Content of the focal.ie database. Brief introduction to the Irish language Background to CT terminology stock Digitization of terminology stock.

Content of the focal.ie database

Brief introduction to the Irish language Background to CT terminology stock Digitization of terminology stock Strengths and weaknesses Conclusions

Proto-Indo-European (7th? – 4th millennium BC)◦ Centum-Satem isogloss (4th millennium BC)

Centum languages, Satem languages Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, Italic, Anatolian, Tocharian

Proto-Celtic (c. 4000 - 800 BC) Insular Celtic, Continental Celtic (Gaulish, Celtiberian) (c.

800 BC) Goidelic, Brythonic (Welsh, Breton, Cornish, Cumbric, Pictish?)

(c.600 BC – AD 600)

Primitive Irish (AD 300-600)◦Old Irish (AD 600–1000) Middle Irish (AD 1000– 1200)

Early Modern Irish (1200–1700), Manx (1200-1974;+revival), Scottish Gaelic (1200-) Modern Irish (1700 – )

5th C: Christianity – introduction of Latin alphabet, borrowings from Latin

9th C: Viking invasions – borrowings from Norse 12th C: Norman invasion – borrowings from French 15th/16th C: British colonization, plantations of English and

Scottish settlers – borrowings from English 17th C: conquest or flight of the native ruling class, loss of

patronage for writers 19th C: Potato famine – death, disease, emigration 17th – 20th C: Irish the language of the poor, powerless,

dispossessed, geographically marginalized- language shift, domain loss

4th C: memorial inscriptions in Ogham alphabet 4th -9th C: Annals, genealogical books, historical and semi-historical stories, appear in

manuscripts transcribed from 11th C, including Keating’s History of Ireland in 17th C; 6th C: earliest surviving written texts, mainly religious, some poetry 7th C: 187 epic sagas including prose interspersed with poems, which appear later in

manuscripts transcribed c.1100 7th- 10th C: Brehon laws, legal treatises 8th C: Early Christian literature – lives of saints, homilies, commentaries, prayers,

hymns, religious poetry; Old Irish glosses in religious manuscripts in Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy

9th-17th C: Bardic poetry 11th -13th C: Translations from medieval and classical texts 12th C: Books of miscellaneous literature, transcribed from earlier written and/or oral

versions 12th-17th C: Grammatical tracts, metrical tracts, glossaries 14th C: Astronomical, geographical, medical tracts 14th – 17th C: Love poetry (amour courtois) Thousands of manuscripts exist in various libraries - Royal Irish Academy, Trinity

College Dublin, Marsh’s Library, British Museum, Bodleian Library (Oxford), Advocates Library (Edinburgh), Bibliothèque Royale (Brussels)

Late 19th/early 20th C: cultural renaissance Early 20th C: independence (for c. 75% of island) Legislation translated to Irish since1922 Introduction of compulsory Irish in educational system and some

Irish-medium education Lexicographical and terminological activity intensified Standardization of spelling & grammar, mid-20th C Media activity – some Irish content in general media since late 19th

C; national Irish radio station 1972, Irish TV station 1996 High density of Irish-language writers and publishers late 20th C: peace initiative, Belfast Agreement, establishment of 6

North/South bodies, including The Language Body comprising 2 language agencies, Foras na Gaeilge and Tha Boord o Leid

2003 – Official Languages Act 2007 – official status as working language of EU

Republic of Ireland 1.66m of overall population of 4.42m claimed

fluency in 2006 85,000 claimed to speak Irish as daily vernacular 538,000 use some Irish every day 98,000 use some Irish every week 14% claim to listen to Irish on radio and TVNorthern Ireland 25,000 claim fluency 10% claim some knowledge of IrishIndeterminate pockets of speakers located inUSA, Canada, UK, Australia, Pategonia,

