panos@utcsrgv.UUCP (Panos Economopoulos) (05/01/84)
One issue that Manolis Katevenis touched (concsiously or
unconcsiously) giving as an example the translation of eg.
"microprocessor" into "mikroepexergasti", in his manual for
the "grk" transliterating program, is the translation of english
computer science terms into greek ones.
I am not aware of any extensive or systematic work on this
and I would appreciate it if anybody else who knows more on the subject,
gave some pointers to what has been done. I believe that it is an important
issue, which becomes too apparent when we try to hold a technical discussion
in greek and the english terms start creeping in....
As it seems, quite a few terms are in use right now
("basi dedomenwn" for 'data base', "arxeio" for 'file' etc.)
but others are not obvious to me, eg., "logiko" for 'software'.
I also think that the problem is more apparent in computer
science since it is only recently that it is being taught in Greece,
while accepted terminology exists for engineering etc. (I still remember
thinking in terms of 'buffers' and writing 'xwrous apothikeusews paketwn'
when at EMP)....
This shows also the other problem which is the acceptance
of a proposed translation. If a one-word is translated into an i-word (i>2)
then I am afraid that acceptance cannot be very good.
Comments and discussion on the above are welcome.
Panos Economopoulos (...utcsrgv!panos)timos@ucbingres (05/03/84)
From: timos@ucbingres (Timos Sellis) To my knowledge the problem of building a greek terminology for computer science terms has not been attacked to a large extent by anybody in Greece. The only person that might have something to say on the problem is Christos Papadimitriou who has faced the actual problem when he first tought computer science courses in Greece (EMP or NTUA). It seems yo me that there is an inherent difficulty in trying to come up with one word translations of one word terms in english. This seems to be a general aspect in language translators and has been a research question for many years (actually still open). Even if this becomes simpler in a scientific environment. The difference with engi- neering (as pointed out by Panos) is that it has a long history and the words used to express the basic ideas were simple . On the other hand there are still engineering terms not easily expressable in Greek and I can assume that these terms refer to more recent ideas (recent -- last 30 years). Also the difference with computer science seems to be the non-engineerish nature of it. So words from the theory and software disciplines have a very broad range (and more "abstract") while in hardware things tend to be more technical. It would be interesting though to see something done in this area. The "start up" university in Crete (Kriti) seems to be a per- fect candidate . It would be very interesting to give lectures in Greek on all these areas and have the students build in them the ide- as considering only Greek words. The problem though will be with text books which inevitably will make people start talking in English , es- pecially in the case of papers. And I am really very concerned of the professors which will have to talk and write in Greek for their stu- dents, talk and write in Greek-English with their colleagues (becau- se this will makes things easier and they will be able to express themselves without difficulties) and finally they will have to write their papers in English in order to be submitted to conferences. Let us hope that after some transient period there will be some ba- sic terminology which will at least serve the purpose of building the basic ideas of computer science. timos sellis (timos%ucbingres.BERKELEY)
timos@ucbvax.UUCP (Timos Sellis) (05/03/84)
From PAPA@SU-SCORE.ARPA Thu May 3 09:22:10 1984 Received: from UCB-VAX.ARPA (ucbvax.ARPA) by ucbingres.ARPA (4.6/4.2) id AA17920; Thu, 3 May 84 09:22:06 PDT Received: from SU-SCORE.ARPA (su-score.ARPA.ARPA) by UCB-VAX.ARPA (4.24/4.27) id AA23459; Thu, 3 May 84 09:18:42 pdt Message-Id: <8405031618.AA23459@UCB-VAX.ARPA> Date: Thu 3 May 84 09:15:05-PDT From: C. Papadimitriou <PAPA@SU-SCORE.ARPA> Subject: Re: Kai alla dyo mynhmata apo greek news To: timos@ucbingres.BERKELEY Cc: ellhnes@SU-SHASTA.ARPA, vassos@HARVARD.ARPA In-Reply-To: Message from "timos%ucbingres@Berkeley (Timos Sellis)" of Wed 2 May 84 17:54:58-PDT Status: R QELW NA SAS ENHMERWSW GIA MIA ENDIAFEROUSA PROSPAQEIA POU GINETAI GIA TO PROBLHMA THS PLHROFIRIKHS OROLOGIAS STHN ELLADA. TO TEXNIKO EPIMELHTHRIO EXEI FTIAXEI MIA EPITROPH (MAISTROS, MARITSAS, FILOKUPROU, RAMMOS KAI O UPOFAINOMENOS) GI' AUTO TO QEMA. H PROSEGGISH MAS HTAN H EXHS. GIA ARXH DIALEXAME 2000 OROUS STA AGGLIKA, DWSAME OI PENTE MAS OSES METAFRASEIS MPOROUSAME, POLLES ME EPIFULAXEIS, KAI KUKLOFORHSAME PLATIA (NOMIZW SW 40 ANTITUPA) TO PRINTOUT (OOPS...) GIA NEOUS OROUS, IDEES, ANTIRHSEIS, KLP. EDW EGW APOSUNDEQHKA. AN PIESQW KAI YAXW STO GRAFEIO MOU, ISWS BRW TO PRWTO ANTITUPO, GIA PLHROFORIA SAS. O GIANNHS MAISTROS (E.M.P. TOMEAS PLHROFORIKHS) EINAI O PIO ENHMEROS. ISWS AUTO QATAN ENA ENDIAFERON PEDIO GIA BOHQEIA KAI EMPLOKH THS PLHROFORIKHS DIASPORAS (GIA MAS MILAW...). ---XRISTOS. YG. KAI KALH PRWTOMAGIA KAQYSTERHMENA S'OLOUS SAS. PAREMPIPTONTWS, EGW DOULEUONTAS TA TELEUTAIA XRONIA STIS H.P.A. EXW PANTA THRHSEI THN ARGIA THS PRWTOMAGIAS (ANABALLONTAS MAQHMATA KLP.), KAI SXETIKA EPISHMA. POLLOI EURWPAIOI SUNADELFOI KANOUN TO IDIO. MEXRI TWRA SUNANTHSA MONO KATANOHSH APO SPOUDASTES, CHAIRMEN, KLP. -------