Deutschlisch
Lego block building
So I put in my two cents (or gave my mustard, as the Deutschies say) about German as a modular language.
But that was about verbs. Mmm, yes. Nouns (of the compound variety), in German, are a completely different (and somewhat maligned - by Englischers at least) phenomenon. Mark Twain wrote an essay called “The Awful German Language,” (take it easy, Mark!), and opined that “Some German words are so long that they have a perspective.” Clever chap.
Back in High School German class (big shout out to Mrs. R at Tauranga Girls’ College), we were taught that one of the longest words in German was Geschwindigskeitsbegrenzung (speed limit). But nooooooooo. There are -MUCH- longer.
The longest, and indeed, the most ridiculous, that I could find was Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft
That is 80 letters of sweet sweet German goodness. It was the name of a Viennese club before the war; literally translated: “association of subordinate officials of the head office management of the Danube steamboat electrical services”. Although it seems like a bit of a stretch to me (could Germans possibly be capitalising on the modularity of their language? No way!), there exist many more. In fact, when the need for a new word arises, the Germans don’t invent one, they just bang two existing words together! Effizienz, much?
A prize awaits any reader (surely we must be up to at least six now) who can outdo 80 letters!
Discussion
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I like your writing style. Looking forward to reading more from you.
- Sue.
I realise how supremely uncool it is to be the first commenter on one’s own blog, but how awesome is it that the word above is so long that it almost tussles with the Zungenbrecher thumbnail?
Well, I thought it was awesome, at least.
The fight is on! In the blue corner, weighing in at 80 letters - Donaudampfschi….yeah, anyway. And in the red corner, weighing in at umpteen mistakes and more than a couple of splashes in the face, Zungenbrecher thumbnail!
The two words I found for contenders for the longest German word were:
Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänskajütentürschlüsselanhänger
Which - apparently - is the Keychain to the door of the cabin of the Captain of the Danube Steamboat Shipping Company.
Seems like it’s all about the Danube steamships, eh?
The other I found was:
Jahresendflügelpuppenschnitzmesserschleifmeistersfrauenunterrocksmusterdruckmaschinenputzerskind
Which - also apparently - means:
The child of the person who cleans the machine that prints ornaments on the piece of clothing that the wife of the person who sharpens the knife that makes the Christmas tree angel wears.
And no, I didn’t attempt to actually pronounce them.
70 and 96 letters respectively, btw.
@Andrew: Yeah, Donaudampfschi… and its derivatives have been described as a ‘desparate attempt to create the lengthiest word possible.’
According to ‘the Wik’ (as I now affectionately call it) “The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz. [which, literally translated, breaks up into: Rind (cattle) - Fleisch (meat) - Etikettierung(s) (labelling) - Überwachung(s) (supervision) - Aufgaben (duties) - Übertragung(s) (assignment) - Gesetz (law), so "Beef labelling supervision duty assignment law".]”
But nonetheless, you outdid my 80 letters. Are you still living in Germany? Send your current whereabouts to me@miss-verstaendnis.com and I’ll reply with your prize options!
Hmm, I’ll take a jab at this:
Siebenhundertsiebenundsiebzigmillionsiebenhundertsiebenundsiebzigtausendsiebenhundertsiebenundsiebzig
(777 777,777)
*cracks knuckles* I’m fairly sure that’s 101 letters, but it’s probably cheating…
For every mutant word our esteemed lawmakers create they normally invent an official abbreviation, “ReÜAÜG” stands for the above mentioned “Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz”. Much shorter but much more frequently used is my all time favorite, the good old “BAföG” (Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz), the federal student loan and grant law.
And once in a while an innocent hyphen slips past the guards into Berlin, producing things like the “Telekommunikations-Universaldienstleistungsverordnung”
(telecommunication universal services ordinance) which will give your word processors spellchecker a hard time.
thank you, man
according to wikipedia the Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft actually never existed, at least no proof of it.
Grundstücksverkehrsgenehmigungszuständigkeitsübertragungsverordnung has the actual lead with 67 letters for an officially used word.
german words of the year:
http://www.gfds.de/index.php?id=11
well i see all these long words here. I am just trying to make a personal webpage for my class so I’m just exploring these sites that claim to have really long words and i am seeing all this about wiki. I hope these words truly exist because wiki isn’t a reliable source since any1 can edit. So when u check if something is real or not don’t use wiki. It is a good starting place but not a place to end your research on something with