Occasional musings, Geistesblitze, photos, drawings etc. by a "resident alien", who has landed on American soil from a far-away planet called "Germany".

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

The German Suffix -schaft

The suffix –schaft has a wide range of uses in German that overlaps to a large extent with the way in which the etymologically related suffix –ship is used in English. It may indicate, for instance, a state of affairs or a relationship between the type of persons indicated by the noun it is attached to. For example, Freund means "friend" and Freundschaft "friendship": It's the relationship that exists between friends.

It may also refer to a group whose members have something in common. For example, Leser mean "reader" and Leserschaft "readership": It's the community of people identified by the preceding noun. In German, this type of use may have negative connotations. For example, a Sippe is a clan or an extended family, while a Sippschaft is bad company.

The suffix can also refer to an event or action or their result. The word Erbe means "heir" and Erbschaft "inheritance": If you become an Erbe, you receive an Erbschaft. Analoguous examples for the use of -ship in English are "courtship" and "censorship".

The suffix can also be attached to an adjective. An English example is "hardship". But this use is rare in English. It's more common in German. A well-known and often commented-on example is Gemeinschaft, which is formed by adding -schaft to the adjective gemein in the now almost obsolete meaning of "relating to the larger community". It's often translated into English as "community", but this translation does not capture the connotations of the German term, the sense of belonging, on the one hand, and the rejection of outsiders, on the other hand, that are often implied when we speak of a Gemeinschaft.

There are also instances in German where -schaft is added to a verb. For example, wandern can mean "to hike" or "to roam", and Wanderschaft refers to an extended period of being on the move without having a fixed residence. I cannot think of an analoguous use of English -ship, unless one considers the "court-" and "censor-" parts in "courtship" and "censorship" verbs instead of nouns. In fact, I would consider this a more plausible explanation, but no online source I consulted supports this point of view.

11 comments:

bjjorden said...

functional definition 'sticks' more easily. This is a wonderful example.
I was sad when you didn't do gesellschaft along with gemeinschaft.

Ulrich said...

Thanks for commenting!
I though about the Gesellschaft vs Gemeinschaft thing, which is indeed important if one wants to understand German culture. But then I decided not get into it bec. my post was really about the suffix -schaft and I did not want to distract from it with extraneous issues.
But the topic could warrant a post by itself!

Unknown said...

What about Mannschaft, Wirtschaft ,..?

Robinson said...

Thanks for sharing such a useful and informative post like this. Keep updating more updates like this.
German to English Translation


JPHB, M.D. said...

came across this post because I was fascinated by the etimology of the german word for Science - Wissenschaft or roughly “Knowledgeship”

Ulrich said...

@JPHB: Yes, indeed! I appreciate you interest.

Unknown said...

Does Wissenschaft, Naturwissenschaft or Wissenschaftler(in) have negative connotations because of the -schaft suffix?

Ulrich said...

@Unknown: The suffix carries no connotations by itself. Those come with the stem it is attached to. For example, Freundschaft (friendship) has positive connotations, while Feindschaft (enmity--literally enemy-ship) has negative ones. Wissenschaft has no connotations of that kind at all.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for responding!

Unknown said...

Kreigsgesangschaft?

Ulrich said...

I don't understand: Kreig is not a German word. If you mean Krieg (war), the construct makes no sense--war songship? I.e. you cannot attach -ship to any German noun, as you cannot attach -ship to any English noun.