Who studied or is studying literature and in particular German Romanticism will surely have encountered this word whose roots reside in high German, meaning “illness of the painful whim”. SehnsuchtĪmid different definitions, which vary from yearning, desire and/or craving, Sehnsucht is a feeling of longing for something unknown and indefinite. Each of these words not only will help you expand your vocabulary, but will deepen your knowledge of this new world. If it were to remain as it is, it should be shelved, with gentleness and reverence, amid the dead languages, because only the dead have enough time to learn it”.Īs follows we would like to propose 10 beautiful German words that have a very special meaning and that are unique in their own way to the German culture. It is obvious that the German language needs to be remodelled and repaired. Even Mark Twain, the american writer known for his troubled relation with German, a language that he didn’t particularly love but found very stimulating, said: “on the basis of my philology studies I came to the conclusion that a person prone to languages will be able to learn English (excluding the grammar and pronunciation) in 30 hours, French in 30 days and German in 30 years. According to the 1995 Guinness Book of World Records, the longest German word in everyday usage is Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften ("legal protection insurance companies") at 39 letters, narrowly beating the description of HDLC as a bitorientiertes Datenübertragungssteuerungsverfahren.Learning German is a life exercise because it is an idiom that tests us on a daily basis. A pre- World War I Danube steamship captain could be referred to as Donaudampfschiffkapitän more naturally than with the somewhat contrived title Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän ("Danube steamboating association captain"). Long compound words are used sparsely in German conversation, but considerably more often than in English.
That compound word contains the uncommon plural Elektrizitäten Elektrizität ("electricity") is normally used only in the singular. However, as the compound is (allegedly) a historical name, the original spelling with 79 letters is kept. A modern spelling would use 80 letters, Donaudampfschiff fahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft. The reform affects noun adjunct Schiffahrt, itself a compound of Schiff ("ship") and Fahrt ("transportation"), which is now spelled Schifffahrt (with three " f"s). The German spelling reform of 1996 abolished the rule that compound words with triple consonants coalesce them into double consonants. According to the 1996 Guinness Book of World Records, it is the longest word published in the German language.
However, there is no evidence that the Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft ever existed.ĭonaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft is a compound word that serves as an example of the virtually unlimited compounding of nouns that is possible in many Germanic languages. The DDSG still exists today in the form of the now-private companies DDSG-Blue Danube Schifffahrt GmbH (passenger transport) and the DDSG-Cargo GmbH.
Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.įind sources: "Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft" – news Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources.
This article needs additional citations for verification.