About the Neoloteka

 

Neologisms are the core of UZEI’s Neoloteka project.

Languages need to adapt to the evolution of society and to scientific and technical innovations, which directly results in the incorporation of new concepts and lexical forms into them. The follow-up of such neologisms is necessary for any language, even more so if, as in the case of Basque, the process of linguistic standardization has not been completed.

Basque constantly incorporates new expressions and terms (neologisms), either through linguistic borrowings or through mechanisms inherent to the language itself.

The aim of the Neoloteka is to create an observatory to identify, compile, revise and make available to anyone the lexical forms recently incorporated into Basque. This type of project is common in other languages, and examples of this are, among others, the observatories of neologisms in Catalan and Spanish. In view of the fact that Basque also needs this type of initiatives, UZEI has decided to launch the Neoloteka.

The Neoloteka will include linguistic forms that, despite their use in Basque, have not yet been included in lexicographical reference works, although some of the words or expressions may also be included in some lexicographical dictionary. However, the last paper version (2016) of the normative dictionary of Euskaltzaindia, the Royal Academy of Basque Language, will be used as the exclusion corpus, so the forms that appear in that dictionary will not be collected in the Neoloteka.

At the time of its publication, the Neoloteka contains 50 neologisms, to which new lexical forms will be constantly added, predictably, at a rate of 20 entries per month.

In line with UZEI’s commitment to gender equality, sexist language will be expressly excluded from this website.

The Neoloteka is a long-term project, created with the aim of growing and permanently compiling lexical elements that have been recently incorporated into the Basque language.

This project has been funded by Laboral Kutxa, the Department of Culture and Linguistic Policy of the Basque Government and the General Directorate of Language Equality of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa.

To complete the Neoloteca, we constantly track and analyze the written production of the weekly newspaper Argia, the daily newspaper Berria and EITB, in accordance with the agreements signed by UZEI with these media.