But it wasn’t all fun and games.  There was some serious learning involved too.  For instance, did you know that there are 2500+ Christmas markets in Germany every year; and that the Steiezelmarkt in Dresden alone attracts crowds of more than two million?!  Or did you know that, the night before December 6th, German children (the “Kinder” in Kindergarten) clean their boots and put them outside the door so St. Nikolaus can fill them with goodies (nuts, oranges, and candy) or not-so-goodies (sticks or coal)?  

Other little-known facts include:

• the advent calendar was invented in 1838 by a  Hamburg school master who wanted to show his students how many days remained until Christmas;
• Germans generally put up their Christmas trees (Tannenbaum) no earlier than Christmas Eve;
• speaking of trees, there is also a growing market for  as people look for more sustainable options;
• and finally, this author can attest to the fact that Germans take their Christmas cookies very seriously indeed, having sampled liberally from the many trays available in the room; Stollen, a traditional Christmas fruit bread dating back to 1329, was a particular fan favourite!

Thanks to German TA Leilah Bielser for putting together a presentation and trivia game to share all this info with the group and a big thank you TA Sarah Young for helping spread fascination of all things German!

Thanks also to second year students Mia  Zach and James Constantin for their research (delivered in absentia by Frau Finger) into three particularly renowned Christmas markets:  

• Dresden Striezelmarkt dates back almost 600 years to the early days of the now famous and  Dresden Stollen, a style of Christmas loaf that can ONLY be baked in designated bakeries in the region. 
• 惭眉苍肠丑别苍&苍产蝉辫;颁丑谤颈蝉迟办颈苍诲别濒蝉尘补谤办迟 where the Christkind, often portrayed as a blond-haired young woman rather than St. Nikolaus, is said to bring gifts to children.
• And N眉rnberg Christkindlesmarkt, where Gl眉hwein (mulled wine or literally 鈥済low wine鈥�) is drunk peacefully from gently warmed mugs while Feuerzangenbowle (literally 鈥渇ire tongs punch鈥�) – essentially Gl眉hwein topped with a rum-soaked sugarloaf then set on fire – offers a decidedly more smoky flavour and more dynamic spectacle!  

Then finally, before the event wrapped up, we all had an opportunity to rediscover our inner child with a little Schneeflocken schneiden (snowflake cutting).  

Set to an audio background of Deutsche Weihnachtslieder (German Christmas caroles), the whole event made for a pleasing way to spend a Friday afternoon.  

Many thanks to German department coordinator, Cristina Finger for all her hard work in preparing the event and to all the German students, current and former, for attending and jumping in 100% on the activities!

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If you鈥檙e looking at the title of this blog post and thinking to yourself, 鈥渨hat in the world is that monstrosity?鈥� then don鈥檛 worry, you鈥檙e not alone. Even to a German speaker, such as myself, a word like this (which, by the way, refers to 鈥渢he law concerning the delegation of duties for the supervision of cattle marking and the labelling of beef鈥�)¹ needs more than one read-through to be properly understood. Even so, long words are common 鈥搗ery much so鈥� in German, a fact that even non-speakers frequently recognize. Why is that?

Well, that鈥檚 the magic of morphology. Morphology, in linguistics, is the study of how words are formed. We look at morphemes, the smallest units of language that carry meaning (smaller, even, than words!), and how they鈥檙e put together to form the words and phrases we use in our speech. It鈥檚 kind of like putting together a bunch of Lego bricks and ending up with a house.

English, of course, also makes use of morphology. You鈥檒l all be familiar with prefixes (morphemes that are attached to the beginning of a word) like un- in unhappy, or suffixes (morphemes that are attached to the end of a word) like -ness in happiness.

However, not every language is the same in this regard. English is a language that uses lots and lots of separate words to say what it means. Other languages have far more complex morphology than English, and combine all these morphemes into one word!

Neither of these strategies is better or worse, because at the end of the day everyone ends up saying what they need to; they鈥檙e simply different ways of achieving the same goal. As they say (well鈥� as I say), one man鈥檚 sentence is another man鈥檚 extremely long compound word!

German is precisely one of these morphologically-complex types of languages (though there are a lot of languages out there that are even more complex than German!). German uses lots of prefixes, suffixes, and even circumfixes (a prefix and a suffix that have to go together) to communicate precise meanings. Simply put, German is a master at taking many little components and creating one big, meaningful word out of it.

So, let鈥檚 take a look at how we would actually parse (break down) a word like 搁颈苍诲蹿濒别颈蝉肠丑别迟颈办别迟迟颈别谤耻苍驳蝉眉产别谤飞补肠丑耻苍驳蝉补耻蹿驳补产别苍眉产别谤迟谤补驳耻苍驳蝉驳别蝉别迟锄:

First of all, we need to figure out what kind of a word this is. German compound words are 鈥渞ight-headed,鈥� which means the right-most part of the word tells you its basic meaning. Everything else is just there to give you extra information, making the word more specific.

