83 Depth and Distance: Abstract Nouns

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In Croatian, as in English, many adjectives (e.g. deep) have associated abstract nouns (e.g. depth).

As in English, various adjectives use various suffixes to create abstract nouns in Croatian. For some adjectives, -ina gets added to create an abstract noun:

brz fast → brzina speed, velocity
topao (topl-) warm → toplina warmth, heat ®
vješt skilled → vještina skill
vruć hot → vrućina heat (extreme)

Of the two nouns standing for heat, only the noun toplina is used in the generic sense, e.g. in science. As you can see, the resulting noun has always stress on the i from the suffix.

Some the derived nouns have a non-abstract meaning:

divlji wild → divljina wilderness
šupalj (šuplj-) hollow → šupljina cavity

Adjectives that discard a part of them when making a comparative (e.g. -ok or -ak), discard it as well when making abstract nouns:

dubok deep → dubina depth
širok wide → širina width
težak (tešk-) heavy → težina weight
visok high → visina height, altitude

For some adjectives, there’s a shift in consonants, the same as in comparatives:

debeo (debel) thick, fat → debljina thickness
jak strong → jačina strength
tih quiet, silent → tišina silence

(Abstract nouns don’t always have a shift when comparatives have one: for instance, from visok, the comparative is viši, but the abstract noun is visina, without the shift s → š.)

Abstract nouns can even be derived from some question-words that behave like adjectives, and even from few comparatives; results are often very generic nouns:

kolik how big → količina quantity
manji smaller → manjina minority
velik big → veličina size
veći bigger → većina majority

Certain once abstract nouns evolved specific meanings, e.g. nizina means lowlands.

Abstract nouns in -ina have relational adjectives in -ski:

dubina depth → dubinski toplina heat → toplinski

većina majority → većinski visina height → visinski

Few adjectives make abstract nouns by adding -oća:

čist clean → čistoća cleanliness
gluh deaf → gluhoća deafness
hladan (hladn-) cold → hladnoća cold

Very few adjectives add -ota. If adjectives contain a sequence ije, it’s shortened to je in abstract nouns:

lijep nice, pretty → ljepota beauty
slijep blind → sljepoća blindness

Next, there are few adjectives that add -stvo, creating neuter nouns (after discarding the final -n in adjectives, if present). The stress is on the syllable right before the suffix:

bogat rich → bogatstvo richness
iskusan (iskusn-) experienced → iskustvo experience
siromašan (siromašn-) poor → siromaštvo poverty
zadovoljan (zadovoljn-) satisfied → zadovoljstvo satisfaction

This suffix is use to create abstract nouns out of a couple of other nouns as well (the process is not always regular):

car emperor → carstvo empire
član member → članstvo membership
kralj king → kraljevstvo kingdom
prijatelj friend → prijateljstvo friendship

The vast majority of adjectives use another suffix to make abstract nouns: -ost (or a variation, -nost). It can be, in fact, regarded as the default suffix for abstract nouns. The result is always a feminine noun ending in a consonant:

glup stupid → glupost f stupidity
mlad young → mladost f youth, young age
slab weak → slabost f weakness
star old → starost f age

This suffix creates three quite important nouns, from present adjectives and a past adjective:

budući future → budućnost f future
moguć possible → mogućnost f possibility
prošao (prošl-) past → prošlost f past

The stress is mostly moved to the syllable that precedes the suffix. More important nouns created by this suffix:

opasan (opasn-) dangerous → opasnost f danger
sličan (sličn-) similar, alike → sličnost f similarity
slučajan (slučajn-) accidental → slučajnost f coincidence
stvaran (stvarn-) real → stvarnost f reality
udaljen distant → udaljenost f distance
važan (važn-) important → važnost f importance

Passive adjectives always use this suffix to create abstract nouns, usually corresponding to English -ness:

gledan watched (also popular)→ gledanost f viewer ratings
otvoren open → otvorenost f openness

The noun gledanost f means literally watchedness (however, this is an extremely rare English word).

