German

[dream_labyrinth]

Sometimes, I just love my language. Where else do you have words like Kriegsdienstverweigerungsrecht or Generalstabsdienstverwendungslehrgang. And then you can make words like
Generalstabsdienstverwendungslehrgangsteilnehmer and it is still a word that makes sense and might actually exist.
See why you should never play Hangman in German?

Comments

[quietselkie.livejournal.com]

ROFLMAO!

Would it be appropriate to say "Gesundheit" at this point? Hee hee hee

[linnapaw.livejournal.com]

One of the things that annoys me about a lot of Americans and their view of the German language is that they think it is *impossible* to learn long words. I'm sorry, but there's still a good bit of logic behind the building of compound words in German. But then again, a good percentage of Americans have trouble with words of more than two syllables in their own language. *rolls eyes*

[jonthedull.livejournal.com]

Could you translate "Generalstabsdienstverwendungslehrgangsteilnehmer" for me? It's such a great word I must know what it means. LEO isn't helping me.

After playing with LEO, my guess is that "Kriegsdienstverweigerungsrecht" has something to do with conscientious objectors to military service?

[jonthedull.livejournal.com]

Ahh OK. Thanks.

I should have remembered to try the fish.

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

Correct, Kriegsdienstverweigerungsrecht is the right of conscientious objectors not to do military service.

Generalstabsdienst is service in the General Staff (is that the right military term?), and if you are supposed to be assigned for such work (Verwendung), you take a special course (Lehrgang) so you are a participant (Teilnehmer) of a preparatory course for work in a General Staff. Only in German it's all one word.

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

Giving me no chance to answer, do you? ;-)

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

It isn't hard to learn long words if the long words are just several short words written together. Quite obviously, "living room" is no easier than "Wohnzimmer". So it isn't as if long compounds don't exist in English, they are just written with a space or maybe hyphenated.

[jonthedull.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

"General Staff" is the right term.

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

There's not a single "sch" or "ch" in that word!
Let me think...
Rüstungskontrollverhandlung is a nice word. Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer.
German's really cool that way.

[linnapaw.livejournal.com]

Case in point: that goofy phrase I used in commenting to you... We could build a really long German word out of it... What? Something like Hintergrundswortbaulogik. :) Okay, I'm being silly here, but you get my point. :)

[quietselkie.livejournal.com]

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! (OK, so that's a made-up word from Disney, but you get the idea. LOL)

Or antidisestablishmentarianism!

In my experience, the longer German words are really more concepts than compounds. The word becomes much easier to say if you know what the concept behind it is. Then you just string the words together. In English, we'd more commonly hyphenate or leave a space between words.

Not that I'm a whiz at German...just that I speak English, which has German as only one of its many, many roots.

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

*LOL* Yeah, but everybody knows that word. (Though I likely would have to look it up to spell it right...)

[lucie-p.livejournal.com]

Time for a re-read of Michael Ende's "Der satanarchäölügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch", I say. *smirks*

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

*gg* Definitely.

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

*shooting in the dark*

The...satan...archaic...genial...alcohol?

ROTFL. Do tell me what it means pls.

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

...and I thought German would be easier to learn than French.

What was I thinking?

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

It's not actually hard. In French, I always had trouble with the tenses, especially the subjonctif - I mean, who has a tense that doesn't actually have any meaning??
In German, we do create long words, but they are actually just conglomerates of shorter words that are still recogniseable, so it's just a matter of taking the long word apart.
As for the satanarchäolügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch, that is no word at all. But it puts together several words. satan, archaeological, lügen (lies), genial, alcohol, hellish.

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

I mean, who has a tense that doesn't actually have any meaning??

O.o !!11! And I thought Japanese tenses were bad enough...

As for the satanarchäolügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch, that is no word at all. But it puts together several words. satan, archaeological, lügen (lies), genial, alcohol, hellish.

Is that the title of an actual book?
Perhaps about an archeologist who made a deal with satan and ended up dying in a hellish place clutching a bottle of alcohol and a journal filled with lies? lol.

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

It's another book by Michael Ende.
The story is about a wizard who made a deal with satan to get great powers, but didn't manage to fulfill his side of the deal (extinction of several kinds of animals, poisoning of rivers and others). So a messenger from Satan gives him a last chance. The wizard gets help from his aunt, an equally mean money witch. But against them work their pets, a raven and a cat.
The wizard and witch want to brew the satanarchöolügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch, a potion, that is supposed to fulfill their bad deeds for the year, and the animals try to stop them.

wait a moment...
this is it in English (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374455031/qid=1137408559/sr=8-2/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-8958563-9967019?n=507846&s=books&v=glance)

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

Sounds fun *g*

Thanks for the link.

...and just because I saw these two books linked there:
Have you read William Goldman's The Princess Bride and/or Clive Barker's Abarat?

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever read Clive Barker, though I've seen his books. (I worked in an American library for six months).
I have watched the movie Princess Bride, but was reluctant to read the book because usually if I like a book I don't like the movie made out of it (that's that case with Harry Potter) or vice versa.

Oh, a really good German book is "Krabat" by Otfried Preussler. It's a fairy tale, but it isn't exactly a kids' story. More for teens. Personally, I love it.

[lilian-cho.livejournal.com]

I have watched the movie Princess Bride, but was reluctant to read the book because usually if I like a book I don't like the movie made out of it (that's that case with Harry Potter) or vice versa.

True. The only three titles where I enjoy both book and movie so far are Lord of the Rings, A Little Princess (the Alfonso Cuaron's version), and Brokeback Mountain.

Oh, a really good German book is "Krabat" by Otfried Preussler.

The English title is The Satanic Mill. So it's fantasy? Thanks for the rec :-)

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

It could probably be called fantasy, though the fairy tale elements are very strong.