What is the Longest word in your language?

[linfeixb27]

You could do most difficult to write? I always have a hard time with "love" though my limited character knowledge probably makes that sound silly.

If you need me to write "mountain" or "tree" I can do it pretty well though!

The most difficult to write.

This word stands for a kind of food. Qin Shihuang (a leader in CIV4) ate that food and he liked it. He asked the name of the food, but everybody only knew the pronunciation but did not know how to write. So Qin created the word by writing down all the processes to cook that food.

 

[plarq]

I speak Chinese. In Chinese, there are no words, merely characters. There's no such thing as a longest character. It's like one unit of information.

Most difficult and we-don't-know-what-hell-it-is Chinese characters
The noodle that the other Chinese poster mentioned.

 

[Perfection]

Envelope can contain all the letters

But it don't so

 

[plarq]

But it don't so

If an envelope could contain words, and it would contain words, should it contain words?

 

[Chazumi]

Most difficult and we-don't-know-what-hell-it-is Chinese characters

Wouldn't it be neat if that was the equivalent of any of these english words:

"of"
"the"
"and"
"or"
"man who who not speak chinese get discourage to rearn our ranguage?"

 

[Echse]

give me some random nouns and I make the longest word ever out of it

Wiki and Guiness Book say the longest word in "everyday" usage is:
Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
(Beef labelling supervision duty assignment law)

but the all time favorite is surely
Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän
(the captain of a steamboat ship on the Danube)

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Norwegian can create arbitrarily long words too, and the stock word for such fun is "trikkekonduktøruniformsknappestøperiarbeiderfagforeningskontingent". (Membership fee to worker's union of workers at a smeltery making buttons for a tram conductor's uniform.) You can then add things like "-sbetalingkvitteringskrivemaskinleverandør" to make the word mean the guy who repairs the typewriter that prints the receipt for the payment of said fee.

 

[Hehehe]

In finnish: "epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänsäkäänköhän" 49 letters. This is a single word, and not a compound noun (don't make me translate it!). Compound nouns included, one can make reeeaaally long words:

"lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilas" 61 letters
"atomiydinenergiareaktorigeneraattorilauhduttajaturbiiniratasvaihde" 66 letters
"Kumarreksituteskenteleentuvaisehollaismaisekkuudellisenneskenteluttelemattomammuuksissansakkaankopahan" 103 letters

E: for some reason, there's spaces between those last words, even though there shouldn't. Oh well, ignore the spaces.

 

[scherbchen]

ahh... compunding. what can it not do?

poor Spanish, no compound fun for you

 

[CaptainF]

I speak Chinese. In Chinese, there are no words, merely characters. There's no such thing as a longest character. It's like one unit of information.

I've always wondered how the characters are strung together to make new words.

For example, I remember reading that the Mandarin word for "Crisis" combines the two characters that mean "Chaos" and "Opportunity".

 

[plarq]

I've always wondered how the characters are strung together to make new words.

For example, I remember reading that the Mandarin word for "Crisis" combines the two characters that mean "Chaos" and "Opportunity".

Danger and Opportunity = Crisis, now it makes a bit sense.

Anyway, word =word
Character = syllable

 

[philippe]

"zandzeepsodemineraalwatersteenstralen" is the longest word in Dutch dictionary, although we can of course make endless long words. :d

zandzeepsodemineraalwatersteenstralen means "bugger off" actually

 

[Clam Spammer]

In Maori: Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu and has 85 letters. (could technically be an english word as well).

Being a kiwi, I've heard of this one. It's a place name though (specifically, it is the name of a hill), so I'm not sure whether it really counts.

In case anyone is interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu

 

[raketooy]

In finnish: "epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänsäkäänköhän" 49 letters. This is a single word, and not a compound noun (don't make me translate it!).

I'd say it translates somewhat like "maybe not even with his quality of making things to make things messier". And indeed it is a single, not compound, word, although an inflected one.

 

[J-man]

"zandzeepsodemineraalwatersteenstralen" is the longest word in Dutch dictionary, although we can of course make endless long words. :d

zandzeepsodemineraalwatersteenstralen means "bugger off" actually

Not since 2005: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zandzeepsodemineraalwatersteenstralen

We have to make due with: hottentottententententoonstelling?

But I don't think that's in the dictionary either.

 

[philippe]

Not since 2005: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zandzeepsodemineraalwatersteenstralen

We have to make due with: hottentottententententoonstelling?

But I don't think that's in the dictionary either.

Although one can argue of course if these words "do not exist" becuase they aren't in the dictionary.

Maybe consult the "taalunie"? And yes Hottentottententententoonstelling isn't a "valid" word either.

 

[holy king]

there is none in german. you can keep putting words together infinitely.

example:

donaudampfschifffahrtskapitänskajütenschlüsselbundsfarbenauswählersfraudienstwagenmechanikerjausenboxverkäufershausarchitektenwohngemeinschaft.

and i could go on and on.

the word describes the flat sharing community of the architects of the house of the merchant who sold the lunch box to the mechanic for the staff car of the wife of the guy who chose the colour of the bunch of keys for the cabin of the captain of the danube steamboating company.

though i'm not sure if wife of the guy who chose the colour of the bunch of keys for the cabin of the captain of the danube steamboating company has a staff car.

 

[Gelion]

How does the Polish one translate?

 

[Mirc]

In finnish: "epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänsäkäänköhän" 49 letters. This is a single word, and not a compound noun (don't make me translate it!). Compound nouns included, one can make reeeaaally long words:

You mean... one SINGLE word? Not compound??


Anyway, I'm not sure what's the longest word in Romanian. But I know that the word with most syllables that's not a chemistry thing has 9 syllables (telecomunicatiilor; te-le-co-mu-ni-ca-ti-i-lor), and it means "belonging to/of the long distance communications".

We don't have such long words in Romanian. But on average, words are longer than in most European languages (discounting Germanic ones ), because we often add a couple of large suffixes at the end of each word in a sentence.

In fact, Romanian often is very different in this aspect from other Romance languages, as it uses an older, classical Latin system, not the Vulgar Latin one, meaning that it has A LOT less prepositions and articles and instead it makes those by adding terminations to the word.

Example: "Dau cartea fiului amicului fratelui meu" ->
.............."I give the book to the son of the friend of my brother", count the prepositions and articles in English and compare )


If we count technical words, well, we have: GASTROPILORODUODENOJEJUNOSTOMIE, DIFOSFOPIRIDINNUCLEOTIDPIROFOSFATAZĂ, inonorificabilitudinationalitate, ELECTROMOTOSTIVUITORISTICA, etc.


The longest non-compound word is constantinopolitanilor", which means "belonging to/of the citizens of Constantinople".

 

[Great Librarian]

Wouldn't it be neat if that was the equivalent of any of these english words:

"of"
"the"
"and"
"or"
"man who who not speak chinese get discourage to rearn our ranguage?"

Ha! Unfortunately for your joke there is an /l/ consonant in Chinese.