Thursday, August 20, 2009

"The Awful German Language"

In 1880, Mark Twain claimed to have spent at least nine weeks trying to learn German. His observations about The Awful German Language are well worth reading. If your life partner is German, read Twain's essay out loud together and then say "I told you so."

Twain himself maintained a museum of ridiculously long German words. Topping his list: Generalstaatsverordnetenversammlungen. According to one website, the current record for a legitimate German word is held by the 67-letter compound noun Grundstücksverkehrsgenehmigungs-zuständigkeitsübertragungsverordnung.

2 comments:

Teofrastus Bombastus said...

Mark Twain odiaba la lengua alemana. Una de sus primeras opiniones negativas sobre ello es la que aquí transcribo:" In early times some sufferer had to sit up with a toothache, and he put in the time inventing the German language".

Bernadette said...

Ok, now I think Teo is Andreus!