Multilingual Abstract Noun and Suffixes

Most people learned what the definition of a noun is when they were very young: any person, place, or thing. There are also proper nouns which always receive a capitalized first letter. Additionally, there are abstract nouns. The capitalization of these nouns is debatable, but I prefer to do so.

The Fruitages of the Holy Spirit found in the Bible at Galatians 5:22, 23  are a superb example of the abstract noun. Instead of just a thing, it is a thing that intangible, or non-physical. The following is a list of the Fruitages in English, Spanish, Danish, and Czech.

Love	Amor	Kærlighed	Laska
Joy	Gozo	Glæd	Radost
Peace	Paz	Fred	Pokoj
Faith	Fe	Tro	Víra
Goodness	Bondad	Godhed	Dobrota
Kindness	Benignidad	Venlighed	Laskavost
Mildness	Apacibilidad	Mildhed	Mírnost
Long-Suffering	Gran Paciencia	Langmodihed	Trpělivost
Self-Control	Autodominio	Selvbekerkelse	Sebeovládání

As you can see it is not in order found in the passage, but organized according to syllables and suffixes in English. The first four have one syllable and no suffix; the middle three are two syllables and have the same suffix: "-ness;" the last two have varying syllables but are both hyphenated.

I find it very interesting how the Spanish translation follows this same pattern almost exactly. The first four have no suffix; the middle three have the same suffix: "-dad;" and the last two have varying syllables. This is surely evidence of the Gothic influence of both Spanish and French (viz. Middle French and Middle English).

Looking at Danish, the previous pattern is broken, but a new one emerges. Five out of the nine abstract nouns end in "-hed." If rearranged to this new pattern the list goes as follows:

Tro	Faith
Kærlighed	Love
Godhed	Gooness
Venlighed	Kindness
Mildhed	Mildness
Langmodihed	Long-Suffering
Glæd	Joy
Fred	Peace
Selvbekerkelse	Self-Control

Three out of four of the qualities in English that end in "-ness" end in "-hed" in Danish. Wouldn't it be weird if, instead of saying 'Goodness' we said 'Goodhood;' or instead of 'Love' we said 'Lovinghood.'

Finally, looking at Czech, there is also a pattern different from English:

Radost	Joy
Laskavost	Kindness
Mírnost	Mildness
Trpělivost	Long-Suffering
Laska	Love
Víra	Faith
Dobrota	Goodness
Sebeovládání	Self-Control
Pokoj	Peace

The first four end in "-ost;" the next four end in a feminine vowel sound; the last one ends in a masculine vowel sound. This is indicative of how far back the languages split. While Modern English was directly influenced by Danish and is in the same generational displacement  from Latin as is Spanish. Although Czech is  related to English, the most recent common ancestor is only the Indo-European language. That means that Czech is about as related to English as is Hindi.

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