Germany’s longest word dropped due to law change

Blame the cows: a change to legislation regulating beef in Germany has killed its language's longest word, according to the Associated Press.

"The law concerning the delegation of duties for the supervision of cattle marking and the labelling of beef" became more than a clunky document title when the state introduced it in 1999, because German is more fun than English.

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Ideas are sometimes expressed in German by cramming long strings of nouns together. The result is a list of long, tongue-tying words known as "tapeworm words," according to the Los Angeles Times.

But as of last week, this particular word was geschnitten from the language. That means "cut" — I think.

Rindfleischetikettierungsueberwachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz is dead.

The Associated Press reports the law related to preventing the spread of mad cow disease, but new European Union regulations mean it's no longer needed.

Though I'm thankful to have avoided saying the word on television or radio, others were less fortunate. Some English broadcasters chickened out of saying the word, instead posting an image, but the few brave souls who did deserve recognition, if only for the career risk involved in trying this feat.

Jeff Douglas on CBC's As It Happens tried, reluctantly, to pronounce the word, and based on that attempt, it takes about 6 seconds to say it.

BBC Radio, on the other hand, brought in a German speaker to demonstrate.

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However, the BBC host noted that Germany isn't the only place with words that can make an English speaker's tongue try to retreat into her throat. He pronounced the name of a village on the island of Anglesey in Wales:

llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Now add those to a spelling bee.