Wednesday, November 2, 2011

A lesson in Turkish

Turkish is what they call a gleutonus language.  What that means is that there are all sorts of attachments to words in order to make a sentence.  In English we have -ly or -tion that we can attach to a word, usually its just one suffix that is used but the Turkish language knows no bounds to how long they can make a word.  It is not uncommon at all to see six syllable words in childrens books.

I don't have time to read that first one give me War and Peace

                                     
To really give you a lesson in the ridiculous lengths that a Turkish word can go to, the longest word in Turkish is

 Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesine.   




What that pants soiling length of a word means is "Like you would be from those we cannot easily make a maker of unsuccessful ones"




Here is how the break down happens.

TurkishEnglish
MuvaffakSuccessful
MuvaffakiyetSuccess
MuvaffakiyetsizUnsuccessful ('without success')
Muvaffakiyetsizleş(-mek)(To) become unsuccessful
Muvaffakiyetsizleştir(-mek)(To) make one unsuccessful
MuvaffakiyetsizleştiriciMaker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileş(-mek)(To) become a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştir(-mek)(To) make one a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriver(-mek)(To) easily/quickly make one a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriverebil(-mek)(To) be able to make one easily/quickly a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebil(-mek)Not (to) be able to make one easily/quickly a maker of unsuccessful ones
MuvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebilecekOne who is not able to make one easily/quickly a maker of unsuccessful ones
MuvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerThose who are not able to make one easily/quickly a maker of unsuccessful ones
MuvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizThose who we cannot make easily/quickly a maker unsuccessful ones
MuvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenFrom those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones
Muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmiş(Would be) from those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones
MuvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizYou would be from those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones
MuvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesineLike you would be from those we can not easily/quickly make a maker of unsuccessful ones

                                                  Commence crapping your pants now!


See, pretty rediculous.   There have been plenty of times when I am saying a word and have to take a water break half way through.   So many ways to attach things to words that it really makes me wonder how Scrabble works here.
Let's see that danimarkalalistiramadiklarimizdanmisiniz
 on a triple word score...that adds up to 14,654 points