Humor Can you pronounce Germany's longest word?

[Notebook]

Not sure if this will get outside the UK.

From BBC Radio4 Today, news prog: 06:00-09:00 local time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/today

Sebastian Borger, a German journalist based in London, says German people like compound words as they provide a "precise way of expressing yourself

Looks like the link above gives the generic page, but I'm sure you'll find the right clip!

N.

 

[Scav]

Can you pronounce Germany's longest word?

Nein.

 

[Notebook]

Thats easy for you to say!

n.

 

[Scav]

:lol:

I was able to download the podcast here, by the way. It's interesting how striking the differences in accents are. I've always noticed Germans tend to be fond of sibilants.

 

[Notebook]

Listened again, its probably that word? Is the German language particulary sibilant. Not a German speaker(or any other), so I don't listen to natural speech.

N.

 

[Sunhillow]

Very simple
Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz :lol:

not too many sibilants IMHO

funny... this word seems to be too long for the editor. It inserts a blank where no blank should be :facepalm:
There is even an english Wikipedia entry for this legislative monster which only came into effect in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (McPom):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinder...ierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz

 

[Evil_Onyx]

That is a monster of a word. Glad to see it go (and never need to say it).

 

[Artlav]

Pff, German longwords.
What about the place called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, in Wales of Great Britain?

...I actually memorized that one back in school on a bet.

 

[FordPrefect]

Hmm... never heard of that German word before.

On that subject though, I still fondly remember reading the following word in a cartoon along an article by Bill Gunston in the Air International Magazine many many years ago, showing a British soldier in WWII pondering about a German vehicle's labelling:

'Schützengrabenvernichtungspanzerkraftwagen*... what kind of Dummkopf-word is this!'

*meaning: A trench destroying armored vehicle

Hehe... always loved that :lol:

 

[statickid]

Him. What I heard on the news today is that it is no longer a word because the the law is gone.

 

[Linguofreak]

Him. What I heard on the news today is that it is no longer a word because the the law is gone.

You can still refer to it in the past tense.

Anyways, to answer the question in the thread title (using IPA and the closest way it would be spelled in an English dialect close to General American), roughly:

/ʀɪndflaiʃetikɛtiʀuŋzybɐvaxuŋzaufgabɛnybɐtʀaguŋzgəzɛts/

or

"rindflighsh-eighteeketteeroongs-oobuhvockoongs-owfgobbin-oobuhtroggoongs-gazettes"

In Received Pronunciation a better transcription might be:

"rindflighsh-eighteeketteeroongs-oobervahkoongs-owfgahbin-oobertrahgoongs-gazettes".

 

[jedidia]

"rindflighsh-eighteeketteeroongs-oobuhvockoongs-owfgobbin-oobuhtroggoongs-gazettes"

reading this whas somewhat of a challenge, and I only understood anything of it by listening to the sounds I was producing... :lol:

 

[statickid]

Yeah I thought the reasoning was bogus: just because you stop doing something doesn't mean you can't still talk about it. They were saying its losing its title as longest word officially though. Who knows, it was some little rinky dink local station morning show, they probably just got the story wrong...

 

[Urwumpe]

Yeah I thought the reasoning was bogus: just because you stop doing something doesn't mean you can't still talk about it. They were saying its losing its title as longest word officially though. Who knows, it was some little rinky dink local station morning show, they probably just got the story wrong...

Yes, because the word no longer is considered significant. You can still use words like

"Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitänswitwenzahnersatzzusatzversicherungsfondsabrechnungsabteilungsunterabteilungsleiterbeförderungsverfahrendienstanweisungsmustervorlage"*

for your own pleasure. But they are not considered official since you likely only use them once in history. You can still talk about it. But unless you write a popular book about it, it is no longer considered an active member of the German language, not even a living fossile. The longer a word gets, the more specialized the term gets that it describes. At once point, you are reading "...protonupquark" at its end and you can't add anything at all to the word.

*Don't worry, I just invented it and it is like Mark Twain predicted. The word started marching in a procession through the town all by itself. And it is a word that tells a story of victories and defeats, epic battles and terrible dragons.

 

[statickid]

fascinating. I feel like in English once a word gets in the dictionary it can stay in there forever until some committee decides it is obsolete, but even then, it seems like people will argue that the word has significance and identity, and try to play it in scrabble

 

[Ghostrider]

English has a habit of inviting home words from other languages. Then it serves them drugged tea. Then it takes them on a quaint village by the sea patrolled by roving plastic bubbles and brainwashes them into forgetting their origins. Once in a while a word loses its relevance but make no mistake, it will remain in The Village until the end of time.
Be seeing you...

 

[Notebook]

Yea, well somtimitimesstillhaventgotover1066andhisfreindsprobalysomeanglosaxanturncotesnotthatimbitterandtwistedoranything.

N.