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.
Names of Germany
The Slavic exonym "nemets", "nemtsy" derives from Proto-Slavic "němьcь", pl. "němьci", 'the mutes', 'not able (to speak)' (from adjective "němъ" 'mute' and suffix -"ьcь"). It literally means "a mute" and can be also associated with similar sounding "not able", "without power", but came to signify "those who can't speak (like us); foreigners". The Slavic autonym (Proto-Slavic "*Slověninъ") likely derives from "slovo", meaning "word". According to a theory, early Slavs would call themselves the "speaking people" or the "keepers of the words", as opposed to their Germanic neighbors, the "mutes" (a similar idea lies behind Greek "barbaros", barbarian and Arab عجم (ajam), "mute)". At first, "němьci" may have been used for any non-Slav foreigners, later narrowed to just Germans. The plural form is used for the Germans instead of any specific country name, e.g. "Niemcy" in Polish and "Ńymcy" in Silesian dialect. In other languages, the country's name derives from the adjective "němьcьska (zemja)" meaning 'German (land)' (f.i. Czech "Německo"). Belarusian ("Nyamyecchyna"), Bulgarian ("Nemtsiya") and Ukrainian ("Nimecchyna") are also from "němьcь" but with the addition of the suffix -"ina".