Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft
Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft is a compound word that serves as an example of the virtually unlimited compounding of nouns that is possible in many Germanic languages. According to the 1996 "Guinness Book of World Records", it is the longest word published in the German language.
German language
Whether any particular vowel letter represents the long or short phoneme is not completely predictable, although the following regularities exist:
Both of these rules have exceptions (e.g. "has" is short despite the first rule; , "moon" is long despite the second rule). For an "i" that is neither in the combination "ie" (making it long) nor followed by a double consonant or cluster (making it short), there is no general rule. In some cases, there are regional differences: In central Germany (Hessen), the "o" in the proper name "Hoffmann" is pronounced long, whereas most other Germans would pronounce it short; the same applies to the "e" in the geographical name "Mecklenburg" for people in that region. The word "cities", is pronounced with a short vowel by some (Jan Hofer, ARD Television) and with a long vowel by others (Marietta Slomka, ZDF Television). Finally, a vowel followed by "ch" can be short ( "compartment", "kitchen") or long ( "search", "books") almost at random. Thus, is homographous between "puddle" and "manner of laughing" (colloquial) or "laugh!" (imperative).