I have to admit I\u2019ve never quite understood the look of sheer horror on most British people\u2019s faces when they first encounter a seemingly endless German compound word and try to make sense of it.<\/p>\n
As a German and a linguist these words make total sense to me – all you need is a bit of time to break them down into their individual components \u00ad\u00adand off you go. I\u2019ve seen it many times when teaching German \u2013 that look of exasperation tinged with a certain degree of admiration \u2013 \u201cHow can you even begin to read this?\u201d I\u2019ve always maintained it makes perfect sense and is perfectly logical once you understand the individual components (and, yes, have maybe a certain amount of familiarity and experience with the whole concept of sticking words together).<\/p>\n
In addition to artificially inflated compound words such as the world famous – and fabulous – Donaudampfschifffahrtskapit\u00e4nskaj\u00fcte<\/strong> (does it really exist?) there are also the ones that we actually use, particularly favoured by the legal, banking and insurance industries, which as Germans we never bat an eyelid about. Examples include the widely publicised \u201cRechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften<\/strong>\u201d (definition: insurance companies providing legal protection) \u2013 a mere 39 characters \u2013 or even common ones in everyday use such as \u201cH\u00f6chstgeschwindigkeitsbegrenzung<\/strong>\u201d (definition: maximum speed limit) \u2013 a dinker of a word with only 32 characters!<\/p>\n
![\"Wortw\u00fcrste\"](\"http:\/\/www.germanmatters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Wortw\u00fcrste.jpg\")
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