h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft - The Longest German Word - A29168102
Author: boredlaura - 50000 words, 30 days, let's go! - U172849

Yes, I'm still avoiding my NaNo, but shh!

This one sort of leans heavily towards the German side of language so I would be super-duper grateful if someone whose German is a bit less rusty than mine would have a look over the more German bits of it; B'El, Sho? Please?

You might say the Dunav is not very blue at Vienna, you should see it by the time it gets to Novi Sad Serbia .

This entry is very

This is good and well-written. My only criticism is the first line:

Picture the scene, if you will, you're in Vienna...

That should be two sentences:

Picture the scene, if you will. You're in Vienna...

The title is going to play merry hell with browsers, though.

NOt much we can do about the browser hell though is there?

That's for the Eds, sub-eds and technical staff to sort out.

Done

The title has already mangled my PS in Alabaster, I'm between the clichéd rock and a hard place: mangled alabaster or *shudder* goo. I'm not even considering brunel.

Are you sure this word exists and that you copied it corectly form the Guinness book? It doesn't make any sense. First: there is no plural word for electricity, so that should be elektrizitäts.
Second: in everyday language, werkbau should be werksbau.
I would be hard pressed to know what a Unterbeamter is.
Was this word constructed in Austria? If so, it's certainly worth to mention it, because Austrain German differs quite a lot from German German.

How's it in "plain" skin, Laura?

A21136196

--more word can be added
>>more words can be added

Not knowing anything about German at all, all I can say is that this is a lot more fun than the last 'longest word' entry I looked at.

Sorrybut umlauts aren't allowed in titles, it messes with the mobile phone users ability to (I forget what).

And I'm very sorry but I will have to unsub, because I *am* in Goo and posting here just ed up my PS

*very gently *

Love it

The late lamented Fritz Spiegel had great fun with this kind of thing. Not quite as long but perhaps even more impenetrable, he suggested
Hottetottenpotentatentantenattentat
which if I'm not mistaken is an assassination attempt against the aunt of a Hottentot potentate.

The Laws of Cricket in German are pretty funny too.

swath = swathe

And doesn't "hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian" translate as horse-monster word of many syllables"?

B'Elana - I should have thought of that! I did learn about it in Austria so I've added a note to that effect.

GB - I remembered about the umlauts the second after I posted the conversation; I should've learned from my Jägerbomb entry! So I've changed it to "a" instead of "ae" as the word really doesn't need another letter in it!

Psycorp - Yup, that would be the fellow: "horse-monster word of many syllables", I've seen it used in several places to mean a long, long, long word; which seemed apt in this case!

Gnomon - good point! It doesn't mess up my PS in plain and the entry seems to fit brunel on my screen. I always forget about poor ol' plain skin, it's well, just so plain!

Anything else folks?

I wonder, is there any way to shorten the title of it, without losing its panache? Not only would it stop messing up my PS (and yours), but it would display better for those who read it.

You could take the long word out of the title, and just leave it as 'the longest German word'.

I'd also suggest that you add a title tag to the link to the longest English word and just call that 'the longest English word', to avoid the look of the site going all out of shape.

*agrees with EW's suggestion*

We could change the title of the other entry as well, that way no problems!

Now with new non-browser ing title!