Simple and compound
Sir: Michael Brett-Crowther describes as " teutonism, ponderous nouns tying up thought," the creation of words like " biosphere " and " technosphere." The Teutons, or Germans as they are normally called, do not create ponderous nouns and so prevent themselves from thinking. All they do is to write some of their compounds without hyphens or spaces. It is only a matter of custom that MrBrett-Crowther is not Mr Brettcrowther.
What we do is to take Greek or Latin elements, and combine them in compounds which are mindboggling to most people, because most people don't know Greek and Latin. What the Germans do, very often, is to combine German elements in compounds that are selfexplanatory to Germans. Thus. ' Umwelt ' is a far better word than 'environment,' because every German knows what 'urn' means, and what ' welt means, ' Gleichzeitig (literally: same-time-y) is much superior to ' contemporary,' for the same reason. I don't know if the germans have an equivalent of 'disincentive,' a ghastly agglomeration used quite cheerfully by Mr Brett-Crowther, but I hope not. For ',agglomeration' they might use ' Ansammlung,' saving three letters and making themselves perfectly clear.
English is, of course, partly German and therefore has the Capacity for making compounds. Mr Brett-Crowther uses 'weevilproblem,' dam-building,' 'waterborn," newly-formed," foreign born,' 'third-world,' 'newly formed,' all with hyphens. He also uses 'handout,' outback," gadfly,' 'warehouse,' likewise,' without hyphens, and without a qualm. He even talks about things like the 'Institution of Environmental Sciences' and the 'United Nations
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