The terminological pretension of the word "lengoaia"
Translation: Kristin Addis
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to clarify, by clear example, the repeated confusion between terminological necessity and simple phraseological use in specialized texts in Basque. The Basque word lengoaia is an archaism (copied from lenguaje in Spanish and langage in French) and synonym of hizkuntza. Further complication arises from the fact that both Spanish and French have two words for language (lengua/lenguaje in Spanish and langue/langage in French), and the dual meaning of lengua/langue ("La lengua de las mariposas," "The language/tongue of butterflies") leads to a preference in many contexts (and not only in terminological contexts as such) for lenguaje/langage. This is not the case in Basque (or in English), in which hizkuntza (language) and mihi (tongue) are different words, though the latter may in some cases (residual cases only in Basque) take on the meaning of the former.
Be this as it may, the crucial issue is (obviously!) that the concept to which we refer does not belong to any specialty, in which case, it must be the mere habit (or vice) of some users to copy this presumed distinction in their texts though there is no need whatsoever to do so. On top of everything else, they choose the archaic calque lengoaia (even using it as a standard) instead of turning to other, more appropriate synonyms such as mintzaira (tongue, language). Undoubtedly, the advantage of lengoaia is that it is so similar to its model, lenguaje.
Although it seems unbelievable, the attachment to — and patrimonialization of — this use can mobilize considerable masses and energies (and even drag in outsiders who are normally critical and reasonable) under the false banner of the defense of (the correctness of) specialized terminology. In this case, the most determined people have been (and still are, I believe) computer science schools but, as mentioned above, this is only an example. And unfortunately, you needn't look far to find many others, since the distinction between terminology, phraseology and language/tongue can be very difficult to grasp for those who "live" within a specialty — including, of course, linguistics — whose discourse, whatever it may involve, tends to be carried out entirely internally.
