One of the most indisputable facts about the essence of languages is that they are dynamic in nature. From whichever angle we analyze the lexical, semantic, and grammatical elements that make up a language, we can always find a present time in which a series of specific aspects interact with one another, a past from which these aspects stem that is linked to the history of the speaking community and a potential future for the direction of said language based on several indicators. Languages evolve, and speaker communities evolve with them. These changes can take place to a greater or a lesser extent. For example, if we focus on the Spanish that is currently spoken, we can identify a series of aspects that characterize it and that make it different from the Spanish spoken ten, fifty or a hundred years ago. In turn, if we go back in history, we can reach the time when our language was yet to be formally created; when it was starting to develop from vulgar Latin, which in turn derived from classical Latin, a vehicular language in Europe for centuries. This seems to indicate that languages are an entity subjected to constant forward evolution receiving an array of influences, and adopting and assimilating them to give rise to linguistic changes which, taken as a whole, can revolutionize a language and generate a new more contemporary version or, given the perspective of time, a completely new language.
However, what are the elements that contribute to this evolution? Changes in a language can originate both from the outside and from within. From an internal perspective, the speakers themselves can attribute new meanings to words, remake popular expressions and find new uses for them, alter syntactic structures and even modify the pronunciation. Thus, the resources of a language can be recycled, giving rise to new connotations which slowly transform the language system over time. On the other hand, there is no doubt that the evolution of a language is highly influenced by other coexisting languages. When the speakers of a given language start to interact with other communities of speakers in multi-lingual exchanges in which both languages come together for an extended period of time, there is a great possibility of permeation where a language system starts to incorporate elements from a different one. Typically, elements are incorporated at the word level, as they are easily recognizable meaningful units that can be quickly assimilated into a language: where there was a certain word before, a new one is now in use. This tends to derive from expressions that are directly incorporated from other languages, whose meaning consolidates in the receiving language and whose constituting pieces, words, start to be used with new connotations.
In this regard, we are referring to words that name realities already existing in several languages, but which, due to popularity or coexistence, gain acceptance among speakers and become a staple in daily language use. However, languages have also evolved throughout history when new realities and concepts have had to be named. This is the case of neologisms, a type of word that is indispensable in our globalized reality and an element that is very present in the work of many professionals in the language service industry.
Neologism refers to a newly created word, regardless of whether it describes a new reality or redefines an already known reality for a group of speakers. Indeed, those words being used to name new realities are not random, but they are rather formed by utilizing different composition processes. For example, in the past, new words in the scientific arena were created based on classical Greek or Latin words. It is precisely for this reason that it has been easy to incorporate these recently created words into a large number of speaking communities, since there are many languages that have been influenced by Greek and Latin throughout history, and as such, easily embrace new terms.
Today, we are living in a globalized scenario where English stands out as vehicular language. This omnipresent language is not only used in industrial lingo, where English neologisms are often created and end up being imported into the other languages, but it has also permeated colloquial language and in general, the conversational registry. As we mentioned earlier, the reasons behind it are related to popularity, the growing mastery of languages among the new generations or the increase in the number of bilingual speakers, which contributes to the blurring of inter-language barriers.
This is a pressing matter for language services providers and their professionals, who are responsible for localizing both specialized texts containing neologisms and every type of speech into the target cultures, where a trend towards foreignization is on the increase. How should these words be dealt with in their translations? The most typical approaches are as follows:
First, we need to consider the stage that the neologism is going through and in which kind of text it is going to be published. If it is the first time it appears, a clarification is usually made that helps the readers’ comprehension, whereas this may not be such a good idea in highly technical texts, whose target audience is familiarized with the term or is capable of researching the pertinent published literature. Another methodology consists in searching for an equivalent word in the target language, although in the newly designated realities, it is often impossible, so that occasionally we can opt for the mirroring technique, the literal translation of the term, and wait for its meaning to make way among the community of speakers.
Translators must develop an awareness of the role they play in the development of their language pairs and make careful decisions that respect the types of texts in which neologisms appear while ensuring that the message is properly transmitted to its target audience.
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