This WORD exists ONLY in DUTCH!

No other language has this word:
Hottentottententententoonstelling

What does it mean?
And can foreigners pronounce this word?

That's what we asked the Dutch language students of the BLC Dutch Summer School.

* What is the meaning?
'Hottentotten' is a name that Dutch settlers gave to the Khoikhoi, a population in Africa. They gave this name because of their click language. The word 'hottentot' reflected how this language sounded to the Dutch ears. The word 'hottentot' is nowadays considered politically incorrect. In some places (like South Africa) the word became a swear word. The word 'hottentottententententoonstelling' literally means: an exhibition with tents for the Khoikhoi people. It is a made up word: the Khoikhoi didn't live in tents, these exhibitions never existed. The word is known as a very long word in the Dutch language. Try it yourself: ask a Dutch person to come up with the longest word in Dutch... 50% chance they will say 'hottentottententententoonstelling'.

More #dutchculture videos with Dutch language students in the following playlist:

Video produced by:
Bart de Pau
(online Dutch teacher and founder of the Dutch Summer School and Dutch Winter School)

Editing: Nicolas Balbontin, Kim van den Corput, Bart de Pau
Video was recorded at the BLC Dutch Summer School - 2019 in Amsterdam.

To know more about our:

[adrianameyer]

I’m Dutch and I finally learned what the “hottentotten” part of the word means

[forkless]

Most Dutch people indeed know -- of-- this word. Nobody actually uses in practical terms other than to show off the insanity of compound words.

[shanaprop]

I'm Dutch and I don't know what it means😂😂ahaha

[gellidanielle]

Why do I feel that most of your subscribers are Dutch themselves? Lol. I see many people who claim to be Dutch in your Dutch tutorial videos! 😂

[Milbrandt]

I think was at one point the longest word in the Dikke van Dale dictionary.

You can make basically infinite words though:
(etc.)

And if you commited a crime in Lekkerkerk, you could be locked up in the Lekkerkerkerkerker.

[richardrijnvos]

The linguistic fun of this word lies (of course) in the repetitive middle bit: "ten-ten-ten-ten". In a book called "Opperlandse Taal- & Letterkunde" (1981), author Battus (pseudonym for Hugo Brandt Corstius) came up with an even more ludicrous compound word in Dutch containing a repetitive element: No less than eight times "ker", one after the other. Have you figured out the meaning yet? We'll start at the end: it is the dungeon ("kerker"), which is situated in the bay window ("erker"), which is inside a church ("kerk") in the Dutch city of Lekkerkerk. For expats: Lekkerkerker is the genitive case of the name of this city (which is situated in the province of South Holland). In other words: it's the 😄 😉 😂

[AmmPed]

Sort of a payback for what Mary Poppins threw at us? ;-)

[ohhi]

"id be really weird for a tourist not to visit a tentoonstelling"
OH COFFEESHOP!

[Dude]

I remember my grandpa teaching me this word when I was still very young, and I found it hilarious to randomly say out loud. Good memories 😆

[YouriHL]

Hahaha, so nice. I usually use this word to tell foreigners what they can expect following Dutch classes while in the Netherlands haha.
I also love the winning 60 letter word It's a real word, no kidding.
When you do this again, take thát word. Hilarious. Even most Dutch people cannot pronounce this in just one time.

[MIGHTYcbu]

Hottentot is eigenlijk een scheldnaam, het betekent stotteren, maar wordt gebruikt om mensen met een kliktaal (maken een klikgeluid met de tong) aan te duiden, eigenlijk heet de stam Khoi, ook gebruikt voor de Xhosa stam.

[AnataWaDareDesuKa]

I loved this word for ‘galgje’. Until my younger siblings figured out I didn’t know any other really long words, so they would figure it outright away 😆

[marijnvijver]

I only know of this word because of a word quesing game named “galgje”

[elSplunky]

i'm guessing it's cut up like "hottentotten tenten tentoonstelling" or something.... i dont know im not dutch..

[misterangel]

It's a tongue breaker. It's used in speech therapy to learn to pronounce and breathe correctly while speaking. Btw I know it as

[Marvin_R]

one of its most common uses is the "hangman" word game.
and the word can get much longer, just by adding more words.


funny enough my phone thought that one was too long and refused to let me type it, I had to type bakje as a separate word and then remove the space.
it's the penholder of the female assistant of the female under-director of an exhibition of tents of the hottentots.

in Dutch the length of a word like this is really only limited by your imagination.

[jjforyouth]

the person behind the camera: “every dutch person knows this word”
me, a dutch person: *has never heard of that word until now*

[irishuisman]

fun fact, I did actually know this word already, but the long word that my sister taught me was

[ilseh.]

Aaah so adorable to see them struggle!
Bart, you make such funny videos! Love it!

If the Italian or American guy wants some extra Dutch tutoring ;) I’m here to help. hahaha

[jovankatwijk-redeker]

(141 letters) - the longest word in the Afrikaans language, which is pretty similar to Dutch.