Today sees the launch of the Automotive Dictionary, a specialised lexicon for the sector produced by six companies working in collaboration

Jul 10, 2014

The dictionary has gathered together about 2,637 items of the sector’s terminology and can be consulted over the Internet in six languages

With the advisory service of terminology experts in Elhuyar’s Language and Terminology Unit, the companies BATZ, Cikautxo, Ekin, Elay, GKN and Maier have produced the specialised Automotive Dictionary, which is in six languages: English, Spanish, Basque, French, German and Chinese. The dictionary comprises 2,637 automotive items divided into 16 areas and can be consulted in its entirety over the Internet. The presentation of the project was held this morning at the Zornotza Automotive Intelligence Center and was attended by the following representatives of the companies participating in the dictionary: Karmelo Uriarte, head of improvement at BATZ; Gotzon Juaristi, chairman of Cikautxo; Esteban Garitaonandia, coordinator of Ekin’s Basque-language committee; Ketxus Amasorrain, head of engineering at Elay; Kepa Galparsoro, prevention officer at GKN Driveline Zumaia; Julen Madariaga, chairman of Maier and, finally, Elhuyar’s CEO Leire Cancio, and Garbiñe Alkiza, the Elhuyar coordinator of the Automotive Dictionary.

Driven by the globalisation era, automotive companies have been making the leap to the international market over the last few years, and «the experience we have had and continue to have internationally is showing us that to be competitive, languages need to be properly managed, and a specialised, standardised terminology has to be used», pointed out the BATZ representative Karmelo Uriarte. «If we want to communicate effectively in our work processes, in our relationships with clients and suppliers, and in relationships among workers, the first step is to overcome the language barriers. And to achieve that, we saw the need to produce this specialised dictionary», added Uriarte.

Elhuyar has extensive experience in the field of terminology, and its Language and Technology R&D Unit has been developing advanced technologies for producing dictionaries. «After applying the technologies we have developed at Elhuyar, we have succeeded in connecting the languages used worldwide in relations within the automotive sector (English, Spanish, French, German and Chinese) and with Basque, too, and can now offer reliable, refined and up-to-date terminology», pointed out Leire Cancio. «We at Elhuyar have long been aware of the importance of multilingualism; that’s why it is essential to develop resources and tools for managing languages in line with the needs of each company», added Cancio.

Finally, Garbiñe Alkiza explained the steps taken to produce the Automotive Dictionary: «The six companies provided us with the documentation and internal glossaries they use in their everyday work. Using this documentation as the starting point, we carried out automatic terminology extraction and that way we were able to link together the terminology of the six companies. We organised the terms into items, added the equivalent terms in the six languages, and classified each item according to its corresponding area». In addition «the ongoing collaboration between Elhuyar’s terminologists and the automotive experts has been indispensable in carrying out this work. Thanks to them, we have been able to classify the 2,637 items into their areas and include the equivalent terms in all the languages», stressed Alkiza.

This dictionary is no more than the start of a bigger project and the promoters are keen to turn it into a reference for the automotive sector. That is why taking the dictionary as the basis they want to create a website that will be a showcase and source of information for automotive companies. So they are calling on other automotive companies to collaborate from now on.

http://www.elhuyar.org/EN/Press-Statements/Today-sees-the-launch-of-the-Automotive-Dictionary-a-specialised-lexicon-for-the-sector-produced-by-six-companies-working-in-collaboration

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