Summaries 3/1997

• Terminfo's editorial policy

• EU nomenclature in four languages

• Half a century of vocabularies of technology and commerce

• Does informaatioteknologia refer to tietotekniikka?

• Nordterm publication No. 7: Terminology and Quality

• NTRF – Nordic terminological record format

• Stakes vocabularies

• TSK's Web site modified

Terminfo's editorial policy

Terminfo's new editor in chief, Olli Nykänen, head of TSK, discusses here the strengths and weaknesses of Terminfo. He does not promise any major changes in the editorial identity of Terminfo, but wants to follow the path which is shown to be correct by reader questionnaires.

Terminfo's editorial policy has been fairly stable ever since the first issues. The main objective has been to provide readers with practical information on terminology work and terminology, e.g. in the form of small vocabularies.

In addition to actual terminology, Terminfo also deals with the methods and tools of terminology work, and reports on important terminology projects and publications from the Finnish viewpoint. Moreover, as the membership publication of TSK, Terminfo also provides information on TSK's activities and services.

The idea of publishing and distributing Terminfo on the Internet was discussed with the publisher two years ago. Time is not, however, ripe for discarding traditional printed paper – it may never be. Nevertheless, Terminfo makes use of the Internet even now: you can find Terminfo on the Internet and you can send us feedback by e-mail.

EU nomenclature in four languages

During the past few years, the names of the various bodies of the European Union have been dealt with in many publications (cf. Terminfo 1/92 and Språkbruk 1/94) in a number of languages, but seldom in Russian. To correct this defect, Kati Huhtala, a student at the University of Tampere, Department of Translation Studies, prepared a mini vocabulary of EU nomenclature in Finnish, Swedish, English and Russian during the summer of 1997 when she worked as a trainee at TSK. If you have comments on the vocabulary, please contact TSK.

Half a century of vocabularies of technology and commerce

Finland has old traditions of producing special language dictionaries of technology and commerce. The first "talvitie" dictionaries were published about fifty years ago by Tietoteos. Jyrki K. Talvitie and Ahti Hytönen, who are responsible for "talvitie" dictionaries at present, give an account of the past decades.

During the past 45 years, seven titles with a total of 32 editions have been published in the basic series. Since 1993, the dictionary databases have also been available in electronic format as Kielikone Oy has produced electronic versions of the dictionaries. The new medium has not, however, displaced the old, it has only brought new dimensions.

Even though technological development is fairly rapid, the terminology of the old technologies is still needed a long time after the technologies themselves have been displaced. This is especially true when translating texts dealing with old technology.

The change from the manual processes of the 1970's to the present computer applications has not been easy. In 1980, Tietoteos attempted to make use of the magnetic tape of the English–Finnish dictionary to produce a Finnish–English dictionary. Even though the process first turned out to be more complicated than expected, it was found out later that the production time of a dictionary had shortened from two years to nine months in ten years. All in all, Tietoteos (who sold its dictionary publishing to WSOY in 1994) was the first Finnish dictionary house to make good use of the changed working methods brought about by the computer.

From the terminological viewpoint the "talvitie" dictionaries are fairly descriptive. The most important task of the dictionaries is to give the user a comprehensive list of corresponding terminology with reference to usage. A dictionary can never be perfect, therefore the dictionaries of technology and commerce become more extensive and more specific from edition to edition.

Does informaatioteknologia refer to tietotekniikka?

The various aspects of data processing and data transmission are easily mixed up with each other. The same concepts are often referred to in various terms, and the same word can be interpreted in various ways. For example, our Term Service is occasionally asked what the difference is between tietotekniikka (information technology) and informaatioteknologia (information technology), and what telematiikka (telematics) is all about. To further complicate things, people tend to use these words rather carelessly.

This article deals with a few Finnish terms related to information, data and knowledge on the one hand; and technology and engineering on the other. It then goes on to ponder what information technology includes, and finally asks whether the Finnish acronym atk (adp) has become dated. A brief list of relevant terms is also given.

Nordterm publication N 7: Terminology and Quality

The papers and reports of the Nordterm days arranged in Iceland in June 1995 (c.f. Terminfo 2/96) have been collected in the seventh publication of Nordterm, Terminologi og kvalitet (Terminology and quality). You may take a look at the book at TSK's library, or you can order it from Iceland from the following address:

Íslensk málstöð
Aragötu 9
IS-101 Reykjavík, ISLAND
tel. +354 552 8530
fax +354 562 2699.

NTRF – Nordic terminological record format

In order to facilitate the exchange of terminological material, a number of record formats have been developed; some of these have also been standardised.

Seven years ago, the Nordic terminology centres – Rådet for Teknisk Terminologi (RTT) in Norway, Tekniska nomenklaturcentralen (TNC) in Sweden, and Tekniikan Sanastokeskus (TSK) in Finland – decided to develop a model of their own. As the model was mainly meant to be used as the exchange format in Nordic co-operation, it was referred to as Nordic Terminological Record Format, NTRF. From the very beginning, the model was designed to be applicable also outside the Nordic countries, and attention was paid in order not to conflict with the SGML standard (ISO 8879). The first version of NTRF was completed already in the spring of 1991, and some new features and modifications have been added later on.

Stakes vocabularies

The Finnish National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (Stakes) has carried out terminology work in co-operation with TSK for several years.

The first vocabulary of the Stakes series Instructions and classifications was published in the summer of 1997. It comprises two parts: Customer and Patient Document Vocabulary with 148 concepts and Quality Vocabulary with 22 concepts. In addition to Finnish terms and definitions, both vocabularies give the term equivalents in Swedish and English, together with a number of concept diagrams.

TSK's Web site modified

TSK's Web pages were introduced last autumn with the aim of providing Internet users with practical information on present terminology work and its results.

The feedback has been mostly positive and major changes have not been necessary. In the summer of 1997, however, it was decided that page layout and functioning would be changed by introducing frames.

TSK updates the Web pages continuously, and it is worth your while to visit the pages regularly.