Uundaji wa Istilahi za Kiswahili Kileksikografia na Athari zake

Abstract

The promotion of terminology has been one of the challenges of the development of Swahili language, especially after the year 1967 when Swahili was handed over the new responsibilities of being the official language in the activities of the government, parallel with English, together with being the language of instruction in primary education. Recently Swahili was handed over other new responsibilities of being one of the languages in the activities of African Union and East African Community. It is evident that these new responsibilities further increase the importance of the promotion of the terminology of Swahili. In this kind of environment, there is need to ensure that the whole activity of the promotion of terminology is done using appropriate methods. This article reviews in depth the approaches and methods which have been used in constructing the terminologies of Swahili since and after the year 1967. The target is to identify the approaches and methods which are suitable in constructing the terminologies of Swahili which will satisfy the current responsibilities of this language. The leading idea of this article is that the construction of Swahili terminologies has relied on the approaches and methods of lexicography in stead of those of terminography. The basic claim of this article is that relying more on the methods of lexicography in constructing the terminologies of Swahili, to a large extent, has stumbled the efficiency in this work.