LATIN IN ENGLISH/SLOVAK NEUROLOGY TERMINOLOGY

Abstract

The paper studies the use of Latin in Neurology terminology. Specialised communication in medicine isimpossible without recognizing the unique role of Latin being the language of scientific progress in the processes ofaccumulation, preservation, documentation, and transfer of knowledge and expertise. The comparative terminologyresearch deals with the identification, analysis, and assessment of Latin terms used in the English and Slovakneurological environment in the modern era. Latin presents the foundation of medical terminology and has beenused since the beginning of the formation of medicine as a scientific discipline. The theoretical part of the paperdefines basic terminological concepts and focuses on the field of neurology, English/Slovak neurology specialty,research methods, and methods of terminology work. To achieve the objective of the paper the following methodshave been used: observation, excerption, conceptual analysis, term analysis, comparative analysis, classification ofterms, and synthesis of data. It also describes the historical development of Latin, and medicine including medicalterminology. Specialised medical language and terminology performs at international and national levels. Besidesthat, the paper describes the Greek influence on medical terminology and the importance of terminology literacy andterminology culture. The empirical part deals with the terminology work consisting of excerption, harmonization,and terminography. Many bilingual terminology records have been compiled with equivalents and terminologycontexts and prepared for multiple uses as a terminology product: glossary, dictionary, database…). Neurologicalterms of Latin origin are excerpted from highly specialised neurology papers (100 terms from English papers, 155terms from Slovak ones, 255 excerpted terms with their equivalents in total). As a result of partial comparativeterminology, analysis terms have been classified according to their degree of assimilation and latinity. 100neurological terms excerpted from the English written papers are divided into 3 categories: 46 multiple-assimilatedterms, 45 Latin assimilated terms, and 9 semi-assimilated terms. 155 neurological terms excerpted from the Slovakwritten papers are assigned into 4 categories: 75 multiple-assimilated terms, 63 Latin assimilated terms, 15 nonassimilatedterms, and 2 semi-assimilated terms. As a conclusion of comparative terminological research there aresome findings and recommendations for practice pointing out that firstly, neurology specialists from both countriesprefer use of Latin terms in communication with professionals, secondly, Latin terms are more dominant in theSlovak professional environment using the origin unchanged pronunciation, thirdly, studying the Latin language andterminology is essential for comprehending and defining the medical (neurological) concepts even in contemporaryage, thoroughly, there are non-assimilated Latin terms in English written neurology papers, the English languageprefers its own pronunciation rules, fifthly, findings help to model concept structures based on specialisedknowledge of the field and clarify the relations between concepts, sixthly, preference for native language isrecommended in national terminology, seventhly, the conceptual system facilitate the comparative analysis ofconcepts and designations across languages, and finally, the terminology literacy and competence is important forlanguage users in every subject field.