Potential adjectives always use this suffix to create abstract nouns as well:

vidljiv visible → vidljivost f visibility
osjetljiv sensitive → osjetljivost f sensitivity

This is maybe the place to show the full range of derived words from a single (perfective) verb (of course, not all verbs have all the possible forms):

verb	adjectives	(verbal) nouns
isključiti («) perf. exclude (also turn off)	isključen excluded (turned off)	isključenje excluding
		isključenost f exclusion
	isključiv exclusive, strict	isključivost f exclusiveness, strictness

In addition, there are (for most potential and passive adjectives), negated adjectives, and derived negated abstract words; for example:

vidljiv visible vidljivost f visibility

nevidljiv invisible nevidljivost f invisibility

Such negated adjectives and abstract nouns are always derived by appending ne-.

Some nouns created by -ost have meaning that’s not obvious from the adjective they are derived from:

umjetan (umjetn-) artificial → umjetnost f art

While English art has a wide meaning, Croatian umjetnost f means only painting, making sculptures and other high arts.

Some nouns changed meaning over time, or the adjectives they were created from fell out of use:

prednost f priority, advantage radost f joy

znanost f science ® žalost f sadness

Abstract nouns that don’t end in -ina usually don’t have relational adjectives – the adjectives they are derived from are used in relational meaning too – or form relational adjectives irregularly:

starost f old age → starački
umjetnost f art → umjetnički
znanost f science → znanstven scientific ®

The relational adjectives starački and umjetnički are actually derived from nouns starac (starc-) old man and umjetnik artist.

Finally, it’s interesting that there are more abstract feminine nouns that don’t end in -a, which seem to be (at least historically) derived with -t. Common ones are:

bit f essence, gist čast f honor moć f might, power pomoć f help povijest f history ®

propast f downfall smrt f death strast f passion vijest f news vlast f authority, government

________

® The word znanost f science is specific to Croatia. In Bosnia and Serbia, the word nauka is more common; instead of toplina heat, toplota is used in Bosnia and Serbia. For nauka, the relational adjective is simply naučni.

Instead of povijest, the word for history is historija in parts of Bosnia, and istorija in Serbia and parts of Bosnia with Serbian majority.

↓ Something Possibly Interesting (click to show)

Present irregularities can be a key to history. Nouns like moć might, power end in -ć, while other similar nouns end in -t. Likewise, inf of the verb can is moći, while most verbs have infinitives in -ti. Besides, the verb is highly irregular.

The most likely explanation is this: some time ago – likely more than 1200 years, maybe much more – the verb can had inf something like mogtī, and the abstract noun was mogti (the difference was length of the last vowel). Therefore, the past forms and pres-1 were and still are fully regular (mog-la, mog-u). (I’m here simplifying things a bit: in the distant past, the past and present endings were a bit different; also, the o in mog- wasn’t really an o.)

But then, for unknown reasons, sequences kti and gti changed their pronunciations into ći (the sound wasn’t of today ć, but an early version of it, a kind of softened t). Later, short i’s were dropped from ends of words (as from most other positions as well). So, we are now left with t vs. ć.

Also, note the similarity of mog-tī with English may, might and German mögen, mag. If we would go back in time, we would find many more similarities.

↓ Examples (click to show)

There’s a song from Massimo, a Croatian pop singer — Tišina Silence:

Do tebe me nosi tišina	To you silence is carrying me
na krilima vremena	On wings of time
mjesta još uvijek ima°	There’s still some room
Kad zastanem pitat ću zvijezde	When I stop, I’ll ask stars
koliko me dijeli do tebe	How far I’m from you
i tvojih visina	And your heights
(S. Bastiančić)

Mjesta još uvijek ima° is an existential construction, with a bit unusual word order.

You can listen to it on YouTube™.

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