[Lexicog] new nosey word

Jan Ullrich jfu at CENTRUM.CZ
Sat Apr 10 09:09:09 UTC 2004


Fritz

In Czech, my native language, probably the longest word without vowels is “scvrnkls”. It means something like “you pushed it away with you finger”. 
I think most of the Czech vowel-less words usually have about three to five consonants, but quite frequently they can be combined into sentences, similar to the famous Czech tongue twister:

Strc prst skrz krk. (Stick your finger through your throat.)

In such Czech words it is indeed “r” and “l” that are phonetically vowel-like.

Jan



Jan Ullrich
Lakota Language Revitalization Project
Indiana University, Bloomington
www.lakotalanguage.org





w nosey word
> 
> 
> Peter,
> 
> As you know Slavic languages, is it true that there are words
> in these languages that consist only of consonants (not just 
> three but 7 to 10)?
> Can you give an example? Or can someone else?
> 
> Fritz Goerling
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 09/04/2004 05:44, Mali Translation wrote:
> 
> > Are there languages that can build tapeworm words like
> > German "Automobilausstellungsleiterantragsformularvordruckspapier"
> > (= automobile exhibition director application form preprint paper)? ...
> 
> 
> I don't think Wayne's example is a tapeworm of this kind, multiple root 
> words strung together. It is more like a root with multiple affixes. In 
> agglutinative languages these can become very long, rivalling your 
> German compound, like the following Turkish example which I have 
> reconstructed from memory (and perhaps not entirely accurately)?
> 
> Çekoslovakyalılaştırılamayanlardansınızmı?
> 
> Are you one of those who could not be Czechoslovakianised?
> 
> But can anyone rival Wayne's sequence of four e's, one with an accent? I 
> heard of a language written in Cyrillic script in which there was a 
> possible word with a sequence of seven u's, but that happened because 
> the same letter was used for u and w.
> 
> > ...
> >
> >
> > I got an interesting Cheyenne word today. I think it was used 
> as a putdown
> > of someone, which makes it even funnier within the Cheyenne system of 
> > joking
> > relationships:
> >
> > Nétsêhe'êsêsóhkometséeeese. 'You have a long narrow nose flared (at the
> > nostrils).'
> >
> ...
> 
> -- 
> Peter Kirk
> peter at qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk at qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  
> Yahoo! Groups Links
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> ---
> Příchozí zpráva neobsahuje viry.
> Zkontrolováno antivirovým systémem AVG (http://www.grisoft.cz).
> Verze: 6.0.648 / Virová báze: 415 - datum vydání: 31.3.2004
>  
> 



------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at MyInks.com.  Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada.
http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/HKE4lB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     lexicographylist-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
 



More information about the Lexicography mailing list