Terminology

Terminology is the science and practice of creating, describing, and managing technical terms specific to a field of knowledge or profession. It works on the relationship between the concept and the word used to designate it.

The term itself has two meanings. One refers to the collection of technical terms in a particular field—for example, medical terminology or legal terminology. The other refers to the systematic study of how these terms are analyzed, planned, and defined.

Method of work

Terminology work typically begins with a concept and then seeks or creates an appropriate term. Standard steps include collecting texts from the field (corpus), identifying terms in use, defining concepts, and comparing usage across different languages. The result is a list or database of terms with definitions, usage examples, and translations.

Ways of forming terms

Languages employ several methods. One is to assign a new meaning to an existing word. Another is to combine two or more words or word parts. There are also loanwords (amaahasho)—words borrowed from other languages, sometimes adapted to the sound and spelling system of the receiving language. The choice of which method to use depends on the conventions of speakers and language policy.

Somali

Since Somali was officially adopted in 1972, efforts have been made to create new terms covering education, administration, and science. The approach has relied on the foundation of existing Somali words, formation of terms from earlier words, and combination. To this day, new fields such as information technology remain the subject of debate over whether to borrow terms or create Somali words.