Workplace Safety Terminology in South Tyrol: Terminological Challenges in German as Minority Language
Keywords:
Legal Terminology, Minority Language, Terminology Policy, Workplace SafetyAbstract
South Tyrol is an Italian province where about 70% of the population are German native
speakers (ASTAT 2019) and German is recognised as a co-official language next to the national
language (Presidential Decree No. 670/1972, Art. 99). Workplace safety is a highly interdisciplinary
subdomain of law, which regulates diverse working activities and sectors. It has a specific legal
terminology but also uses many technical terms originally belonging to other domains like
engineering, medicine, chemistry, etc.
The education of employees is particularly important in the modern conception of
workplace safety since everyone is involved in prevention and should actively contribute to
reducing occupational diseases and accidents at work (Natullo 2015; Solombrino 2017). Italian
legislation demands that education be adapted and adjusted to the language competencies of the
staff (Legislative Decree No. 81/2008, Art. 36). In South Tyrol, this implies that German texts and
terminology must be produced to communicate with the local workforce.
South Tyrolean German terminology is developed either through secondary term formation (Sager 1990) by translating Italian terms or by borrowing existing terminology used in other German-speaking countries. In the domain of workplace safety, the second method is normally applied to technical terminology, which is shared across the German-speaking community. However, legal terminology is system-bound (de Groot 2002) and can only be adopted
if the foreign concepts are equivalent to the Italian ones. Equivalence can be ascertained by applying the method of legal comparison, more precisely microcomparison (Zweigert & Kötz 1996; Pegoraro & Rinella 2013; Chiocchetti & Ralli 2016).
A recently concluded terminology project showed that South Tyrolean German terminology in the domain of workplace safety is not yet fully developed and disseminated. Often, there are several concurring designations for the same concept. Sometimes Italian designations, especially acronyms and initialisms, are used in German texts. The presentation will discuss the different terminological challenges for South Tyrolean German in the domain of workplace safety and the approaches that were adopted to face them. It will also present the measures taken to
develop and disseminate the South Tyrolean German terms in this domain, since language is a fundamental aspect in the education of the workforce, and ultimately contributes to an improved
safety behavior.
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