Wikipedia:Reference desk archive/Language/2006 July 23

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Contents 1 suffix -ness 2 Rutangna - an Ethiopian language? 3 Hapticity 4 any synonyms of "Abner" begins with an "A"?

[edit] suffix -ness

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)

German -nis, e.g. in Kenntnis "knowledge"- THE GREAT GAVINI {T-C} 06:40, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

Ahh, excellent. Bhumiya (said/done) 07:14, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

In Dutch that's kennis ("knowledge", but also "acquaintance"). David Sneek 10:04, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

You have the same in Afrikaans. Wikipeditor 15:20, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

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. DirkvdM 10:59, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

And that is the -hood suffix in English, which we use as often as German uses -nis :) Adam Bishop 16:39, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

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. DirkvdM 18:09, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

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 Bishop 19:21, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

It seems to me that -ness indicates some kind of measure, but -hood indicates a state. Brotherhood, not brotherness; but roundness, not roundhood. JackofOz 22:45, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

(And before you ask, Jack, no - Grutness is a place in Scotland). Grutness...wha? 06:53, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

(Aye, but that's about how grut you are. 'Gruthood' would simply state that you are grut.) DirkvdM 07:03, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

How grut thou art, how gruuuuuut thou art. Amen. JackofOz

[edit] 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 Fionaol 11:17, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

There doesn't seem to be a language by that name. It could be a very distorted version of Xamtanga/Khamtanga, but that's spoken in the north. --Ptcamn 15:29, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

I don't see the language on Ethnologue. You can browse the list by clicking this link. --Chris S. 22:06, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps you have it confused. --Proficient 14:44, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

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

[edit] 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? --HappyCamper 17:31, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

It is from "haptein", "to hold". Adam Bishop 17:44, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

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)

Um...how do you spell "haptein" in Greek? Does it really begin with eta? --HappyCamper 17:50, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

Liddell & Scott says ἅπτω, infinitive ἅπτειν. No eta. —Keenan Pepper 18:37, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

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.--Teutoberg 20:15, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

Something more interesting at Talk:Hapticity: from the Greek haptein, ηαπτειν. --HappyCamper 21:28, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

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)

[edit] 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)

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)

Also see Aramaic of Jesus#Abba (Αββα). JackofOz 01:56, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I was wondering if there is a single word (begins with "A") that defines "father of light" or "Source of light" in any language.

Agni means "fire". User:Zoe|^(talk) 02:29, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

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)