As far as I know, the longest root word is "Tohuvabohuo". I came up with "reekoranĝsukemigi" when I was ill and the illness suddenly made me start liking orange juice again.

ceigered: If you don't mind me doing so, I've made a screenshot of this entire post and put it in a psychology notes folder so I can remember to look into this - interesting stuff!

Of course individuals vary in their perceptive abilities, seven is only an average-some people can quickly perceive more, some can only manage four or five. In general, if you were to show people papers with designs randomly printed on them and asked how many designs are on each paper, most people will immediately recognize up to seven without having to count. If you show the word "penguin" and ask how many letters, the mojority of people will be able to say"seven" without counting them. If you show the word "crocodile" most peple will have to count.

Mustelvulpo:Of course individuals vary in their perceptive abilities, seven is only an average-some people can quickly perceive more, some can only manage four or five.

Oh of course, I can only do the latter myself, or around 6 max maybe? But alas it's interesting that the average is seven since I was interested in this after noticing that some things I see that have heaps of components appear as if they're a large single mass, where as other things I see that have less components (e.g. 3) I can recognise also as 3 separate items. So it's good to know that it's a pan-human thing and I'm just not crazy

ceigered:

Mustelvulpo:Of course individuals vary in their perceptive abilities, seven is only an average-some people can quickly perceive more, some can only manage four or five.

Why not indicate when and where it's logically to use more complicated words and grammer? If it's between two smart people that need to use the words to do a complicated task then, it's good and necessary. If it's a message for the general public, that's not practical. If it's just for fun, it doesn't matter.

If we kept communication at determined comprehension levels and indicated that those not having higher comprehension levels need some guidance from ethical people with higher comprehension, then communication would improve.

Unfortunately, there are too many misguided people with higher comprehension that still want to be slick talkers, and that is not very intelligent at all, sort of like being part of the problem instead of part of the solution.

gyrus:As far as I know, the longest root word is "Tohuvabohuo".

Uh? All of the ones I listed on page 2 are longer:

darkweasel:Using the Akademia Vortaro, I have compiled a list of the longest official roots, all of which have 12 letters:

ADMINISTRACI/
AŬTOBIOGRAFI/
DEMONSTRATIV/
DISKRIMINACI/
KONSERVATORI/
PALEONTOLOGI/
PARALELOGRAM/
SPIRITUALISM/
SPIRITUALIST/
TRIGONOMETRI/

klnptrs78:Unfortunately, there are too many misguided people with higher comprehension that still want to be slick talkers, and that is not very intelligent at all, sort of like being part of the problem instead of part of the solution.

It's an unsolvable problem. If all words were two letters long, that'd just be as bigger mess as having heaps long words. Similarly, there may be some who find it natural to have big words, and find it strange to see short words. The only people you can keep happy are the "majority", which is more ignoring the fact that different people like to communicate differently.

So unfortunately nothing can be done about some people liking smaller words, some people liking bigger words and some liking the words in between. The important thing for everybody is to remember that decent communication is a different idea depending on who's communicating with who (thus one should adapt and meet half way with the other person).

Also, while I do have a best friend who loves to use long words just to avoid saying the same word in the same flipping paragraph (I've tried mentioning that you don't need to avoid using the same word twice if you've got a decent argument), there are many long words used for a reason - it's to do with minor nuances really. Even liberty and freedom, which I originally thought had no difference in meaning, even have small differences. And it's those small ingrained differences in words that often prevents the use of maybe a simpler word in lieu of a much greater one. And overuse of adverbs/adjectives/prepositions to create some gigantic noun phrase doesn't help either.

klnptrs78:Unfortunately, there are too many misguided people with higher comprehension that still want to be slick talkers, and that is not very intelligent at all, sort of like being part of the problem instead of part of the solution.

I wasn't going to respond to this but I see that ceigered already did so I thought I'd add my comment.

A little background - I was always "the smart kid" in my class (until I switched to a new school with a special program, where I became "the average kid") and I was teased with "smart jokes", etc. I would be talking, saying things that seemed completely normal to me, and then everyone would stop talking and stare at me and then ask what that weird word was that I just used, and I wouldn't be able to remember. Then they would tell me that I wasn't allowed to use any word more than two syllables long, except a name ("syllable" has three syllables, but I guess since they said it and not me, it's ok). I was in no way trying to impress them with all kinds of big words. I was just talking in a way that seemed normal to me.

It seems fair not to judge people for their word choices, or to make assumptions about them based on how they talk. It's one thing if it's a person who doesn't even know what these words mean is using them just for the sake of using big words and sounding smart. It's another thing if a person is talking and they happen to use a word you don't know. The difference is whether the word usage was in good faith, and I think it's fairly easy to tell.

Of course we have to talk to fit our audience, and it isn't appropriate to use technical terminology with someone who isn't in the field, and it also isn't appropriate to 'dumb things down' for someone who IS in the field and who can understand most easily when you use that technical terminology.

But it's possible to misjudge the level of the person you're talking to (misjudge up, and you use a word the person doesn't know; misjudge down, and it sounds like you're talking down to someone). I think it's appropriate to be forgiving and understanding about it.

I definitely would not agree that "big words = bad" or that "person who uses big words = person who is just trying to act important".

English has a lot of words and it isn't a crime to use them in situations where they're suitable (and in situations where you expect they should be understood - this part is a judgment call and some people might make a mistake here. Like me.).

You always have to adjust your choice of words according to your audience.

One thing I really like about Esperanto is the ability to imagine new words by combining roots and affixes. When I first started learning and I encountered the word 'Mallaboremulo' I was filled with glee
The 'hard' part is to make your words understandable, so you want to find the right balance between readability and condensed meaning.
Some of my own creations:
ekskoramikinigi - To make someone your ex-girlfriend, to break-up with your girlfriend.
Interdisciplinuniversitatkurso - an interdisciplinary course on a university
devigoftretposxtkontrolanto - someone who has the need/urge to often check their email
Karnavalparadopreparadkomitatano - A member of the preparation committee for the parade of a carnival.

amemulo:ekskoramikinigi - To make someone your ex-girlfriend, to break-up with your girlfriend.
Interdisciplinuniversitatkurso - an interdisciplinary course on a university
devigoftretposxtkontrolanto - someone who has the need/urge to often check their email
Karnavalparadopreparadkomitatano - A member of the preparation committee for the parade of a carnival.

They could be shorter and more understandable:
ekskoramikinigi - eksigi
interdisciplinuniversitatkurso - interfak(a )kurso
devigoftretpoŝtkontrolanto - retpoŝtkontrolademulo
Karnavalparadopreparadkomitatano - limburgano

http://de.lernu.net/komunikado/forumo/temo.php?t=3...