# Has anyone heard this tongue-in-cheek example of Germans stringing words together? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 1, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180 "2014-09-01T19:08:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/1 "2014-09-01T19:08:47Z")
In high school the German teacher presented an amusing example of how Germans make new words by stringing words together. The gist of it was that there was a black-and-white checkered cannibal girl whose name was [something], and she owned cages for holding kangaroos she got from the Hottentots. (Or maybe she was a Hottentot.) The word was built up in steps, each step becoming longer than the last, and the story was told in German. The composite word was partially ‘Hottentottenbeutelratenkäfige’, and contained ‘schwarz-weisskariertekannibalenmädchen’. I’m sure the teacher didn’t invent the story herself, and that it came from some resource. Did anyone take German in high school in the U.S. in the '70s/'80s, and hear this story? If so, can you post it (or at least the final word)? [NB: ‘Hottentot’ is considered derogatory today.] ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/2 "2014-09-01T21:41:13Z")
A characteristic of agglutinative languages, is that particles are strung together to forn a single long complex word, instead of a series of individual words. Many native languages of North America are agglutinative. The German word I learned was Waffenstillstandsgrontbedingungen, which apparently was used in a speech by Hitler, it means “basic conditions of the truce”. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2014, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/3 "2014-09-01T22:52:47Z")
The “kangaroo” bit has been hitherto unknown to me: but, re the un-PC “Hottentot” theme – I’ve long known of the dreamt-up lengthy agglutinative German word: Hottentottenpotentatentantenattentat – meaning, an attempt at the assassination of the aunt of a Hottentot potentate. The very longest German word of which I’m aware – per Wikipedia, so total truth not guaranteed: but, reckoned “for real”: Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft. Meaning, Association for subordinate officials of the head office management of the Danube steamboat electrical services. ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/4 "2014-09-02T11:11:59Z")
The only place I have come across such a concept was in a book about German POWs in either the USA or England. To while away the time, these two guys would see who could make up the longest word. The one specifically mentioned in the book started out as “Hottentottentantenstanten …” which was something along the lines of “The Hottentot’s aunt was standing …”. I don’t think it was the same one mentioned by **vontsira** , but it was along the same lines. ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/5 "2014-09-02T11:21:33Z")
Hottentottententententoonstelling (hottentot-tent-exhibition) seems to be a somewhat recognizable joke word in Dutch, not German. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/6 "2014-09-02T11:54:19Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > A characteristic of agglutinative languages, is that particles are strung together to forn a single long complex word, instead of a series of individual words. Many native languages of North America are agglutinative. Yes, but German is not an agglutinative language. > [@](#): > > The German word I learned was Waffenstillstandsgrontbedingungen, which apparently was used in a speech by Hitler, it means “basic conditions of the truce”. Surely you mean _Waffenstillstandsgrundbedingungen_? Even so I can’t find any reference to Hitler having used that word. It’s long and awkward enough that any native speaker would almost certainly choose an easier way of rendering the idea (“_Grundbedingungen für den Waffenstillstand_” or something similar). ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/7 "2014-09-02T12:10:49Z")
I always thought Strassenbahnhaltestelle particularly amusing, given its seven syllables translate into English as “tram stop”. I guess that’s a reasonably common, genuine example of the idea in the OP - sorry I can’t speak to the specific question, I learned German in England in the 90s. I find it interesting to note that some of the examples posted in this thread are actually less economical when translated, it’s just the seemingly endless string of letters without spaces that we find amusing. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/8 "2014-09-02T12:34:59Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > In high school the German teacher presented an amusing example of how Germans make new words by stringing words together. The gist of it was that there was a black-and-white checkered cannibal girl whose name was [something], and she owned cages for holding kangaroos she got from the Hottentots. (Or maybe she was a Hottentot.) The word was built up in steps, each step becoming longer than the last, and the story was told in German. The composite word was partially ‘Hottentottenbeutelratenkäfige’, and contained ‘schwarz-weisskariertekannibalenmädchen’. > > I’m sure the teacher didn’t invent the story herself, and that it came from some resource. Did anyone take German in high school in the U.S. in the '70s/'80s, and hear this story? If so, can you post it (or at least the final word)? > > [NB: ‘Hottentot’ is considered derogatory today.] I heard the story, but in my teacher’s case it was “the kangaroo that we kept in the cage with the cover to keep out the weather in which was confined the assassin of the Hottentot mother of the two stupid and stuttering children”. IOW, the _Hottentottenstotteltruttelmutterattentatorlattengittenwettenkotterbeutelratte._ Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/9 "2014-09-02T12:59:31Z")
It’s not just German that does this - witness [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein)Afrikaans placename, or lots of other [famous ones](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_long_place_names). They aren’t in common use, though. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/10 "2014-09-02T15:09:02Z")
