A CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEBATE ON THE USE OF THE TERMS ʹʹTLAʹʹ AND ʹʹPRSTʹʹ IN SLOVENIAN COLLOQUIAL AND PROFESSIONAL TERMINOLOGY

Correct and rich professional and scientific terminology is an important contribution to the development and richness of the national languages. Within the scientific and professional terminology we can often find incorrect, missed or misinterpreted use of professional terms. In general, such ‘diversity’ of terms does not contribute to the quality and the development of the professional terminology. On the contrary, it demonstrates the lack of precision in scientific terminology, presence of definitions without scientific background and/or overlooked original etymology of individual terms. We are witnessing the attempts of replacement of terms and changes in professional terminology without scientifically sound arguments. Moreover, even at the university level the inappropriate use of technical / professional terms can be detected. An example of such embarrassments in Slovenian language is the use of the wordsʹ tlaʹ and ʹprstʹ in professional language. Terminological dispute can be considered as peripheral theme, even unnecessary, however it has a much broader and more important dimension. Namely, confusion in the technical language is also appearing in translations of the European legislation. The Slovenian versions of some EU legal documents are semantically ambiguous and inadequate and, thus do not reflect the correct meaning of source texts due to missed translations. The latter can evolve in a problem and has to be adjusted. The paper presents the soil science terminological inconsistencies, explains and arguments the reasons for use of selected basic soil science terms in Slovenian language. Additionally, it recalls the etymology of the popular terms ‘prst’ and ‘zemlja’, compares the situation in number of European languages and, most importantly, suggests the appropriate use of terms in professional/scientific language, in education and for translation purposes.