Noun-forming suffixes

[Forero]

The following German-English cognate suffixes all denote a state of being or degree in some sense:

-heit/-keit (-hood)
-tum (-dom)
-nis (-ness)
-schaft (-ship)

Sometimes they correspond in translation:

Mannheit ~ manhood
Bitternis ~ bitterness
Freundschaft ~ friendship

But in most cases, I think German tends to favor –heit/–keit and English tends to favour –ness.

Is there a rule or set of rules for choosing from among these suffixes in German or in English?
How do language historians/linguists account for this difference in frequency between German and English?

 

[Frank06]

Hi,

This is possibly an interesting question, but I think you first need to explain a few things.
You write:

But in most cases, I think German tends to favor –heit/–keit and English tends to favour –ness.

And then you ask how linguists would account for what you think are differences.

How do language historians/linguists account for this difference in frequency between German and English?

I think that you first need to elaborate on this and quantify the differences, before starting to jump to explanations or conclusions.

Groetjes,

Frank

 

[Whodunit]

You should differentiate between two different heit's:

noun + suffix = noun (very rarely: 17)
adjective + suffix = noun (very often: 762)

Here are the statistics of the other suffixes:

adjective + igkeit = noun (very often: 403)
adjective + keit = noun (extremely often: 1872)

Here are the rules for the three suffixes keit, heit and igkeit.
_____

As for your other suffixes:

noun + tum = noun (often: 147)
adjective + tum = noun (very rarely: 17)

noun + schaft = noun (often: 196)
adjective + schaft = noun (quite rarely: 50)
verb + schaft = noun (only 4)

adjective + nis = noun (very rarely: 22)
verb + nis = noun (quite rarely: 57)

I will keep my eyes open for English statistics and an explanation on the German suffixes.

 

[Forero]

I wish I had a dictionary I could read with a program so I could check the suffixes properly.

I just did a search of the Ca(u)nterbury Tales to see how these suffixes were used in Middle English.

I found lots of -ness words, but -ness was always spelled -nesse and the -nesse words seemed to be quite handy for rhyming with French words ending in -esse. Almost all were like modern -ness words. The exceptions were rakelnesse (hastiness?), sikernesse (= Sicherheit), and woodnesse (= Wütigkeit).

There were 5 -dom words, all corresponding to modern -dom words.

There were 4 -ship(e) words, all corresponding to modern -ship words.

I found 11 words with the equivalent of the -hood suffix. I looked for -hod, -hood, -hode, -hed, -heed, and -hede and found some with variable endings depending on the rhyme:

childhede = childhood
manhod/manhede = manhood
knyghthod/knyghthede = knighthood
maydenhod/maydenhede = maidenhood
wommanhede = womanhood
wyfhod/wyfhede = wifehood
godhede = Godhead (Godhood, but hede also meant head)
liklihede = likelihood (liklynesse was also used)

Just 3 of the 11 did not have modern equivalents in -hood or -head, but at least two of these have German equivalents in -keit or -heit:

lustiheed (mirth) = Lustigkeit
grenehede (inexperience, crudity) = Grünheit
chapmanhode (business as opposed to pleasure) =? Kaufmannheit? -schaft?