Acadēmīa:Suggestions by Acadēmīa

Acadēmīa does not only claim to be a descreptive dictionary. It also wants to be a normative one, because many neo-Latin words are either cumbersome, ugly paraphrases or do not even exist. Therefore, every now and then words are suggested for our use. This page is intended to clarify the criteria by which this is done.

However, the criteria listed here are not exhaustive. All words should first be discussed in the Fabrica before being included in the Acadēmīa.

Loanwords

Our goal is to keep Latin alive, not "pure." Therefore, we understand Latin language maintenance not as purism, which is to prevent the intrusion of new words, but as the continuous development of new words. Of course, this also includes loan words. Even the Latin of antiquity was not free of loanwords. Consider how many vocabulary words originate from Greek alone. Therefore, the inclusion of loanwords is generally permitted.

Criteria for the inclusion of loanwords

A word could be included, if

• it appears in several (or ideally all) Romance languages,
• it is a proper noun or
• it is an internationalism.

Latinization

If possible, words should be Latinized, i.e., adapted to the Latin phonetic inventory and inflected according to the grammatical rules of the Latin language. As evidence, if possible, a Latin form theory should be cited, which can be found here.

Calque

Calques are translations from other language that happen word for word or morpheme for morpheme and thus retain the structure of the loanword, but the etymological background is not necessarily recognizable. For example, TTT is a calque for WWW. For words that occur in several Romance languages or are internationalisms, it is recommended that such words be given priority.

Paraphrase

Words may also be created by paraphrasing. Paraphrases, such as those used in the LRL, should be used as sparingly as possible. Especially, if the words become unnecessarily long thereby, they should be avoided.