In order to conform to EU regulations, a regional parliament in Germany has officially eliminated the need for the longest word in the German language – a 63-letter enormity pertaining to the testing and labeling of beef.
The word is Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz. Pronounce it if you can. Actually, unless you happen to be a German native speaker, or perhaps someone who is proficient in German language translation, chances are that you probably won’t be able to pronounce it.
Introduced in 1999, it was the German term for a “law for the delegation of monitoring beef labeling” created to ensure that ranchers tested healthy cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), otherwise known as mad cow disease.
After 14 years and in order to conform to European Union regulations, lawmakers have decided the law is no longer needed, therefore logically neither is the now obsolete word.
But while Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz never actually appeared in any dictionary, the word was used in official documents, and was thus considered by linguists to be among the longest words in the German language.
So why are German words so long in the first place, you may ask?
“Technically, there is no limit to word length in German because, like Finnish and Hungarian, it allows words to be joined together to create compound nouns at will,” according to Spiegel.
“Supersonic jet is Überschallgeschwindigkeitsflugzeug.
If a football team makes it to the World Cup, it's a Fussballweltmeisterschaftsendrundenteilnehmer.
Admittedly, many words of such length are often used in jest.”
Now while the search is on for the next longest German word, CTV news reports that at 80 letters, the longest word ever composed in German is:
"Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft," which means
"Association for Subordinate Officials of the Head Office Management of the Danube Steamboat Electrical Services," which even is English, is a pretty long name for an association. But the name was strung together more for fun than necessity and is not found in any dictionary.
In any event, if you’d actually like to hear the pronunciation of Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, you can do so here.
By Alex Dupont
Marketing Communications Specialist
Language Translation Inc.
See Also
Translation is the act of rewriting a document, changing it into another language. The original language is called the “source” language. The language into which the source text is translated is called the “target” language.
In a close-to-literal translation, in English the term Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz means, “Beef labeling supervision duties delegation law” and was coined following the BSE-mad cow scare.
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