The concept of domain loss originated in the Nordic countries in the 1990s and was defined by Laurén, Myking & Picht as “Loss of ability to communicate in the national language at all levels of an area of knowledge because of deficient further development of the necessary means of professional communication”. Foremost among those ‘necessary means’ are the terms needed to communicate on specific professional topics in one’s own language..

NL-Term, Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal and Infoterm, together with the European Association for Terminology (EAFT), recently organized the Domain Loss and Gain conference in Brussels to share knowledge on domain loss, gain and recovery and to analyze practical cases.

Begoña Arrate, terminologist at UZEI, participated in this conference with a lecture entitled “The influence in domain loss/gain of specialized term use in non-specialized discourse: the case of Basque as a language undergoing a standardization process”.

After explaining the trajectory of Basque terminology, Begoña Arrate spoke about the consequences that the use of non-specialized discourse of specialized terms in Basque can have on the domain loss and gain of Basque language. Among other things, she explained the recent evolution of terminology in the Basque media, with some practical cases.

EAFT – European Association for Terminology

The EAFT is a professional organization whose aim is to promote and professionalize European terminology activity and to foster multilingualism through terminology. UZEI is one of the founders of the EAFT association.

In fact, the international terminology congress organized every two years by the EAFT was held in Donostia – San Sebastian in 2018 by the hand of UZEI.