Re: Technical terminology

On Mon, Jan 06, 2003 at 09:32:23AM -0800, Terrence Donnelly wrote:
[snip]
> Then I got to wondering if Vietnamese even has higher math terms.  After
> all, a phrase like "n factorial", although composed of English words,
> doesn't mean anything to a native speaker either until it's explained to
> them.  It doesn't seem like there'd be any inherent advantage in
> translating into your native language a term whose meaning isn't obvious
> in anybody's native language.
I believe it's for this reason that many languages simply borrow the term
directly from English (or whatever other language the term originates
from). For example, most of the technical terms in Malay are English
borrowings (communication -> komunikasi, system -> sistem, computer ->
komputer, etc.).

But as far as inter-language lapses go... that's extremely common in my
hometown. We speak a mixture of Hokkien, Mandarin, Malay, English, and
possibly a sprinkling of Tamil as well. It's quite common to hear people
switch between languages in the middle of a conversation without either
party even noticing. Sometimes it's a word or two, sometimes it's a
phrase, sometimes it's a complete switchover. And other times it's a
blatantly mangled borrowing. Among some of the funnier manglings:

(1) from English "I can": "can" has come to have boastful connotations,
such as in the mangled perjorative "he always so can" = he always acts
like a show-off.

(2) wrong verbalization of "friend": "You always so can one, I don't
friend you anymore" = you're such a show off, I don't want to be your
friend anymore.

(3) from an archaic Britishism, "I say!": [Oj"sE:] has become an
interjection of admiration or exhiliration, usually directed towards a
perceived hero or act of heroism, or a person who does something
outrageous as an attention-getter. Sometimes can be used sarcastically as
well.

> So then I wondered about conlangs.  How many of you
> have included technical vocabulary in your conlangs?
[snip]

I don't have *that* many technical terms yet, but I intend to add at least
enough to write an Ebisedian grammar in Ebisedian. :-)


T

--
I am not young enough to know everything. -- Oscar Wilde

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