Hawaiian drivers licenses have literally chopped off people's... names.

在夏威夷，汽車駕照上的姓名真的會被刪減一些

One ancient comedian spelled out this mystery meat dish.

而很久以前有個喜劇演員拼出了這串神祕肉類料理的名字

And German words can get so hefty that even when they lost their longest one in 2013 it

又或者是德語，字詞可以非常的長，即使在2013年最長的那串字已經不見了

hardly left a dent.

也幾乎沒甚麼影響（德語還是有許多很長的字）

So what's going on in these words, and just how long can a word get?

那麼這些字到底怎麼了，一個字究竟可以多長呢?

A couple years ago, I was living the life.

幾年前，我正過著那種生活

Chained to a desk ten hours a day, working weekends, taking lunch breaks to go snorkel

每天都被綁在辦公桌前十個小時有，假日則是工作，中午休息時間和

with turtles in the reef!

海龜一起在有珊瑚礁的海域中潛水

Oh, did I not mention I was chained to a desk in Hawaii?

噢，我沒提到說這是在夏威夷發生的事嗎?

So I had a good swim and I'm walking back.

所以我游完泳就回來了

I must have zoned out on the scenery, singing with the birds or something because somewhere

眼前的景色讓我放空，可能我正和小鳥一起唱歌或是什麼之類的

I took a wrong turn.

原來是我走錯路了

And now I am face to face with the street sign that never quits.

然後我面對著那路標上長到不行的文字

Seriously, those letters went on forever!

我說真的，那根本是永無止境的長!

If you're a normal human in this situation, you know you're lost, you turn around and

遇到這樣的狀況，你知道迷路了，只要是一般人都會轉身

you walk the other way.

然後走另一邊過去

But language nerds?

但是對於語言怪咖呢?

We drop our ice cream and sit there mesmerized by phonemes.

我們會直接把手中的冰淇淋丟掉然後坐著，著迷於那些音位中

Auwe, you think a lone male goes wandering the streets licking an ice-cream cone?

噢，你覺得一個孤單的男子會一邊舔著甜筒冰淇淋一邊到處閒晃嗎？

That is creepy.

那很詭異

Nah, we eat shave ice.

不，我們吃剉冰

The kicker though is if you pop open a Hawaiian dictionary you won't find these forever words.

精彩的是如果翻開夏威夷字典，你找不到那些超級長的字

In fact, most terms will look downright short.

事實上，多數的用語看起來很短

So where are the extra letters coming from?

那多出來的字母是從哪來的呢?

Hang out with me long enough and you'll hear about Pacific Island taboos.

跟我相處久了你就會聽說有關太平洋島嶼的一些禁忌了

In Hawaii, the word is "kapu".

夏威夷語中叫做 "kapu"

Oh, and there are some intriguing kapu stories, but that's for later.

噢，有些 kapu 故事真的是神秘又有趣，不過我們之後再聊吧

So keep "kapu" but now go and grab the sounds "ho'o", which my grammar book calls a causative.

先記著 "kapu"，但現在來看這個音 "ho'o" ，文法書中這叫做使役詞

Smash that onto "kapu" and you'll get "ho'okapu", maybe make something holy or cause to be taboo.

和 "kapu" 結合在一起，你會得到"ho'okapu"，有讓某種東西變神聖或者造成禁忌的意思

But these affixes only buy us a few characters and they give me grammatical headaches, so

但這些前綴詞只能多增加一些字母而已，而且讓我對文法感到頭痛，

no big wins here.

所以這根本沒什麼

Besides, most Hawaiian grammar is done with separate little words called particles.

此外，多數夏威夷語的文法是拿拆開來的短詞語作運用，稱為小品詞

And if you thought dissecting word-beasts was a pain, here's your chance to tame a bunch

如果你覺得這些拆開來看起來很兇狠的詞語讓你困擾，這裡有一些比較溫馴的詞語

of little scurrying word insects!

你比較容易上手

So beautiful though.

儘管如此，還是很有文法之美

What's better than taking your base word and growing it by sticking on some appendages?

有什麼會比把一個詞加上其他的綴詞還要更好呢?

Adding another base word!

再加上一個詞語!

This is called compounding, and it'll earn you some serious extra letters.

這叫做複合詞，可以讓你有更多的字母

Watcha got?

來看看有什麼

Got a brain?

一個大腦?

How about a lightning brain!

加上閃電如何! (變成電腦)

Dung?

糞便?

Here's some Pele dung!

加上火山! (變成硫磺)

Triggerfish?

砲彈魚?

Why not a blunt-pig-snout-triggerfish!

何不來個豬鼻砲彈魚!

Humuhumunukunukuāpua'a.

Humuhumunukunukuāpua'a

Impressive word-building, Hawai'i.

夏威夷語的造字法則真是令人讚嘆!

So then, is Hawaii home to the longest word ever?

所以，世界上最長的詞語是夏威夷語嗎？

It is

是....

not.

才怪

What about German or Greek from earlier?

還是稍早提到的德語和希臘文呢？

Same strategy: compound, compound, compound...

一樣的法則: 複合，複合，複合詞....

No record-breakers there either, unfortunately.

可惜都還是沒有打破紀錄

The award goes to... drummrrrolllll....

這個獎要頒給.....來點鼓聲....

A master-compounder-extraordinaire, a 16th-century writer,

16世紀的一名作家，精通複合詞的非凡大師

Tirumalāmbā.

Tirumalāmbā

She used compounding in her Sanskrit masterwork in which there is an entire chapter devoted

她傑出的梵文作品裡就使用了複合詞，有一整個章節

to basically just saying, "So this guy passed through a part of Tamil Nadu."

只為了要敘述 "所以這個傢伙經過了坦米爾納杜邦的一小部分地區"

But she gushed over that region, I mean she really laid it on thick.

但她真的把那地方讚美得天花亂墜，我是說，真的是講得太誇張了

One (just one!) of the litany of flowery Sanskrit words she used to describe the place contains

其中一個她用來形容那個地方的華麗梵文詞藻，

dozens and dozens of compounds.

包含了非常非常多的複合詞

And that is how a Sanskrit compound made the Guiness World Records for longest word.

而那就是梵文的複合詞如何打破金氏世界紀錄中最長的字

Are we having a moment here?

我們要在這裡停一下嗎?

Is that thought crossing your mind too, like, theoretically couldn't we just keep adding

你心裡面是不是有個想法，理論上難道我們不能就這樣一直增加

and adding hyphenated compounds infinitely?

帶有連字號的複合詞嗎?

Welp, you're right!

痾，你說對了!

Kind of unfair then, huh?

這樣很不公平，嗯?

If that's how we're playing this, fine.

如果我們是按照這樣來，那沒問題

It's a hyphenated verbal arms race.

這就只是文字上的軍備競賽而已

The thing about words like these is they don't really get used.

這些字就是不太會被用到

Truth is, even with compounding, Hawaiian and German and even Sanskrit aren't winning

事實上，即使加上了複合詞，夏威夷語和德語甚至是梵文都不是

any average word length awards.

平均詞語長度最長獎的得主

Around the world, languages where people actually use long words in nearly every single sentence?

在全世界，有個語言在每個句子中都出現很長的字？

Oh, they build words very differently.

噢，他們造字的方式非常不同

I should come back to that sometime.

我應該再找某個時間來談

Stick around and subscribe for language!

先別急著走，為了語言按下訂閱吧!