The rightmost part of 搁颈苍诲蹿濒别颈蝉肠丑别迟颈办别迟迟颈别谤耻苍驳蝉眉产别谤飞补肠丑耻苍驳蝉补耻蹿驳补产别苍眉产别谤迟谤补驳耻苍驳蝉gesetz is gesetz, meaning 鈥榣aw鈥�. So, now we know that this gigantic word just refers to one hyper-specific type of law.

So, then we go from right-to-left to figure out exactly what type of law we鈥檙e talking about.

An 眉产别谤迟谤补驳耻苍驳蝉-gesetz is, literally, a 鈥榯ransfer law鈥�. In legal speak, that gets translated as a 鈥榙elegation law鈥�.

Moving left again, an aufgaben-眉产别谤迟谤补驳耻苍驳蝉-gesetz is a 鈥榣aw for delegation of duties鈥� (or, literally, 鈥榙uties delegation law鈥�).

On and on we go:

眉产别谤飞补肠丑耻苍驳蝉-aufgaben-眉产别谤迟谤补驳耻苍驳蝉-gesetz

鈥�supervision duties delegation law鈥�

Then:

etikettierungs-眉产别谤飞补肠丑耻苍驳蝉-aufgaben-眉产别谤迟谤补驳耻苍驳蝉-gesetz

鈥�labeling supervision duties delegation law鈥�

And finally:

Rindfleisch-etikettierungs-眉产别谤飞补肠丑耻苍驳蝉-aufgaben-眉产别谤迟谤补驳耻苍驳蝉-gesetz

鈥�Beef labeling supervision duties delegation law鈥�

Which is most elegantly translated as the 鈥榣aw for the delegation of duties for the supervision of cattle marking and beef labeling鈥欌�� what a mouthful!

Et voil脿: we have broken 搁颈苍诲蹿濒别颈蝉肠丑别迟颈办别迟迟颈别谤耻苍驳蝉眉产别谤飞补肠丑耻苍驳蝉补耻蹿驳补产别苍眉产别谤迟谤补驳耻苍驳蝉驳别蝉别迟锄 down into its component parts, understood them all individually, and pieced them back together to read the word as a whole!

Now, I think it鈥檚 time I let you in on a little secret鈥his post has been a lie.

Well, not entirely, since it is true that morphology really is all about the smallest meaningful components of language, German compound words really are right-headed, and 搁颈苍诲蹿濒别颈蝉肠丑别迟颈办别迟迟颈别谤耻苍驳蝉眉产别谤飞补肠丑耻苍驳蝉补耻蹿驳补产别苍眉产别谤迟谤补驳耻苍驳蝉驳别蝉别迟锄 really does mean 鈥榣aw for the delegation of duties for the supervision of cattle marking and beef labeling鈥�.

However, the idea that German has 鈥榣ong words鈥� and English doesn鈥檛, is totally made up! English compounds actually work the same way German ones do!

The only reason German words seem 鈥榣ong鈥� to English speakers is because they鈥檙e not putting spaces where we would expect them to.

There鈥檚 no salient linguistic difference between 鈥榣awforthedelegationofdutiesforthesupervisionofcattlemarkingandbeeflabeling鈥� and 鈥榣aw for the delegation of duties for the supervision of cattle marking and beef labeling鈥�!

I mean, try saying them out loud, and you鈥檒l see they鈥檙e actually identical! So, the difference we perceive in the German version of an identical English word is just an artefact of the languages鈥� different spelling conventions.

The crux of this issue really comes down to the fact that nobody knows what a word actually is! Trust me, ask any linguist what a word is, and they鈥檒l tell you that they don鈥檛 have a clue.

Without getting too bogged down in the details and overwhelming you with jargon, it all deals with the fact that the domain of a 鈥渨ord鈥� is different in the semantics (meaning), phonology (sound), and morphosyntax (structure).

The main reason we think of words as special is because of the lexicalist tradition in linguistics (but that鈥檚 a whole other can of worms!). Add in the fact that spelling conventions are an arbitrary mess, and it鈥檚 no wonder that we鈥檙e all confused.

At the same time, there seems to be something intuitively 鈥榬eal鈥� about the existence of words 鈥� so, in short, it鈥檚 a mystery, and I certainly won鈥檛 be the one to solve it.

All of this is why there鈥檚 so much disagreement about how to spell English compounds. Nobody seems to agree on whether it should be high school, high-school, or highschool 鈥� and really, it doesn鈥檛 matter! All three versions mean the same thing, the only difference is whether and how we鈥檙e indicating boundaries between the morphemes in the word.

So, the next time you stumble across a suspiciously long German word with what seems like a few too many consonants (Dampfschifffahrt, for instance, which means 鈥榮teamboat ride鈥�), don鈥檛 fret!

Remember: as an English speaker, your brain already knows how to do read these words! It may take some more time, but you鈥檒l be able to process these words much more easily once you break them down into smaller, more manageable chunks.

If all else fails, consult your nearest German friend (or one of 杏吧原创鈥檚 very own German teachers), and I鈥檓 sure they鈥檇 be more than happy to help you translate!

References

1 Crace, J. (2013). 鈥淭he longest words in English: do you know what they mean?鈥� https://www.theguardian.com/science/shortcuts/2013/jun/04/longest-words-english-what-they-mean.

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