germanic language?
Bhumiya (
said/
done)
05:54, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
However, the -nis in Dutch and German is only used for specific words. The -ness in English is pretty much the standard suffix - how round something is could be called its 'roundness'. In Dutch that would be 'rondheid'. That is not a standard Dutch word, but that's the point I'm making. If there isn't a word for it and you have to create it, you add -heid. It wouldn't be called 'rondnis'. The German equivalent of the Dutch -heid is -heit.
DirkvdM10:59, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
Not sure what you mean. 'Roundhood' isn't English, afaik (but then what does a Dutchie know? :) ). And 'rundnis' isn't German either. 'Rundheit' is.
DirkvdM18:09, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
I mean the cognate of -heid/-heit in English is -hood, but we don't use it very often ("neighbourhood", "brotherhood" for example). And German doesn't use -nis very often, while English uses it much more than -hood.
Adam Bishop19:21, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
It seems to me that -ness indicates some kind of measure, but -hood indicates a state. Brotherhood, not brotherness; but roundness, not roundhood.
JackofOz22:45, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
How grut thou art, how gruuuuuut thou art. Amen.
JackofOz
Rutangna - an Ethiopian language?
Is there a language spoken in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia called Rutangna? If so, can you list any publicly available resources (online, books etc) about the language.
- Fi
Fionaol11:17, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
I went straight to the Ethnologue too, with no luck. Perhaps if you mentioned the source, where you found this name, we could help in narrowing it down?
Ziggurat
I have a feeling there is a language called Rutangna. I have a sponsor child in Ethiopia, and I have been informed that this is his native language -- 20:04, 13 August 2007
Hapticity
Hi there! I'm trying to improve our chemistry article on
hapticity, and the term is related to the Greek for the word "held". Does anyone know what this is? --
HappyCamper17:31, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
I've always assumed that the Germanic cognate resulted in English "heft". That's how I explain the term to people, anyway. True? ·
rodii ·17:47, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
Oxford English Dictionary does not agree with your etymology, ·
rodii ·. It says "heft" comes from "heave," which comes from who knows where. BTW, in German it is "heben," which is closer to heave than heft. It might be interesting to look from Greek "haptein" to English "have," German "haben" too, though.--
Teutoberg20:15, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
The word haptic is used in psychology (perception an cognition) to refer to things perceived by the sense of touch. The term
Haptics is used in computing for situations like total-immersion systems where there is a link between programs and tactile sensation.
Grutness...wha?07:01, 24 July 2006 (UTC)reply
any synonyms of "Abner" begins with an "A"?
is there any synonyms of Abner (meaning father of light in Hebrew) begins with an "A" in any other language?
Thanks
Hmmm, don't know if this is what you're looking for but a literal translation of "Father of Light" in Tagalog is Ama ng Ilaw. --
Chris S.22:37, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
With the exception of Austronesian languages, I can find six languages whose word for "father" begins with "A":
Albanian: "atë"
Basque: "aita"
Hungarian: "apa"
Irish: "athair"
Korean: "abeoji"
Turkish: "ata"
There may be more. Of these six, some may place the genitive phrase "of light" after the word for father, but I can't say which ones for certain.
Bhumiya (
said/
done)
23:47, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
Linguists say that words like "appa", "papa" or "atta" are quite common "baby-babble words" for "father" and popular throughout the world. There are many more examples. Even the Germanic "father"-word with the "fa-" sound in the beginning (English "father", German "Vater", Dutch "vader") is a former "pa-" which underwent
Grimm's law. Equivalent are words like "mam(m)a", Arabic "umm". --
Rabe!12:25, 25 July 2006 (UTC)reply
That all proves descending of all languages from Adamic Proto-Indo-European as is explained here:
[1] In PIE exists words such as *amma - mother and *appa - father. Much more is here:
[2]Wikinger19:03, 4 July 2007 (UTC)reply
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions at one of the pages linked to above.
