The Longest Word in the World

Soon after we got here, someone told me that the longest word in the world is Azeri.  Now, I've done some research since then and it seems that it's not actually possible to determine the longest word in the world because there are too many variables.  But I can tell you that if it were possible, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that my friend was right.

The Azeri language uses a lot of suffixes with words to convey meaning.  For example, the phrase "with my parents" is only one word in Azeri.  To make it a complete sentence- "I am with my parents"- is only 2 words: the pronoun + the rest of the sentence.  Although you could actually leave the pronoun off if you wanted to and have an entire sentence in one word.

valideyn- parent

valideynlǝr- parents

valideynlǝrim- my parents

valideynlǝrimnǝn- with my parents
Mǝn valideynlǝrimnǝnǝm- I am with my parents

And that's a word we've used in a lesson before, having only been studying for a few months.  I can't even imagine what a native speaker could come up with!

Some other fun/interesting things we've learned about the language:

• The verb always goes at the end of the sentence or phrase, not matter how long it is. To use an old example from a friend who studied Kazakh: "I with my friend to Temirtau for New Years went." That one definitely throws us off when we're trying to formulate sentences!
• Our teacher taught us one verb that has at least 6 different meanings: to weigh something, to take a picture, to draw a picture, to smoke a cigarette, to pull, and to spread something (like butter on a piece of bread).
• To make a verb negative, you add an "m" to the middle of the word- "bilirǝm" (I know) becomes "bilmirǝm" (I don't know).  It's kind of an important distinction, but I mess it up all the time.  I once told someone quite emphatically (in Azeri) that I am not studying Azeri.
• The verb for "to understand" literally means "to fall into your head."
• The verb for "to listen" translates as "to hang something on your ear."

Ah, the joys of learning a new language.  Good times.