From: "Mauricio Fernández" <batsman.geo@...>
Date: 2003-02-12T06:30:53+09:00
Subject: Re: [OT] Re: was Re: turning modules into classes

On Wed, Feb 12, 2003 at 05:30:00AM +0900, Pit Capitain wrote:
> On 12 Feb 2003 at 2:39, Mauricio Fern�ndez wrote:
> 
> > Just to try to get this to be somewhat on topic, does anyone else think
> > that German feels just like forth?
> 
> >  * lots of _words_
> 
> viele Worte (two instead of the three above :-)

When I say lots of _words_ I don't mean that it's very wordy [though it
tends to be, just look for an operating manual in several languages.
Many times, German takes the longest... Better yet, a product
description or something like that], but rather that its lexicon is
_huge_. You could also argue that Germans like precise speech.
 
> >  * you stack them to define new ones
> 
> Examples?

"Too many to cite them here" :)

In a way it's just like juxtaposition in English, but it defines new
words

Linux is user-friendly.
Linux ist benutzerfreundlich.

Haha, I just bought "XML kurz and gut" (my first O'Reilly book in German!),
so I can give you one example of why I feel German has that forth
feeling. First sentence:
 
Die erweiterte Markup-Sprache XML (eXtensible Markup Language) ist ein
Dokumentenverarbeitungsstandard, der vom World-Wide-Web-Konsortium (W3C)
vorgeschlagen wurde --- demselben Gremium, das auch f�r die �berwachung
des HTML-Standards verantwortlich ist.

der Dokumentenverarbeitungsstandard: OUCH!
 das Dokument + die Verarbeitung + der Standard

It looks just OK for Germans, it seems too long a word for most other
people (really!). You'll probably see it better if I tell you that the
*longest* word in Spanish is only 23 letters long...

To get this on-topic

batsman@tux-chan:/tmp$ cat t.rb

lines = $stdin.readlines
length = 0
longest = ''
total = 0
lines.each do |x|
        if x.chop.length > length
                longest = x.chop
                length = longest.length
        end
        total += x.chop.length
end
puts "Longest: #{longest} #{length}"
puts "Average: #{1.0*total/lines.size}"

batsman@tux-chan:/tmp$ cat /usr/share/dict/spanish | ruby t.rb
Longest: bienintencionadamente 21
Average: 8.705499588
batsman@tux-chan:/tmp$ cat /usr/share/dict/american-english | ruby t.rb
Longest: antidisestablishmentarianism 28
Average: 8.009715368
batsman@tux-chan:/tmp$ cat /usr/share/dict/french | ruby t.rb
Longest: anticonstitutionnellement 25
Average: 9.591883232
batsman@tux-chan:/tmp$ cat /usr/share/dict/ngerman | ruby t.rb
Longest: Arbeitslosenversicherungsbeitr�gen 34
Average: 11.94765587
batsman@tux-chan:/tmp$ wc /usr/share/dict/*
  45392   45392  408969 /usr/share/dict/american-english
 138257  138255 1464402 /usr/share/dict/french
 308153  308153 3989859 /usr/share/dict/ngerman
  86061   86061  835265 /usr/share/dict/spanish
 138257  138255 1464402 /usr/share/dict/words
 716120  716116 8162897 total

The average lengths match my expectations.
However, the dicts are not complete at all, since it didn't have
'anticonstitucionalmente' (Spanish's longest) 

Almost forgot the all-time classic

Lisa:  Dad, do you know what Schadenfreude is?
Homer: No, I do not know what shaden-frawde is.
[sarcasm]  Please tell me, because I'm dying to know.
Lisa:  It's a German term for `shameful joy', taking pleasure in the
suffering of others.
Homer: Oh, come on Lisa.  I'm just glad to see him fall flat on his butt!
[getting mad] He's usually all happy and comfortable, and surrounded by
loved ones, and it makes me feel...  What's the opposite of that shameful
joy thing of yours?
Lisa:  [nastily]  Sour grapes.
Homer: Boy, those Germans have a word for everything!
-- Selbstverstaendlich!  ``When Flanders Failed''


> >  * kind of RPN-ish with verb at the end and such :-)
> 
> Das Verb steht nicht am Ende! (verb in the middle)

In subordinate clauses. They really feel RPN to me, and I like it! ;)
Take the sentence above: 1 verb on second position, 2 at the end of
their subordinate propositions...

-- 
 _           _                             
| |__   __ _| |_ ___ _ __ ___   __ _ _ __  
| '_ \ / _` | __/ __| '_ ` _ \ / _` | '_ \ 
| |_) | (_| | |_\__ \ | | | | | (_| | | | |
|_.__/ \__,_|\__|___/_| |_| |_|\__,_|_| |_|
	Running Debian GNU/Linux Sid (unstable)
batsman dot geo at yahoo dot com

[...] or some clown changed the chips on a board and not its name.
(Don't laugh!  Look at the SMC etherpower for that.)
	-- from /usr/src/linux/MAINTAINERS