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Comment by simulate-me | Hacker News Reader

German is famous for its compound nouns. My feeling is compound nouns are noticed by English speakers due to their explicit verbosity, but I don't have any data to back that up.

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It's ironic because English is just as compound friendly. Take a German compound like Sprachwissenschaft ("language-science", i.e. linguistics). Now consider an English compound like "Earth science". The only difference is that it is convention in English to put a space between the words in a compound, whereas in German they are written without spaces. Things only seem different because of the impressive length some single "words" can reach in German, but English is just as capable of crazy compounds. Take this example that was discussed in a linguistics paper: "gay clergy book row priest", i.e. the priest who was involved in a controversy about a book about gay clergy. Quite convoluted, but we're not as awed by it, just because it happens to be spelled with spaces in between each part.

I think you're missing why people find German compound nouns interesting and notable. Does English have compound nouns and noun phrases? Certainly. But take your example: "gay clergy book row priest." The noun phrase literally represents the sum of its parts, i.e. a priest involved in a row over a gay clergy book. The phrase is complicated, but its meaning is straightforward. In German, however, it seems as if two unrelated nouns come together to form something unexpected. For instance the word for tortoise is "Schildkröte", translated literally as "shield toad." Is a tortoise a toad? Most native English speakers would say no. Does it have a shield? Again, most native English speakers would say no. So you have a case where there are two easily understood German words that come together to form something unexpected (to an English speaker). Perhaps a German would say that yes, a tortoise is a toad and yes, it has a shield. This is probably my own bias, but I don't think compound nouns in English form nouns in the same way as some German compound nouns do, or at least it feels to happen more often in German than in English.

Again, I don't think German is exceptional in this regard: we have English "catbird" (so called for its call), "bush baby" (for a small primate which is not a baby), "lady finger" (a regional name for okra), "buttercup" (a kind of flower), "kangaroo paw" (a kind of flower), etc.

I'd be pretty shocked if a German speaker thought a tortoise had a Schild or really was a Kroete, in the same way I'd be shocked if an English speaker said that a bush baby was an actual baby. Non-compositional noun compounds occur in both languages.

And English also features compound nouns, for example "compound noun". Usually (but not always) a space is within the word, so it's not that obvious. This language feature is a little less popular in english, but works very similar.

It's just like any other language, except without spaces. Czech language can do exactly the same, but we usually use the space - looks nicer.

For example, the longest Czech word: Nejnezdevětadevadesáteroznásobovávatelnějšími = [do something] by those most not multipliable by 99.

My impression when studying German is that the German language has more compound words that are singular words in English. e.g. Armbanduhr (watch), Aussehen (appearance), Hauptstadt (capital), Staubsauger (vacuum), anything ending with Zeug, etc. That doesn't necessarily mean German is longer on average.

An Armbanduhr is a wrist watch, not just a watch. I'm sure the Germans often shorten to it 'uhr', just like the English do.

Capital is short for capital city.

Vacuum is also short for vacuum cleaner.

I'll grant you Aussehen - that's a single word in english. But longer than the German one.

Yes, you can make the English words longer if you wish. But it’s very common to shorten them.

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