The COVID‐19 pandemic, which unexpectedly entered our lives in the beginning of 2020, has had an impact on many areas of our everyday lives. Our language, of course, was no exception: the pandemic brought a lot of new words and phrases — neologisms, including old words which have taken on new meanings. In the beginning of the pandemic, in May 2020, the creators of the Oxford English Dictionary added to it words like “corona,” “coronavirus,” “COVID‐19,” “covidiot,” “self-isolation,” “social distance,” “WFH,” and many others. Words and phrases like “observation unit,” “no-contact delivery,” and others became widely used. Neologisms certainly enrich the language. However, they create certain difficulties for linguists and translators during the initial stages of their spread in everyday usage, as the linguists’ objective is to quickly adapt to changes in language and provide correct translations.
Neologisms that have arisen in connection with the COVID‐19 pandemic can be divided into several groups:
- Neologisms that were taken from limited-use or specialized vocabularies — such words already existed, but they were used by a limited group of people, like those in the medical or pharmaceutical industry, and were not known or were barely known to the public. “Coronavirus” is one such word.
- Neologisms that resulted from putting words together, where one part consists of the words “corona” or “covid,” such as “coronacrisis” or “covidiot.”
- Words or word combinations that existed before but gained new meanings because of the pandemic. Examples: “second wave,” “plateauing,” “red zone,” or “corona.”
- Words or word combinations that denote phenomena that did not exist before or phenomena which are relatively new. Examples: “social distance,” “no-contact delivery,” or “mask and glove mandate.”
How do translators and other linguists manage to adapt to new realities quickly and do their jobs professionally?
Here are some tips:
- While working on a translation, refer to proven, credible dictionaries, and other sources of information.
- Broaden your horizons: study various media and other sources of information to help you analyze examples of the use of certain words and phrases, etc.
- Discuss difficult instances of translation with colleagues, consult with the wide community of professionals, and share your information with them — enrich one another’s knowledge.
Interesting fact: with the onset of the pandemic, volunteer projects were created in which participants translated medical documents that could help study the coronavirus. Such projects became quite popular. The volunteers were of immense help to doctors, translating treatment protocols, scientific articles, and a variety of medical literature into different languages.
