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From: dkaulf@hpqt0147.sqf.hp.com (Dick Kaulfuss)
Subject: Re: Borrowed Words
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Date: Fri, 12 May 1995 13:09:17 GMT
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Markus Nickl (msnickl@linguistik.uni-erlangen.de) wrote:

: By the way - German is typologically not an additive language like
: Inuit but a synthetic language like most Indo-Europaean languages
: (excluding English). And another apropos: That German allows large
: compound words, while English doesn't is partly a trick of
: orthography: consider

: Engl.: gold fish         to German: Goldfisch

: Both examples behave as entities, but English doesn't mark this
: orthographically.

  Interesting point, but probably not a good example. "Gold fish" and
  "goldfish" are two distinct concepts in English, as are, I am sure,
  "goldener Fisch" and "Goldfisch" in German.  The OED lists the word as
  "gold-fish", but "goldfish" is in widespread use and will no doubt become
  the standard in time.  There is an abundance of English words formed by
  fusing two elements together "deutscher Art", e.g. goldsmith, rainbow,
  watermark, yuletide, screwdriver etc., often yielding a subtly different 
  or more specific meaning.  For instance, a water mark is any mark left by
  the presence of water, but a watermark refers specifically to the result
  of a papermaking (paper-making:-)) process.

  Many (most?) were originally hyphenated, but the practice is falling out
  of favour and is sometimes regarded as pedantry.  Offhand, I can't think
  of any words comprised of three or more elements, but they might well exist.

  Dick   
