Abstract
Terminology plays a pivotal role in language development and the promotion of multilingualism. This article discusses the issue of multilingualism regarding terminology policies as seen from an African perspective. Special emphasis is given to the South African situation regarding language policies and consequential terminology policies in terms of subject-oriented terminography, translation-oriented terminography and linguistic community-oriented terminography. Keywords: Language Policy, Linguistic Community-Oriented Terminography, Linguistic Diversity, Multilingualism, Subject-Oriented Terminography, Terminology Development, Terminology Management, Translation- Oriented Terminography
Highlights
Information is distributed and knowledge is acquired through terminology
Reasons for this preference could be ascribed to aspects such as jealousies among Africans; prestige or status of languages; the colonial language is available, functional and developed; economic incentives; international status; and a wider audience for communication purposes
It is more than language planning and standardization. It includes multiple socio-linguistic factors. He further maintains that language development covers a mix of methods and approaches, including terminology and lexicography, terminology management, translation work and translation management, and increasingly corpusbased approaches
Summary
Information is distributed and knowledge is acquired through terminology. The terminology of each subject field or domain is increasing with every new development or invention. Africans were to a certain extent made to believe that it is civilised to speak a "prestigious" European language Reasons for this preference could be ascribed to aspects such as jealousies among Africans (i.e. not being prepared to accept another language to be elevated to official status); prestige or status of languages (standard vs dialect); the colonial language is available, functional and developed; economic incentives; international status; and a wider audience for communication purposes. These attitudes regarding preference for colonial languages lead to the extinction of indigenous languages since children are deprived of learning and using their linguistic heritage (cf Mojela 2007)
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