Or of course the world famous station in Wales - llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, or its near neighbour - llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochuchaf. This translates (and yes - Welsh is a real language) into _Saint Mary’s Church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio of the red cave._ The nearby village is Upper Saint Mary’s…" ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/11 "2014-09-02T17:09:46Z")
Anybody in IT has probably [seen this sign in their datacenter:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinkenlights) This term derives from the last word of the famous blackletter-Gothic sign in mangled mock German that once graced about half the computer rooms in the English-speaking world. One version ran in its entirety as follows. \*\* ACHTUNG! ALLES TURISTEN UND NONTEKNISCHEN LOOKENPEEPERS! DAS KOMPUTERMASCHINE IST NICHT FÜR DER GEFINGERPOKEN UND MITTENGRABEN! ODERWISE IST EASY TO SCHNAPPEN DER SPRINGENWERK, BLOWENFUSEN UND POPPENCORKEN MIT SPITZENSPARKEN. IST NICHT FÜR GEWERKEN BEI DUMMKOPFEN. DER RUBBERNECKEN SIGHTSEEREN KEEPEN DAS COTTONPICKEN HÄNDER IN DAS POCKETS MUSS. ZO RELAXEN UND WATSCHEN DER BLINKENLICHTEN.\*\* This silliness dates back to least as far as 1955 at IBM and had already gone international by the early 1960s, when it was reported at the University of London’s ATLAS computing site. There are several variants of it in circulation, some of which actually do end with the word blinkenlights. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/12 "2014-09-02T17:15:22Z")
In German, numbers, when spelled out, appear as single words. 365=dreihundertfuenfundsechzig. The “Declaration of Independence” is Die Unabhaengigkeitserklaerung. ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/13 "2014-09-02T17:20:37Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > I always thought Strassenbahnhaltestelle particularly amusing, given its seven syllables translate into English as “tram stop”. I guess that’s a reasonably common, genuine example of the idea in the OP - sorry I can’t speak to the specific question, I learned German in England in the 90s. > > I find it interesting to note that some of the examples posted in this thread are actually less economical when translated, it’s just the seemingly endless string of letters without spaces that we find amusing. In that vein (real, often used words that seem needlessly long), my favorite German word is Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung. (Speed Limit). I also am partial to Sicherheitsmaßnahmen (safety precautions). ---
**Author:** ![Derda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@Derda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derda)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/14 "2014-09-02T17:44:35Z")
It always depends. A partial nitpick of mine is the increasing prevalence of short, alec, elegant, yet needlessly opaque and decidedly non-german words like “Quorum”, when something slapped together in the general vein of “Beschlussfähigkeitsfeststellung” could convey a much clearer meaning. It’s bad enough that it’s increasingly difficult to find an honest baker. These days you’re more likely than not forced to slink in one of these “backshops”, when you desire bread. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/15 "2014-09-02T17:57:10Z")
A favorite of mine is “Lieblingsfreiheitbeshäftigungen.” I.e., favorite recreation activities. ---
**Author:** ![ALOHA\_HATER](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@ALOHA\_HATER](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ALOHA_HATER)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/16 "2014-09-02T18:54:47Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > In German, numbers, when spelled out, appear as single words. > 365=dreihundertfuenfundsechzig. > The “Declaration of Independence” is Die Unabhaengigkeitserklaerung. As a non-native German speaker, that reads at first as “The Independence Clarification,” which sounds much more polite. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/17 "2014-09-02T19:37:03Z")
> [@Jman](#): > > In that vein (real, often used words that seem needlessly long), my favorite German word is Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung. (Speed Limit). In high school we learned Geschwindigkeit, as in ‘Mindestgeschwindigkeit’. I’ve been to Germany, but I haven’t driven there. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/18 "2014-09-02T19:56:29Z")
Obligatory link to Mark Twain’s wonderful essay [The awful German language](http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/awfgrmlg.html) > [@](#): > > “Generalstaatsverordnetenversammlungen” seems to be “General-statesrepresentativesmeetings,” > > … > > I wish to submit the following local item, from a Mannheim journal, by way of illustration: > > ``` > "In the daybeforeyesterdayshortlyaftereleveno'clock Night, the inthistownstandingtavern called `The Wagoner' was downburnt. When the fire to the onthedownburninghouseresting Stork's Nest reached, flew the parent Storks away. But when the bytheraging, firesurrounded Nest itself caught Fire, straightway plunged the quickreturning Mother-stork into the Flames and died, her Wings over her young ones outspread." > > ``` ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/19 "2014-09-02T20:10:52Z")
Ripley (as in Believe It or Not) published “the world’s longest cuss word”! \*\* Himmelherrgottkreuzmillionendonnerwetter! \*\* :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2014, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180/20 "2014-09-02T20:34:05Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > Ripley (as in Believe It or Not) published “the world’s longest cuss word”! > > \*\* Himmelherrgottkreuzmillionendonnerwetter! \*\* :eek: That’s pretty short - for example this (apparently defunct) blog [http://www.himmelherrgottsakramentzefixhallelujascheissglumpatverreckts.com/](http://www.himmelherrgottsakramentzefixhallelujascheissglumpatverreckts.com/) uses a longer curse word as ist domain name. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-heard-this-tongue-in-cheek-example-of-germans-stringing-words-together/697180.md?page=2)