[Lexicog] Long compound words

[Lars Trap-Jensen]

The other Germanic languages, of course, make use of similar compounds. 
In Danish, the longest word I have heard of is 
"Speciallægepraksisplanlægningsstabiliseringsperiode" (51 letters), 
which was recorded in the Guiness Book of Records back in 1993.

According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, German have had an even 
longer official word of 67 letters 
"Grundstücksverkehrsgenehmigungszuständigkeitsübertragungsverordnung", 
but this word was dropped by the Bundesland Berlin in 2007.

Outside the Germanic languages, polysynthetic languages are well-known 
for their capacity to form very long words. Inuit languages do so by 
means of derivation, not compounding. One example is Greenlandic where 
you can find a real tongue twister like the 94 letter word 
"Nalunaarasuartaatilioqateeraliorfinnialikkersaatiginialikkersaatilillaranatagoorunarsuarooq". 
It means something like: 'Yet again they attempted to build a giant 
radio station, but apparently it was just on the drawing board'. As you 
can see, when translated it must be rendered with a whole sentence.

Lars Trap-Jensen

Den 05/06/13 00.02, Bill Poser skrev:
>
> Yes, Sanskrit has enormous compounds. There is a style in which 
> essentially the whole sentence is fused into a single noun with the 
> tense shown by the other word, a form of "be", along the lines of 
> "there was a glazing of a large pot with a blue glaze by the potter".
>
> On Tue, Jun 4, 2013 at 12:50 AM, Dr. Fritz Goerling 
> <fritz.goerling at yahoo.de <mailto:fritz.goerling at yahoo.de>> wrote:
>
>
>
>     Are there any other languages with such long compound words ?
>
>     	
>
>     Germany Drops 63-Letter-Long Word From Official Usage
>
>     http://www.businessinsider.com/rindfleischetikettierungsberwachungsaufgabenbertragungsgesetz-2013-6
>
>     Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz.
>
>
>     Or see:
>     http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/21/germans-word-long-language
>     Fritz Goerling
>
>
>
> 

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