Cycling UK Forum

I came across this monster

Fachkräftezuwanderungsgesetz
(skilled labour immigration law)

how on earth do they ever learn to spell such?

Haven't you been to Wales?

The longest train station name: Luebeck-Travemuende Skandinavienkai

One may devise ones own words, I do
Spelling is not so hard, takes a few years to learn mind, and a committee of experts changes the rules occasionally

The long words are just made of many short words joined together, simples

German allows triple letters too: *Schifffahrt* for example

Fachkraeftezuwanderungsgesetzberatungsgremienzeitplan

Advisory committee timetable for skilled labour immigration law

Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft

Association for Subordinate Officials of the Head Office Management of the Danube Steamboat Electrical Services

Superkalifragilistischexpiallegetisch.

reohn2 wrote:Haven't you been to Wales?

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychyweryndrobwlllllantisoliogogogoch
Or Llanfair PG

Cyril Haearn wrote:

reohn2 wrote:Haven't you been to Wales?

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychyweryndrobwlllllantisoliogogogoch
Or Llanfair PG

Surely that should be Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch ?

Wiki offers the following monster in Polish:
Dziewięćsetdziewięćdziesiątdziewięćmiliardówdziewięćsetdziewięćdziesiątdziewięćmilionówdziewięćsetdziewięćdziesiątdziewięćtysięcydziewięćsetdziewięćdziesięciodziewięcioletniego
meaning "of 999,999,999,999 years old".

Mike Sales wrote:

Cyril Haearn wrote:

reohn2 wrote:Haven't you been to Wales?

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychyweryndrobwlllllantisoliogogogoch
Or Llanfair PG

Surely that should be Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch ?

Both wrong. I have it as Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch.

Cyril Haearn wrote:The long words are just made of many short words joined together, simples

Exactly.

Mike

Some human languages are agglutinating!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agglutinative_language

German shows some features but is not fully agglutinating.

Ps.
Finnish is agglutinating.

Flagrantly copied and pasted:-

(The longest known word in Finnish (and possibly in the whole world) is 103 letters long:

Kumarreksituteskenteleentuvaisehkollaismaisekkuudellisenneskenteluttelemattomammuuksissaansakaankopahan

As its creator, professor Artturi Kannisto, has died, nobody has been able to actually interpret its meaning -- or even tell how many morphemes there are in it. However, it is definitely a real word.)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ag ... e_language

------
I'll get me coat.

I hadn't come across the term agglutinative, but German has a high tendency to create compound words, of which Syd and Cyril Haearn have given examples. By contrast, English is traditionally reluctant to do so, although it has done so much more easily over the last couple of decades.

I've always assumed that this made a discussion of longest words in German less meaningful than one in English, because German can always join a couple more words into a longer compound. Compounds are usually excluded from longest words in English. Although antidisestablishmentarianism (which isn't the longest anyway) is often considered, it's more than a compound because it signifies specific opposition to disestablishmentarianism.

The difference being that real compound words don't have any independent existence and can't be found in dictionaries. You just have a set of rules under which you're allowed to join shorter words together when the combination of them expresses what you want to say. So, you can't define a longest word, because it's simply constructed at need.

That's my 2p anyway

Another queer thing about German is that the verb often comes at the end of a sentence, usually one can guess it, mind

Mrs Thatcher was at a conference where Helmut Kohl was speaking. 'The Pear' droned one for a while, the translator was silent
-'What's he saying!?' demanded the Iron Lady
-'Patience Madam, I am waiting for the verb! '

Welsh is the other way, often the verb is the first word in a sentence, or there is no verb

Cyril Haearn wrote:
Welsh is the other way, often the verb is the first word in a sentence, or there is no verb

It is my understanding that without a verb it is never a full sentence!