WHAT MAKES A word a word? And who decides when a collection of letters becomes one?
In reality, language doesn’t work like that – but there are people who set language standards. In the case of the Irish language, it’s Foras na Gaeilge’s Terminology Committee who decide if a spoke word should be official, or alternatively whether a new word should be created.
An Coiste Téarmaíochta is made up of about two dozen members who are linguists, journalists, academics and native speakers from different gaeltachtaí
The committee meets every month and around 3,000 new Irish words are created each year, an average of about 250-300 a month.
The terms can be accessed on Tearma.ie and that is where you can also suggest a word to be translated from another language into Irish.
Previously, all new words were published in dictionaries or glossaries but DCU’s involvement in the past 15 years means that it’s now online.
Gearóid Ó Cleircín, a lecturer at DCU’s Fiontar and Scoil na Gaeilge, is also a member of the committee.
He says that people who suggest new translations are often people who use Irish professionally but that it can also just be people with a more passing interest:
Translators or any random people who come across a gap in the language, they’ll fill in an application and contact the committee and ask to suggest an Irish term. They might provide a definition or an example of the English word and it’s the committee’s job then to examine the meaning and provide an Irish equivalent.
“Of course sometimes there may already be an Irish equivalent and it’s just a matter of including that in the database. It might already be used in the media or in text or whatever, so it’s not always a matter of creating something totally out of the blue.”
Speaking to The Journal, he explains that if a word is science-based and technical it’s often translated directly but that if something is more likely to be used more informally and in spoken Irish it should be “user friendly”.
“If it’s something that’s being discussed widely in the media or is part of everyday lives or is likely to become part of everyday lives in the immediate future, then it’s more important for it to be concise and easy to use.”
In recent years, technology and social media have been prominent examples of new words the committee has decided on, but what about others?
This translation comes from gean (love, affection) and meall (to influence, deceive). It was decided to drop the ‘bomb’ metaphor from English in favour of something more literal.
This translation comes from éist (to listen) and péist (worm). The English metaphor was kept on this occasion but was switched from ‘ear-worm’ to ‘listen-worm’ for the sake of the rhyme.
Meaning to pull faces. This was an example of where there was no need to coin a new word and an existing expression was used.
‘Franglais’
The idea of having a arbiter of Irish isn’t unique to our shores, with the almost 400-year-old Académie Française perhaps the most famous worldwide example.
In recent years, the institution has warned state officials against encouraging the spread of “franglais”, French words taken directly from English.
French people have become increasingly fond of splicing their language with English words, even on occasion using “yes” instead of the French “oui”.
Business people talk of rising to “le challenge” (pronounced “shallonge”) and invite colleagues to take part in “un brainstorming”, whereas people describe someone who’s past it as “un has-been”.
Is this a problem for Irish and is there a temptation to simply add an ‘-áil’ at the end of English verb?
“Probably more so than other languages, I think there’s an inclination or a conscious or unconscious efforts to avoid just taking an English word as it is,” Ó Cleircín says.
Other languages, like French and German and others in Europe in particular, are quite happy to just take the English word and integrate it into their own language. In Irish, because of the, I suppose, ‘long and troubled history’ that’s not the case. From French we’ll happily take the word croissant for example.
Covid-19
During the pandemic people have essentially learnt a new language of jargon and practices, Irish speakers included.
What’s interesting is that the committee did not have a chance to meet from the beginning of the pandemic until about August 2020, so the plethora of new terms happened rather organically through usage in both media and amongst speakers.
Irish language website Tuairisc.ie published a glossary of Covid-19 terms trí ghaeilge in June 2020, perhaps the most significant of which was the name of the virus itself.
Strictly speaking, the Irish for ‘coronavirus’ has always been ‘coróinvíreas’ but spoken media such as RnaG instead used ‘an víreas corónach’ from early on in the pandemic.
Other examples include: contact tracing = cuardach teagmhálaithe, infodemic = iomarca eolais, social distancing = scoitheadh sóisialta.
“There was whole new language and jargon being created in media initially, Irish language, Twitter and in general,” says Ó Cleircín. “There was definitely a period where new words and new expressions are being coined and being discussed and the committee for once wasn’t really to the fore.”
This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work is the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.
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