Elhuyar presented yesterday the encyclopedic dictionary of science and technology in Basque

2009/10/30 Etxebeste Aduriz, Egoitz - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Bibliografia

From left to right: Antton Gurrutxaga, director of the dictionary, Itziar Nogeras, director general of the Elhuyar Foundation, Iñaki Goirizelaia, rector of the University of the Basque Country, Elías Atutxa, director general of Caja Laboral, and Juan Mari Irigoien, writer. A story written by him ended the act of presentation.

The presentation took place yesterday afternoon at the Chillida-Leku museum, when most participants were able to see the work for the first time. It is a large encyclopedic dictionary of 1,800 pages. "The participation of more than 200 experts in a project of this type has been very satisfactory and a great honor; the contribution of experts has been key to the project and, from our point of view, we have made a very enriching collaboration," said the director of the dictionary, Antton Gurrutxaga.

Eight years ago a group of Elhuyar began working in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Science and Technology, with a concrete objective: "Provide basic, reliable, elaborate and up-to-date information on science and technology, in a precise, clear and understandable way, with a wide range of users." Four years ago, the project had already a form and experts from 50 areas of knowledge of science and technology were incorporated into the project, aligned with the initial objective. This objective is now reflected in the 23,000 concepts of all areas of knowledge that the dictionary collects. Particular importance has been given to current issues and the interesting work is for anyone who needs general information on science and technology: Students and teachers of ESO, high school and FP, journalists, parents...

The experts who have worked on this project have been selecting concepts from different areas, completing their definitions and creating encyclopedic articles, among others. All these areas are grouped into six major blocks: exact sciences, matter and energy sciences, earth sciences, life and health sciences, technology and finally, general.

The work of experts has been fundamental for the construction of the Elhuyar Encyclopedic Dictionary of Science and Technology. In fact, each expert has contributed his knowledge in his field to select concepts, define and write articles. According to some of them, the dictionary will provide various contributions to their areas of knowledge.

According to Iñigo Virto and Mari Jose Imaz, from the Public University of Navarra, "will help us improve the quality of the subjects and conferences we offer in Basque at the University, and this work will facilitate the dissemination in Basque of our work. So far, for example, in agriculture, we saw the need to translate some terms from other languages. With this encyclopedic dictionary we will consult in a single work the terms we need in our daily work."

Antton Gurrutxaga. Director and coordinator of the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Science and Technology Elhuyar.

This is how Rafael Bañales de Euskaltel. He also believes that it is very important for society to pay terms in Basque and stressed that speed is especially important in the field of telecommunications: "Although the telecommunications sector is very technological and very changing, the terms created in this area are disseminated immediately throughout society: 3G mobile telephony, Wifi or Ethernet wireless network, for example. Therefore, terminology in Basque is even more important for the people who work in the field of telecommunications, to be able to work in Basque."

This new dictionary will cover these needs and, according to the physicist of the University of the Basque Country, Fernando Plazaola, will be a significant step in the path of standardization. "Euskera is not fully standardized at the scientific and technological level," he explained. "For example, the lexicon is not unified, as it can happen that a scientific/technical concept is used by each scientist in his own way. That polysemy or that variety of synonyms, scientifically, would be good if everyone accurately explained the concept. Unfortunately it is not so, and this encyclopedia is a great step towards lexicographical unification."

Finally, biochemist Mertxe Martinez, from the University of the Basque Country, pointed out the need to expand these terms outside the scientific and technological field. And it is that, often, the terms are created by experts from each technical area, but, without adequate means, in most cases would not leave this small community. According to Martínez, "the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Science and Technology Elhuyar is an ideal resource to extend and consolidate terminology specialized in Basque society."

Dictionary Features

23,000 concepts, with their definitions and their corresponding terms in Spanish and French.