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In:Handbook of Terminology: Volume 4. Terminology planning in Europe
Edited by Rossella Resi and Frieda Steurs
[Handbook of Terminology 4] 2025
► pp. 94–111

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A tale of enthusiastic experts and puristic professionals

The Icelandic case

 | The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
Published online: 26 September 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/hot.4.tal1
Abstract
After a period of sporadic, ad-hoc tasks and limited coordination up until the 1980s, terminology in Iceland has transformed over the past four decades. Terminological projects emerge steadily, a publicly funded terminology bank and other institutional support is available, based on terminology planning underpinned by favourable language attitudes. Official language policies and legislation today contain provisions on the importance of Icelandic terminologies and their dissemination. For more than a century, enthusiastic volunteers have generously contributed to the analysis, compilation, and creation of specialised terms in a variety of professions. Lexical purism, a prevailing strand in Icelandic language ideologies, has fuelled the formation of terms. While its focus on their formal representation surely entails certain drawbacks, the situation has on the whole reinforced terminological work.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Some language-ideological background, and the impact of lexical purism
  • 3.Terminological activities and planning from the 1780s until the 1980s
    • 3.1Focusing on neologisms
    • 3.2Focusing on terms
  • 4.Terminological activities and planning since the 1990s up until today
  • 5.Conclusion
  • References
References (59)
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