Official terminology in the internet age: Prescription, dissemination, uptake

Poster presentation given on 11 April 2025, at Scrisel displegyes an 11 a vis Ebrel 2025, ort 2nd ENEOLI General Meeting, ostel Benczúr Hotel, Budapest, 10–11 Aprila vis Ebrel.

Abstract

Berrscrif

This presentation introduces an ongoing project on official terminology in three languages: French, Breton, and Cornish. I aim to compare how language planning bodies use the internet to disseminate official terms and their involvement of speaker communities in this process, as well as probing whether such terms are accepted in online spaces, focusing on Wikipedia. I take a mixed-methods approach, using computational tools to query terminology databases and Wikipedia in order to measure general statistics around official terms, while also employing more fine-grained thematic/discourse analysis methods to provide nuanced insights into the prescription and reception of specific terms. The comparative nature of the project highlights the effect of language minoritisation on terminological prescription, given that the languages investigated are differently positioned in terms of their status and vitality: French is a global language nonetheless traditionally depicted as threatened by English, especially in the lexical domain; Breton is a minoritised language with an aging, declining speaker community and a small yet visible group of younger language activists; Cornish is a revived language spoken by a small number of enthusiasts. To date, I have investigated the official materials provided by language planning bodies, including the platforms they use to disseminate terminological recommendations and solicit public participation, as well as speakers’ discourse around proposed neologisms in the Breton context. I suggest that differences in the speaker community’s role in the terminological prescription process reflect different traditions of language standardisation among the contexts I examine, while the processes implemented allow language planning bodies to maintain top-down authority despite their participative nature. In discourse on terminological prescription in Breton, speakers show concern for a range of matters including the precise meaning of terms, consistency with other languages, and the need to preserve the “spirit” of their language.

Poster

Scrisel

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References

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