Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz is now kaput. Germany has officially removed its longest word from us. Without the 63-letter word, it is not clear how people will refer to a law regulating the testing of beef in sentences like “just looking at the sizzling steak, you hardly needed a rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz to know this was a fine piece of meat.”
We have all used rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz to refer to the “law for the delegation of monitoring beef labelling.” It is now the latest victim of those black booted EU language thugs who recommended no longer recommend universal testing. The labelling law was introduced in 1999 to protect consumers from BSE.
Fortunately, we can still get our Kraftfahrzeug-Haftpflichtversicherung (motor vehicle liability insurance) from any Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften (insurance companies providing legal protection). The latter term not only is in the dictionary but commonly used. By the time you finish saying it, your policy has lapsed.
These words are the result of the German habit of stringing nouns together like Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän for a Danube steamship company captain, or worse, adding a reference to his widow –Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänswitwe or his hat, Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitänsmütze. These should be said in a shouting Teutonic style.
Then there are is the big daddy of Teutonic words: Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft — an eighty word monster meaning, the “Association for Subordinate Officials of the Head Office Management of the Danube Steamboat Electrical Services”.
Of course, the British do the same with names like the place in Wales called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
Of our this meaning that you create this wonderful line:
The Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän quickly grabbed his Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitänsmütze and went to the Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch to buy Kraftfahrzeug-Haftpflichtversicherung in case his wife ever became a Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitänswitwe.
Source: Telegraph
“Du hast die letzten acht Nächte vergessen.
Auch die Leerzeichen zwischen den Wörtern”
~+~
Zuerst kamen die Künstler, dann kamen die Kunstkritiker.
just don’t say it in new jersey family court
Darren,
Du hast die letzten acht Nächte vergessen.
Auch die Leerzeichen zwischen den Wörtern
Tschüss.
I spent several weeks in Germany one or two weeks at a time and one 6 week period. My work days was with people of various nationalities who were English-speaking.
I learned enough German to get food, shelter, a rest room and glider rides. Ordering from a menu is easy, you point. I knew what kind of meat I was getting but didn’t have a clue what they were going to do with it. After awhile I was able to order some things.
Took a side trip to Switzerland where the menus were in German, Italian, French and English. We had a good laugh when we noticed the English after trying to sort through the German.
I had no need for those super-long words. I didn’t have enough vocabulary to understand the individual words that make them up.
Viernachtigallendreifranzösischhühnerzweiturteltaubenundeinrebhuhnineinembirnbaum
nick and bettykath,
I would suspect that if Prof. Turley does not write an article about this decision, one of the guest bloggers might.
I would hate to have to address a post card to someone in this town!
nick, I suspect our blog owner is writing another op ed that he will share soon. 🙂
nick, he’s proving that there is something good in everyone. it’s too bad he and the women didn’t prevail on this one.
yes, he’s also right (and i’m not) re: which amendment this violates.
bettykath, I can’t count the number of times folks have been saying this about Scalia the past year or so. They’ll still ridicule him, “Fat Tony” is the most popular albeit ignorant one, but his 4th amendment chops are second to NO justice sitting or prior. One particular hater will probably call him a “racist” as he often does. He’s an Ivy Leaguer so he must be correct.
Perhaps I am too close to the language, but having begun to study German at the age of ten, and having kept up with it, more or less, for the last fifty years, I not only don’t find these humorous or confusing — I am grateful for them. They are far more understandable than sentences filled with extended adjectival constructions, dependent infinitive phrases, the ambiguous passive, and the horrid subjunctive.
A minute with a dictionary gives one the meaning of any of those compound words, whereas two hours with a dictionary, a grammar, and Goethe or Schiller simply gives one a headache.
Worse than Fahrvergnuegen!
Deliberate OT here. I expected to see something about the Supremes latest ruling that the police have the right to do DNA swabs on all suspects.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/04/us/supreme-court-says-police-can-take-dna-samples.html?_r=0
Excerpts:
” ‘When officers make an arrest supported by probable cause to hold for a serious offense and they bring the suspect to the station to be detained in custody,’ Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority, ‘taking and analyzing a cheek swab of the arrestee’s DNA is, like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.’ ”
I so disagree with this. DNA tells so much more about who you are than a fingerprint or a photo.
“Justice Antonin Scalia summarized his dissent from the bench, a rare move signaling deep disagreement. He accused the majority of an unsuccessful sleight of hand, one that “taxes the credulity of the credulous. ‘The point of DNA testing as it is actually practiced, he said, is to solve cold cases, not to identify the suspect in custody.’
” ‘But the Fourth Amendment forbids searches without reasonable suspicion to gather evidence about an unrelated crime,’ he said, a point the majority did not dispute. ‘Make no mistake about it: because of today’s decision, your DNA can be taken and entered into a national database if you are ever arrested, rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason,’ Justice Scalia said from the bench.”
I never thought I’d agree with Scalia but I do. This is a violation of the 5th amendment right about self-incrimination.
I’ve been interested in having a DNA analysis done for genealogical reasons but have not done it b/c of the potential for misuse. Now all I have to do is be picked up on suspicion of some “serious” crime. The potential for misuse is enormous, especially in the feudal police state we are becoming.
Can we just say the Donald and say it all….
Gives new meaning to a mouthfull.
They better not mess w/ hossenfeffer!
Haven’t these people ever heard of spaces. try to put that on an office door.
Have a listen:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/De-Rinderkennzeichnungs-_und_Rindfleischetikettierungs%C3%BCberwachungsaufgaben%C3%BCbertragungsgesetz.ogg
The german shepard in the dogpac whose name will not be revealed always calls hotdogs wiener schnitzels. Go figure. When we sing the Armour Hotdog Song he messes it up by employing those two words.
Makes me miss Germany.
Dear lord