Foreword to DictionELI
The DictionELI was created as part of the Támop-4.1.1.C-12/1/KONV-2012-0005 project of the University of Szeged. The aim was to compile a terminological database and dictionary in the field of lasers, more precisely high energy, atto- and femtosecond pulse lasers.
The opportunity arose as Hungary became one of the centres of the international project called Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI, www.eli-hu.hu). The working language of the project was English, therefore participants wrote the documentation during research and development in English, however all documentation had to be submitted in two languages: English and Hungarian. We extracted the terms from these English texts and their Hungarian translation. Processing the texts, extracting the terms manually and several round of reviewing was a time consuming process, so the project lasted one and a half years.
The making of DictionELI is a significant achievement for several reasons. 1) This is the first Hungarian terminology project in our practice where we had the opportunity to carry out the whole process from start to finish according to international terminology recommendations. This is a pilot project that could serve as a model when preparing the terminology dictionaries of other professions or domains. Experts – laser physicists– provided all the texts needed for our work, could be convinced of the appropriate and necessary working methods, and reviewed the collected term candidates quickly and thoroughly. Collaboration of linguists and physicists can be set as an example. 2) At the end of the project there were over 5000 entries in the dictionary which can be continuously expanded. It is an open access dictionary, it can be searched from anywhere for free. This makes it possible for physicists, university and doctoral students to use and check proper Hungarian terminology. Therefore the making of the DictionELI can be considered an achievement in the terminology policy of laser physics. 3) In the translation process a terminology database is a prerequisite of the quality check of translations. By creating the DictionELI and making it publicly available now the English and Hungarian terminology of high energy pulse lasers has become available for translators and translating agencies. As a result creating terminologically correct, coherent texts is made easier, faster and more cost effective, which reduces translation costs and helps avoid translation errors.
We welcome any advice, recommendation or comment on the development and expansion of DictionELI.
Budapest–Pécs–Szeged, 7 May 2015
The editors
(Ágota Fóris, Eszter B. Papp, Eszter Sermann)