Word Coinage

Language purification is a common term emerging in recent language research . This term refers elimination of 'foreign" or "alien" usages in an indigenous language (Reagan & Scherffler, 2005). People are aware that they should take the responsibility of purifying their language. However, the process is not easy at all.

Not long ago, my friend sent me an article about how to translate "Bacherlor of Arts in Obstetrics" into Vietnamese. How ridiculous is when it is translated "Cu nhan van chuong chuyen san khoa" (Nguyen Minh Hiep, 2000). The Vietnamese equivalent word for "Art" is "Van chuong" which means some study related to Literature or Fine Art. So, does Barcherlor of Arts in Obestetrics become Bachelor of Literature in Obstetrics when intepreted in Vietnamese?

Another case is when my friend and I had struggles with translating "self-reflective research" in Vietnamese. It seemed impossible to find out any Vietnamese word for it. Instead, we explained this word and then bracketed ( ) to provide the English original word. Apparently, not only Vietnamese but also other languages have to borrow some vocabulary from English or French. (So, why haven't people acknowledge Creole as a language just because it lacks technical lexicon?)

So, what is the solution? Professor Garcia Ofelia, Teacher College, Columbia University suggested coining words, meaning that we can create new words for new terms. In Turkey, they have an Institute of Word Coinage to invent Turkish technological words. It is possible to coin words; however, writing a dictionary/ a book of these words costs more than billion coins.

References

Reagant and Schreffler. (2005). Higher education language policy and the challenge of linguistic imperialism: A Turkish case study. In Lin, A. and Martin, P. (Eds.), Decolonisation, Globalisation. Clevedon ; Buffalo : Multilingual Matters.

Nguyen Minh Hiep. (2000). Chuyen that nhu dua. Retrieved March 20, 2007, from http://www-lib.hcmuns.edu.vn/clb/bt2000/cndua10b.htm.