Rinderkennzeichnungs- und Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
Rinderkennzeichnungs- und Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz (
The name of the law is a famous example of the virtually unlimited compounding of nouns that is possible in many Germanic languages. German orthography uses "closed" compounds, concatenating nouns to form one long word. This is unlike most English compounds, which are separated using spaces or hyphens.
Strictly speaking, it is made up of two words, because a hyphen at the end of a word is used to show that the word will end in the same way as the following. Consequently, the two words would be Rinderkennzeichnungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz and Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, coming in at 58 and 63 letters, respectively.
This is the official
Words this long are not very common in German. When the law was proposed in the state parliament, the members reacted with laughter and the responsible minister Till Backhaus apologized for the "possibly excessive length".[3] In 1999, the Association for the German Language nominated Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz for its Word of the Year award, but it lost to das Millennium, a Latin word that gained in usage at the time, complementing the German word for millennium, Jahrtausend.[4]
In 2003, a decree was established that modified some real estate-related regulations; its name was longer than the above law: Grundstücksverkehrsgenehmigungszuständigkeitsübertragungsverordnung (
See also
- German compounds
- Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu
- Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft
- Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
- Longest word in English
- Scriptio continua
References
- ^ "Beschluss im Schweriner Landtag: Längstes Wort Deutschlands hat ausgedient" [Vote of state parliament in Schwerin: Longest German word has been retired] (in German). Hamburg: Der Spiegel. 3 June 2013. Archived from the original on 3 June 2013. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
- ^ Pleonast page on the law
- ^ Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz: Was ist das?
- ^ 1999 Word of the Year
- ^ Text of repeal at Buzer.de
External links
- Gesetzestext (full text of the law) at the Wayback Machine (archived June 18, 2012) (in German)
- Official parliamentary record of the debate (pdf, in German)
- A choir singing the word.