Apartness vs. Aparthood?

November 22, 2005 12:21 PM

Why is "apartheid" usually translated as "apartness" rather than "aparthood"?
posted by Captain_Tenille to Writing & Language (19 answers total)

Because aparthood isn't a word in English.
posted by deafweatherman at 12:28 PM on November 22, 2005

He's got a point.
posted by iamck at 12:31 PM on November 22, 2005

Or she. Sorry.
posted by iamck at 12:31 PM on November 22, 2005

Response by poster: "Aparthood" seems like it would be a perfectly valid word, though.
posted by Captain_Tenille at 12:35 PM on November 22, 2005

It seems like it, yet it isn't one.
posted by deafweatherman at 12:37 PM on November 22, 2005

Many english word adopt the form of already existing related english words. There are english words like 'togetherness' and 'closeness' and so it would only be natural that apartheid becomes apartness. This is a pretty common morphological change - the plural of 'cow' was 'kine' in Old English, but it is now 'cows' because the plural of other animals is formed like this.
posted by lpctstr; at 12:42 PM on November 22, 2005

That's unpossible!
posted by Pollomacho at 12:53 PM on November 22, 2005

In Dutch to English translation, the suffix "-heid" can be translated as either "-ness" or "-hood" depending on the English analogue. For example, "eenzaamheid" is translated from Dutch into "loneliness" while "volwassenheid" is the English word, "adulthood."

Would "adultness" or "lonelihood" also make perfectly valid words? Maybe.

I do know that "Lonelihood" would certainly make a great band name.
posted by viewofdelft at 12:55 PM on November 22, 2005

Is it?
I thought it was usually translated as something like, " the South African policy of segregation". Probably because both "apartness" and "aparthood" sound rather awkward and neither has the same resonance in English.
And, of course, what deafweatherman said.

Come to think of it, isn't the proper word in English, "apartheid"
posted by Zetetics at 1:42 PM on November 22, 2005

I've never heard it translated into a single word, certainly not into 'apartness'. If I had to pick a single word in American English it would be 'segregation' because that has similar connotations.
I've only ever heard English speakers refer to it as 'apartheid'

On preview: what Zetetics said
posted by atrazine at 2:53 PM on November 22, 2005

The English word is apartheid. You could look it up.
posted by languagehat at 4:04 PM on November 22, 2005

In all my years I have only heard "apartheid" in English. But there's a pronunciation difference. In the United States we normally pronounce the last syllable as TIDE, but South Africans will say it as TATE.
posted by j.s.f. at 4:48 PM on November 22, 2005

I think that trying to translate this word would be like saying something other than Glasnost or Detente. The original Dutch word is enough. As far as pronunciation goes, I think the dutch pronounce the diphthong "ei" as in "ay." The English pronunciation is closer to the German "ei" as in "eye."
posted by vkxmai at 5:07 PM on November 22, 2005

The plural of 'cow' is also cattle, by the way. Are there any other words which have two completely separate plural formations?
posted by dash_slot- at 5:53 PM on November 22, 2005

Are there any other words which have two completely separate plural formations?

fish
n. pl. fish or fish·es
posted by ludwig_van at 7:04 PM on November 22, 2005

apar thood
posted by NortonDC at 8:28 PM on November 22, 2005

I do know that "Lonelihood" would certainly make a great band name.

Clearlyan emo band.
posted by kindall at 9:04 PM on November 22, 2005

Echo what was said above - aparthood just isn't an English word. No good reason, just like there's no good reason for not saying unpossible, ingrateful etc.
posted by altolinguistic at 2:13 AM on November 23, 2005

languagehat is essentially right -- it's been accepted as a loan word. That said, sometimes there's a need to explain it, perhaps in textbooks. I found a good breakdown of the suffix usage question, though:

-ness is one of a number of noun suffixes. It is used to make nouns from adjectives, although not every adjective can be modified in this way.

more restrictive noun suffixes (nouns from nouns)

-ship (abstract nouns denoting different kinds of relationships)
[relationship friendship partnership membership]

-hood (abstract nouns denoting different kinds of 'families')
[childhood motherhood neighbourhood priesthood]

So -ness is preferred because it's the broader term, thus the more usual one. The -hood words are all older and you don't generally find it attached to Romance word forms, which apart actually is (I've just thought of some exceptions, of course, like adulthood).
posted by dhartung at 9:14 AM on November 23, 2005