Have you ever been to lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg? Perhaps without realizing it, because this lake in Michigan is also called Wester Lake. It is not entirely certain whether the long name (with 49 letters) was actually used by the original inhabitants (the Nipmuc) or was made up only later, but it does capture the imagination. And try pronouncing it….
Guinness book of records
New Zealand is home to some impressively long names too, especially in Māori culture, which gave a 300-meter-high hill the name:
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu
According to the Guinness book of records, with 85 characters, this is the longest place name in the world. Which do you think would be more challenging: climbing the hill or trying to pronounce its name correctly?
Speaking of pronunciations, you won’t want to miss this video; English weatherman Liam Dutton went viral when he flawlessly pronounced the name of the Wales town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllllantysiliogogogoch during the weather forecast—without blinking an eye. Just try that yourself too…
189,819
characters
While we’re at it: do you want to know what the longest word in the world is? It is the chemical name of the protein titin, and it consists of 189,819 characters! We’ll abbreviate it here, because otherwise it won’t fit in this issue of Connected: Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylalanyl(…)isoleucine.
You get the idea though….
निरन्तरान्धकारित-दिगन्तर-कन्दलदमन्द-सुधारस-बिन्दु-सान्द्रतर-घनाघन-वृन्द-सन्देहकर-स्यन्दमान-मकरन्द-बिन्दु-बन्धुरतर-माकन्द-तरु-कुल-तल्प-कल्प-मृदुल-सिकता-जाल-जटिल-मूल-तल-मरुवक-मिलदलघु-लघु-लय-कलित-रमणीय-पानीय-शालिका-बालिका-करार-विन्द-गलन्तिका-गलदेला-लवङ्ग-पाटल-घनसार-कस्तूरिकातिसौरभ-मेदुर-लघुतर-मधुर-शीतलतर-सलिलधारा-निराकरिष्णु-तदीय-विमल-विलोचन-मयूख-रेखापसारित-पिपासायास-पथिक-लोकान्