[Lexicog] new nosey word

[Peter Kirk]

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/




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