Brussels

Literature and literary criticism Education system (including textbooks and other aids) Legislation (Irish and EU) Bilingual or monolingual signage (official and commercial) Official forms, documents, annual reports Bilingual leaflets and bills from public services (gas, electricity,

etc.) Documentation generated by Irish-language organizations Paper and electronic newsprint Subtitling on TV Software localization Advertising, plaques, greeting cards, tattoos Handbooks, glossaries and dictionaries by public and private

organizations (environment, flora and fauna, police, army) State lexicography and terminology work

Cf. Literary heritage – all of this literary activity required means for term formation

Many new concepts were designated by loanwords:◦ Maighnéad < maignéit < Saltair na Rann, a poem

penned in AD 998◦ Criostal < cristall < Sanas Chormaic, 8th C◦ Ciogal < cicul < Félire Óengusso Céli Dé , 9th C◦ Éiclips < eclipsis < Corpus Astronomiae, 16th C

translation (into Irish) from Spanish Other early term-formation methods included

compounding and calques

Cultural renaissance – late 19th C◦ Literary activity in Irish led to founding of the bilingual literary journal in

1882 (Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge), the bilingual newspaper in 1899 (An Claidheamh Solais) – many others followed.

◦ A new language register was being created in order to discuss and write about political and cultural issues since the vernacular focussed on the practicalities of agriculture, weather, fishing, crafts, flora and fauna.

◦ The need to form new terminology as well as to collect existing domains was recognised.

◦ An annual Irish literary competition called An tOireachtas, founded in 1897, launched competitions for collections of native terminology.

◦ A pioneer in this field, Liam S. Gógan, set about advertising in the media for lists of native terms in the domain of architecture and related trades – the resulting collection was published in the form of weekly short lists in various newspapers over a period of 20 years.

Contexts◦ Educational system: exam papers, textbooks, teaching notes

(terminology committee1927-)◦ Translation of legislation: in-house term formation (1922-)

Criteria◦ Dissemination of terminology through the educational system assumed

subsequent implantation◦ Term formation in the first half of the 20th C tended to avoid loanwords

and new terms were formed from native words and particles Results

◦ Implantation had limited success in Gaeltacht areas – a divide existed between east and west

◦ Loanwords for technical terms based on Greek or Latin roots began to be introduced during the forties and fifties

◦ The compiler of an English-Irish dictionary (1959) collected 15 different Irish equivalent terms for ‘telescope’, about half of which were based on native words and half on the loanword ‘telescope’

Contexts◦ Legislation (Irish and EU), Official Languages Act 2003◦ Media & advertising◦ Creative writing, literary criticism◦ Translation industry, localization◦ Education, wider public

Approaches◦ Collection and digitization of existing terminology stock◦ Continual term formation on demand and collection of native and spontaneous

terms◦ Standardization and harmonization work◦ Development of terminology handbook◦ Awareness-raising, workshops, seminars, talks, articles◦ Elaboration of terminology◦ More reference to languages other than English due to EU translation work

Implantation◦ More visibility - bilingual signage, subtitles on TV◦ Some resistance from native speakers to neologisms and from others who dislike

loanwords Results

◦ Increased language status and awareness◦ Surging translation industry and development of academic courses◦ Focus on problems – grammatical, linguistic, terminological, lexicographical.

No linguistic relationship later than Indo-European - 4000 BC

All Irish speakers (from Ireland) are also English speakers

Small percentage of Irish speakers are mother-tongue speakers – 0.05% of all claiming fluency, 16% of those who speak language every day

Most of these were brought up in pockets along western seaboard

Many migrated and live in English-speaking areas or abroad where they have little or no context

School curricula (primary and secondary, mainly)◦ textbooks, exam papers, educational documents◦ not all areas fully covered◦ areas outside curricula generally not dealt with◦ series of dictionaries focussed on various curriculum

subjects developed over the years◦ some projects focussed on domain loss (flora and

fauna, sailing, trades)◦ most projects focussed on domain expansion and

domain gain (business, sciences, telecommunications, IT)

◦ some projects focussed on harmonization of existing terminology (literary criticism, biblical proper names)

Collaboration with a number of external public and private agencies leading to handbooks, dictionaries or glossaries in various fields◦telecommunications, broadcasting, flora and

fauna, computing, finance, enterprise, military, policing, environment, retail sector, administration, food and drinks industry, etc.

