I think there should be a legal limit to how long a German word can be. Or an English word, for

[raccoon]

that matter, but I don't think that is usually a problem.

[arcane1]

1. I'd imagine the German word for that limit would be pretty damn long itself

[Aristus]

9. How about:

Wortunnaturlichesenlangensverbot - ?

[Bosonic]

2. Spelling Bee is Buchstabierwettbewerb in German

[csziggy]

3. Yes, but Welsh words and names should get a pass!

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlll­lantysyliogogogoch
It means something like this:
St. Mary's church by the pool of the white hazel near the swirling whirlpool of St Tysiliog of the red cave.

[malthaussen]

6. There's a great story about that well-known village...

Some tourists were in the local Burger King, and asked one of the kids behind the counter, "Hey, how do you pronounce the name of this place?" She leaned over the counter and replied, slowly and carefully: "Bur-gur-king."

-- Mal

[csziggy]

8. LOL!

I need to study Welsh so I can pronounce the places my ancestors came from. Actually, there is mostly one place, but the name changed every time there was a census, apparently.

[jakeXT]

10. I came across this one recently

The English is clear enough to lorry drivers - but the Welsh reads "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated."

...

Other confusing signs

"We took it down as soon as we were made aware of it and a correct sign will be re-instated as soon as possible."

The blunder is not the only time Welsh has been translated incorrectly or put in the wrong place:

• Cyclists between Cardiff and Penarth in 2006 were left confused by a bilingual road sign telling them they had problems with an "inflamed bladder".

• In the same year, a sign for pedestrians in Cardiff reading 'Look Right' in English read 'Look Left' in Welsh.

• In 2006, a shared-faith school in Wrexham removed a sign which translated the Welsh for staff as "wooden stave".

• Football fans at a FA Cup tie between Oldham and Chasetown - two English teams - in 2005 were left scratching their heads after a Welsh-language hoarding was put up along the pitch. It should have gone to a match in Merthyr Tydfil.

• People living near an Aberdeenshire building site in 2006 were mystified when a sign apologising for the inconvenience was written in Welsh as well as English.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7702913.stm

[KamaAina]

4. You antidisestablishmentarianist, you!

[PoliticAverse]

5. The Germans just don't like to use whitespace between words. n/t

[Xyzse]

7. It is more efficient that way!

NEW LANGUAGE

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the EU rather than German which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5 year phase-in plan that would be known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of the"k". This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be ekspekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent "e"s in the language is disgraseful, and they should go away.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v". During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to understand ech ozer. Ze drem vil finali kum tru! And zen ve vil tak over ze world!

[antiquie]

12. I see by the last line it's actually

Standard Teen Texting.

[Special Prosciuto]

11. hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia

... means fear of long words!

[DFW]

13. My daughter went to the head of her class one day because she could handle those words

In her first years of law school. the students in her class were to read passages out of some case out loud and then comment on what they had just read. Her passage concerned some case involving VW and the part she had to read had "Volkswagenaktiensgesellschaft" written out (basically the formal way of saying VW, Inc.). Since she was born and grew up in Germany, she read the passage zapping right through the long word without stopping. Her professor and her classmates all went "WHOA!!!" when she did, and stared gaping.

She stopped, looked at them and said, "WHAT?" They asked how she did it. "I'M GERMAN!!" she said, which people forget, now that her English is perfect, too.

These days, VW usually uses two words (Volkswagen Aktiensgsellschaft), probably in case some Chinese zillionaire wants to buy them out, but hesitates at having to say the name all at once.