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Coining Scientific Terminology in African Languages

Just as languages are constantly evolving, adopting loanwords or developing phonological shifts, the scientific landscape is also constantly shifting, with new discoveries and developments being made every day. 

When you speak English, which is widely recognized as the international language of science, scientific advancements and linguistic evolution are often quite closely interconnected: for example, the words “artificial” and “intelligence” have been separately in the English lexicon for centuries, but it wasn’t until 1956 that the term “artificial intelligence” was coined. And even then, the concept of “artificial intelligence” has taken on several different connotations in the nearly seven decades that have passed since it was first used — it’s gone from being a somewhat distant, futuristic concept to something that is nearly inescapable in our day-to-day lives. Read more...