Collaboration with software companies in localization projects

Enquiries from the public led to terminology advice service and the accumulation of lists of miscellaneous terminology and associated phraseology◦ Numbers of enquiries processed increased from c. 1000 per

year in the 1980s to 2000 in late 1990s to 5000+ in 2009◦ Interface with the public reflected topics of current

interest and debate; less so since introduction of Official Languages Act and EU status for Irish

◦ Enquiries reveal uncertain state of living language in terms of terminology, language registers, anglicisms, syntax and grammar

◦ Enquiries also reveal vigorous and unbridled development of English as written in Ireland

◦ Enquiries arising from EU translation work and lists for the IATE database reveal uneven quality of English terms in the legislation

Lack of transparency in multiword terms due to lack of case and gender

Confusion due to partial equivalence of concepts in various English-speaking regions, e.g. harbour/port/ferry, public school

Multiple spellings▫ British English vs American English▫ Lack of clear coordinated hyphenation rules

Influence of EU English and EU translation work▫ Direct translations from French or other languages▫ False friends▫ False cognates

Influence of American English in localization work Influence of American English in language-learning

Term bank initiated in the early nineties failed to get off the ground due to lack of resources

Compilation of 18,862 miscellaneous terms edited and issued on the Internet in 2002

Further collections added over the following years CD of 9 terminology dictionaries published in 2004 12 further dictionaries and other material scanned Project for National Terminology Database initiated

with FIONTAR, DCU, in 2005 with the help of Interreg funding and funding from Foras na Gaeilge

All digitized material, including unedited draft-lists, was input into new database

Vast harmonization work ensued and is ongoing

Refinement of data categories and subject-field classification

Ongoing work on individual collections Projects focussing on additional technical

facilities (link with New Corpus for the Irish language, facility to download terminology stock in CD format, export to translation memory, etc.)

Collaboration with external agencies led to agreements to input other collections in the form of auxiliary glossaries legal terminology and phraseology from the

Government translation section military terms from the Defence Forces

Further collections of legal terminology sourced by FIONTAR 2 dictionaries of legal terms collection of terminology prepared for IATE database

All available terminology work carried out by the Terminology Committee and its Subcommittees since at least the nineteen-sixties now available online

Facilitates those of us working in the field – which is still primarily term-formation work

Facilitates the public, including educators, students, translators, public bodies and the media

Leads to feedback from the public about certain terms Raises awareness of the nature of terminology work Assists implantation of standardized terminology Enhances the status of a minority language in a very

weakened position Provides opportunities for further elaboration of the

terminology stock or parts thereof Provides research opportunities for universities and other

entities involved in linguistic projects

Translation from paper to electronic format creates new challenges, e.g. lack of clear contexts – hence the need for refinement of subject-field classifications, definitions and usage examples

Merging over 70 collections reveals inconsistencies, inaccuracies, multiple versions for the same English term which may or may not designate the same concept in one or more fields

Ongoing harmonization work can lead to uncertainty and confusion for users

Confusion in the minds of many users between lexicography work and terminology work - expect a one-stop shop

Conflicting terms in external resources – including the spoken language – increases confusion and amount and types of enquiries

Official legal status and technological facilities have come rather late for the Irish language◦ Much has been lost, fabric of spoken language is

breaking down or changing dramatically◦ Irish has a long literary tradition, and continues to

provoke enthusiastic interest in the written word◦ Terminology constitutes the bones of the written

word◦ Population, maintenance and development of the

National Terminology Database is an undoubted asset towards preserving and prolonging the lifespan of the language – this work needs to be consistently and adequately resourced.