In article ,
Tim C. wrote:
> On Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:26:40 +0000, "Mr Suburbia (Mike...) "
> wrote:
>
> >Following up to "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
> > wrote:
> >
> >> I DO
> >>love German "portmanteau" words!
> >
> >anybody know what the longest is?
>
> In German nearly all words more than 3 syllables can be classified as
> such, but traditionally I think this is regarded as the longest.
>
> Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänskajüten.
That is a lovely one 8-)
What a lot of people who complain about long German compound nouns don't
realize is that for English to say the same thing can easily take up
more space. We just invent more short forms which people then have to
look up in a dictionary, whereas the German long word can be broken down
to a description that's usually quite clear.
--
Mary Loomer Oliver (aka Erilar)
You can't reason with someone whose first line of argument is
that reason doesn't count. --Isaac Asimov
Erilar's Cave Annex: http://www.chibardun.net/~erilarlo
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