Official Terminology Development in Different Cultures

Lecture 8 Week 4

Terminology Management

Varies by country; minority languages need special support

OQLF

Observes term usage in newspapers; collaborates with linguists and specialists

France’s Policy (1966–1999)

Shifted from strict rules to promoting French globally

French Synonyms

Created to reduce anglicism influence

Germany – Fugger Survey (1979)

Low agreement with official term replacements

Scandinavia

Norwegian more purist than Danish; Icelandic also purist

Purist Culture

Tries to eliminate foreign elements (e.g., France vs. anglicisms)

Cultural Approach (Macel Diki-Kidiri)

Multidisciplinary, cross-cultural, user-focused terminology

Indonesia 

Very successful and simple, Malay people avoid anglicisms,  Indonesian prefer loanwords to their native terms

Swahili

Most adv African language in term dev, Tanzania for dev, Kenya prioritizes English, Congo’s official language but variants due to impact of US&UK English

Persian

Replaces English loanwords w/ Persian/ Arab variants.

Japanese

loanword heavy, 40% from Chinese, Chinese heavily influence term formation

Chinese

extensive history of term dev, dictionaries, TB’s, gov depts, but region still effect dev

Arabic

Official for 14 countries, used a lot in corporate, long history, dialects are difficult for terminologists