January 23, 2008

Is the Latvian language keeping up?

With the rapid advances in IT and technology the Terminology Commitee of the Latvian Academy of Sciences has been busy translating Latvian language equivalents of terms now heard in regular daily conversations. Here are just some of the proposals:

     computer - dators
     Web page - mājaslapa
     database - datubāze
     chat room - tērzētava
     World Wide Web - tīmeklis
     weblog - emuārs
     spam - surogātpasts
     hotspot - tīklājs
     flash memory - zibatmiņa
     download - lejuplāde
     upload - augšuplāde
     short message (SMS) - īsziņa

Some of the terms have been around for a good number of years and are now well entrenched in the Latvian language. Others are not fairing as well with alternatives appearing, for example “surogātpasts” is better known as “mēstules” and “emuārs” is losing favour to the more popular “blogs”. The language localisers are still arguing whether settings are “iestatījumi” or “uzstādījumi”.