{"id":380,"date":"2025-03-26T15:30:51","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T19:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/?p=380"},"modified":"2025-08-22T11:53:56","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T15:53:56","slug":"rindfleischetikettierungsuberwachungsaufgabenubertragungsgesetz-and-other-curiously-long-german-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/2025\/rindfleischetikettierungsuberwachungsaufgabenubertragungsgesetz-and-other-curiously-long-german-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Rindfleischetikettierungs\u00fcberwachungsaufgaben\u00fcbertragungsgesetz and Other Curiously Long German Words"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Rindfleischetikettierungs\u00fcberwachungsaufgaben\u00fcbertragungsgesetz and Other Curiously Long German Words\n <\/h1>\n \n \n \n\n

By Leilah Biesler<\/p>\n\n\n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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\"Pile<\/figure>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n
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If you\u2019re looking at the title of this blog post and thinking to yourself, \u201cwhat in the world is that monstrosity?\u201d then don\u2019t worry, you\u2019re not alone. Even to a German speaker, such as myself, a word like this (which, by the way, refers to \u201cthe law concerning the delegation of duties for the supervision of cattle marking and the labelling of beef\u201d)1<\/a><\/sup> <\/sup><\/a>needs more than one read-through to be properly understood. Even so, long words are common \u2013very much so\u2013 in German, a fact that even non-speakers frequently recognize. Why is that?<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Well, that\u2019s the magic of morphology<\/em>. Morphology, in linguistics, is the study of how words are formed. We look at morphemes, <\/em>the smallest units of language that carry meaning (smaller, even, than words!), and how they\u2019re put together to form the words and phrases we use in our speech. It\u2019s kind of like putting together a bunch of Lego bricks and ending up with a house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

English, of course, also makes use of morphology. You\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither of these strategies is better or worse, because at the end of the day everyone ends up saying what they need to; they\u2019re simply different ways of achieving the same goal. As they say (well\u2026 as I<\/em> say), one man\u2019s sentence is another man\u2019s extremely long compound word!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, let\u2019s take a look at how we would actually parse (break down) a word like Rindfleischetikettierungs\u00fcberwachungsaufgaben\u00fcbertragungsgesetz<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, we need to figure out what kind<\/em> of a word this is. German compound words are \u201cright-headed,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rightmost part of Rindfleischetikettierungs\u00fcberwachungsaufgaben\u00fcbertragungsgesetz<\/strong><\/em> is gesetz<\/em><\/strong>, meaning \u2018law\u2019. So, now we know that this gigantic word just refers to one hyper-specific type of law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, then we go from right-to-left to figure out exactly what type of law we\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An \u00fcbertragungs-<\/strong>gesetz is, literally, a \u2018transfer law\u2019. In legal speak, that gets translated as a \u2018delegation law\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving left again, an aufgaben-<\/em><\/strong>\u00fcbertragungs-gesetz <\/em>is a \u2018law for delegation of duties<\/strong>\u2019 (or, literally, \u2018duties delegation law\u2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On and on we go:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00fcberwachungs<\/em><\/strong>-aufgaben-\u00fcbertragungs-gesetz<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018supervision <\/strong>duties delegation law\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

etikettierungs-<\/em><\/strong>\u00fcberwachungs-aufgaben-\u00fcbertragungs-gesetz<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018labeling <\/strong>supervision duties delegation law\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rindfleisch<\/em><\/strong>-etikettierungs-\u00fcberwachungs-aufgaben-\u00fcbertragungs-gesetz<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Beef<\/strong> labeling supervision duties delegation law\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is most elegantly translated as the \u2018law for the delegation of duties for the supervision of cattle marking and beef labeling\u2019\u2026 what a mouthful!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Et voil\u00e0: we have broken Rindfleischetikettierungs\u00fcberwachungsaufgaben\u00fcbertragungsgesetz <\/em>down into its component parts, understood them all individually, and pieced them back together to read the word as a whole!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, I think it\u2019s time I let you in on a little secret\u2026This post has been a lie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 Rindfleischetikettierungs\u00fcberwachungsaufgaben\u00fcbertragungsgesetz <\/em>really does mean \u2018law for the delegation of duties for the supervision of cattle marking and beef labeling\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the idea that German has \u2018long words\u2019 and English doesn\u2019t, is totally made up! English compounds actually work the same way German ones do!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only reason German words seem \u2018long\u2019 to English speakers is because they\u2019re not putting spaces where we would expect them to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no salient linguistic difference between \u2018lawforthedelegationofdutiesforthesupervisionofcattlemarkingandbeeflabeling\u2019 and \u2018law for the delegation of duties for the supervision of cattle marking and beef labeling\u2019!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mean, try saying them out loud, and you\u2019ll see they\u2019re actually identical! So, the difference we perceive in the German version of an identical English word is just an artefact of the languages\u2019 different spelling conventions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crux of this issue really comes down to the fact that nobody <\/em>knows what a word actually is! Trust me, ask any linguist what a word is, and they\u2019ll tell you that they don\u2019t have a clue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without getting too bogged down in the details and overwhelming you with jargon, it all deals with the fact that the domain of a \u201cword\u201d is different in the semantics (meaning), phonology (sound), and morphosyntax (structure).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main reason we think of words as special is because of the lexicalist tradition in linguistics (but that\u2019s a whole other can of worms!). Add in the fact that spelling conventions are an arbitrary mess, and it\u2019s no wonder that we\u2019re all confused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, there seems to be something intuitively \u2018real\u2019 about the existence of words \u2013 so, in short, it\u2019s a mystery, and I certainly won\u2019t be the one to solve it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this is why there\u2019s so much disagreement about how to spell English compounds. Nobody seems to agree on whether it should be high school, high-school, or highschool \u2013 and really, it doesn\u2019t matter! All three versions mean the same thing, the only difference is whether and how we\u2019re indicating boundaries between the morphemes in the word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the next time you stumble across a suspiciously long German word with what seems like a few too many consonants (Dampfschifffahrt<\/em>, for instance, which means \u2018steamboat ride\u2019), don\u2019t fret!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember: as an English speaker, your brain already knows how to do read these words! It may take some more time, but you\u2019ll be able to process these words much more easily once you break them down into smaller, more manageable chunks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If all else fails, consult your nearest German friend (or one of Carleton\u2019s very own German teachers), and I\u2019m sure they\u2019d be more than happy to help you translate!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1<\/strong> Crace, J. (2013). \u201cThe longest words in English: do you know what they mean?\u201d https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/shortcuts\/2013\/jun\/04\/longest-words-english-what-they-mean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, that\u2019s 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\u2019re put together to form the words and phrases we use in our speech. It\u2019s kind of like putting together a bunch of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43,86,29,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-german","category-language-spotlight","category-languages","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":399,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions\/399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/llrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}