According to Dictionary.com, the suffix "-ness" (as in "happiness", not as in "Inverness") comes from Old English, so is presumably Germanic. Does it have a cognate in any other living Germanic language?
Bhumiya (
said/
done)
05:54, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
However, the -nis in Dutch and German is only used for specific words. The -ness in English is pretty much the standard suffix - how round something is could be called its 'roundness'. In Dutch that would be 'rondheid'. That is not a standard Dutch word, but that's the point I'm making. If there isn't a word for it and you have to create it, you add -heid. It wouldn't be called 'rondnis'. The German equivalent of the Dutch -heid is -heit.
DirkvdM10:59, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
Not sure what you mean. 'Roundhood' isn't English, afaik (but then what does a Dutchie know? :) ). And 'rundnis' isn't German either. 'Rundheit' is.
DirkvdM18:09, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
I mean the cognate of -heid/-heit in English is -hood, but we don't use it very often ("neighbourhood", "brotherhood" for example). And German doesn't use -nis very often, while English uses it much more than -hood.
Adam Bishop19:21, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
It seems to me that -ness indicates some kind of measure, but -hood indicates a state. Brotherhood, not brotherness; but roundness, not roundhood.
JackofOz22:45, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
How grut thou art, how gruuuuuut thou art. Amen.
JackofOz
Rutangna - an Ethiopian language?
Is there a language spoken in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia called Rutangna? If so, can you list any publicly available resources (online, books etc) about the language.
- Fi
Fionaol11:17, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
I went straight to the Ethnologue too, with no luck. Perhaps if you mentioned the source, where you found this name, we could help in narrowing it down?
Ziggurat
I have a feeling there is a language called Rutangna. I have a sponsor child in Ethiopia, and I have been informed that this is his native language -- 20:04, 13 August 2007
Hapticity
Hi there! I'm trying to improve our chemistry article on
hapticity, and the term is related to the Greek for the word "held". Does anyone know what this is? --
HappyCamper17:31, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
I've always assumed that the Germanic cognate resulted in English "heft". That's how I explain the term to people, anyway. True? ·
rodii ·17:47, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
Oxford English Dictionary does not agree with your etymology, ·
rodii ·. It says "heft" comes from "heave," which comes from who knows where. BTW, in German it is "heben," which is closer to heave than heft. It might be interesting to look from Greek "haptein" to English "have," German "haben" too, though.--
Teutoberg20:15, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
The word haptic is used in psychology (perception an cognition) to refer to things perceived by the sense of touch. The term
Haptics is used in computing for situations like total-immersion systems where there is a link between programs and tactile sensation.
Grutness...wha?07:01, 24 July 2006 (UTC)reply
any synonyms of "Abner" begins with an "A"?
is there any synonyms of Abner (meaning father of light in Hebrew) begins with an "A" in any other language?
Thanks
Hmmm, don't know if this is what you're looking for but a literal translation of "Father of Light" in Tagalog is Ama ng Ilaw. --
Chris S.22:37, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
With the exception of Austronesian languages, I can find six languages whose word for "father" begins with "A":
Albanian: "atë"
Basque: "aita"
Hungarian: "apa"
Irish: "athair"
Korean: "abeoji"
Turkish: "ata"
There may be more. Of these six, some may place the genitive phrase "of light" after the word for father, but I can't say which ones for certain.
Bhumiya (
said/
done)
23:47, 23 July 2006 (UTC)reply
Linguists say that words like "appa", "papa" or "atta" are quite common "baby-babble words" for "father" and popular throughout the world. There are many more examples. Even the Germanic "father"-word with the "fa-" sound in the beginning (English "father", German "Vater", Dutch "vader") is a former "pa-" which underwent
Grimm's law. Equivalent are words like "mam(m)a", Arabic "umm". --
Rabe!12:25, 25 July 2006 (UTC)reply
That all proves descending of all languages from Adamic Proto-Indo-European as is explained here:
[1] In PIE exists words such as *amma - mother and *appa - father. Much more is here:
[2]Wikinger19:03, 4 July 2007 (UTC)reply