Trijų Baltijos valstybių terminologijos seminaras

TERMINOLOGY SEMINAR OF THE THREE BALTIC STATES On 21 October 2003, the State Language Commission, subordinate to the President of the Republic of Latvia, held a terminology seminar of the three Baltic states, Terminology Work Now and in the Future in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia: Cooperation Plans in the Context of EU Member States, to which it invited staff of the Terminology Centre of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language to present terminology work in Lithuania. Juris Ekmanis, Vice-President of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, said in opening the seminar that terms had to be coined at an unnaturally rapid pace, while there were few people creating them. He emphasized that new terms were not always well received by the public, and that some were criticized by the government as well. Terms entering from English were often elements of jargon. Ekmanis asked how terms were understood and explained in the other Baltic countries. Terminology databases were large and needed to be synchronized; shared databases of Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian terms needed to be created. A. Auksoriūtė, J. Gaivenytė-Butler, and A. Umbrasas, staff members of the Terminology Centre of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, spoke about how terminology work is carried out in Lithuania, which institutions are involved, and what problems Lithuanian terminologists face. Hiie Tamm, a terminologist at the Estonian Centre for Legal Language, surveyed the institutions working in the field of terminology and spoke about the terminologists of the Institute of the Estonian Language, the Estonian Terminology Association (website address: www.eter.ee), and the Estonian Centre for Legal Language, where she works (for more information, see Hiie Tamm’s article in this Terminology issue). Valentīna Skujiņa, Chair of the Terminology Commission of the Latvian Academy of Sciences and academic professor, presented a chart of all the institutions engaged in terminology work in Latvia and surveyed the structure and work of the Terminology Commission. The Commission, operating under the Academy of Sciences, has 24 terminology subcommissions: aviation; librarianship, bibliography, book studies, and information science; botany; demography; railway transport; economics; energy; philosophy; geology; hydraulic engineering; information technology and telecommunications; law; chemistry and chemical technology; agricultural machinery; medicine; mechanics and machine manufacturing; forestry; military affairs; music; motor vehicles; sports; the textile industry; history; and heat, gas, and water 171 technology. The listed subcommissions include about 250 specialists from research institutes, higher education institutions, and other organizations; some, for example those in information technology and telecommunications and in energy, are very active. Skujiņa raised several issues in Latvian terminology: 1. The main task of the Terminology Commission of the Latvian Academy of Sciences is to ensure the preparation of uniform terminology; however, the Commission is not a legal entity, so its legal basis is inadequate. 2. Publishers primarily publish dictionaries that sell well, about which the Terminology Commission is not always informed. Previously there was one centralized publishing house and one newspaper; now there are many publishing houses and many newspapers, but information is inadequate. The Terminology Commission publishes Terminology News; four issues have appeared, but not everyone receives this publication, and it is not sent to other Latvian cities. 3. The educational aspect is very important. Attitudes toward teaching Latvian in secondary school need to change. Terminology training must be included in higher education curricula. 4. The state allocates very little money for terminology work, and some terminologists work without pay. Public relations also require substantial funding and effort. The director of Tilde, Andrejus Vasiljevas, spoke about the terminology bank being developed in Latvia. He noted that several small terminology banks were available, but that a broad and reliable bank was lacking; therefore, it was important to create a unified database that would also include terms approved by the Terminology Commission. The Commission’s subcommissions needed technological equipment and databases, and the publication of their decisions also had to be ensured. Vasiljevas emphasized that the public should also be involved in creating terms. Marta Jaksone, director of the Terminology and Translation Centre, also stressed that Latvia lacked a unified database containing approved terminology. Thus, one of the most important tasks was to create widely accessible terminology databases. She noted that it was also very important to strengthen and improve translators’ qualifications, since some translators’ command of Latvian was very poor. Kārlis Timmermanis, Doctor of Engineering at Riga Technical University and chair of the energy subcommission, said that the creation of terms posed the problem of reconciling conceptual systems. According to him, when creating terms, na- 172 When creating a national term, one must follow the general requirements for term creation and coordinate the new term with its equivalents in other languages. In Latvia, 5 bilingual and 2 explanatory energy dictionaries have been published, and 7 international standards have been adapted. Timmermanis noted that information was lacking about work in this field in Lithuania, and raised the possibility of methodological cooperation among specialists from the Baltic states. Specialists from Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia could not only exchange information but also jointly compile multilingual dictionaries in their field and organize meetings of specialists and terminologists from all three countries. He proposed establishing a National Terminology Centre to address global strategic tasks. Speaking about terminology education, Timmermanis stressed that terminology courses should be included in the curricula of all higher-education and vocational schools, and that a government resolution is needed to ensure the use of approved terms. Konradas Fuhrmannas, head of the European Commission Translation Service representation in Latvia, stressed that there was a shortage of qualified translators to translate EU documents. He proposed establishing a joint translation centre for the three Baltic states in Riga. At the end of the seminar, a declaration was adopted (published in this Terminologijos issue). Albina AUKSORIŪTĖ Institute of the Lithuanian Language P. Vileišio g. 5, LT-2055 Vilnius Email: [email protected] Received 2003-11-06 173