Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh
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Re: Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh
#2No, it's not. If Owain (the PhD who wrote his thesis in Welsh) wanted to be productive and advance his field, he would want his research to have the largest audience possible. Quoting the article:
'In his thesis, ‘Astudiaeth Gyfrifiadurol o Synthesis a Sefydlogrwydd Defnyddiau Mandyllog Anorganig’, Owain used computational science to see how porous materials could be used for green energy processes and sustainable chemistry.
Owain’s PhD was funded through Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol’s Ysgoloriaeth Ymchwil scheme, which aims to support PhD students in conducting research and writing a thesis through the medium of Welsh.
As part of his study, Owain identified gaps in Welsh scientific terminology.
He worked with terminologists in Bangor to create new terms, and with help from the wider Welsh-speaking chemistry community, Owain added new scientific terms to the Welsh dictionary.
These include:
“damcaniaeth dwysedd ffwythianolion” meaning “density functional theory”'
Re: Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh
#3Unrelated, but, IIRC, Tolkien (whom one could perhaps regard as a language connoisseur) had a peculiar taste for languages, and Welsh was in fact his favorite?
Re: Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh
#4No, it's not. If Owain (the PhD who wrote his thesis in Welsh) wanted to be productive and advance his field, he would want his research to have the largest audience possible. Quoting the article: 'In his thesis, ‘Astudiaeth Gyfrifiadurol o Synthesis a Sefydlogrwydd Defnyddiau Mandyllog Anorganig’, Owain used computational science to see how porous materials could be used for green energy processes and sustainable ch…
You’re right but also very few theses are actually read. I know people who have delisted theirs from Google scholar because they had better presentations of the same results published in journals after they defended.
Re: Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh
#5Unrelated, but, IIRC, Tolkien (whom one could perhaps regard as a language connoisseur) had a peculiar taste for languages, and Welsh was in fact his favorite?
He had particular affection for Welsh and Finnish, from what I remember. His academic specialty was Old English.
Re: Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh
#6No, it's not. If Owain (the PhD who wrote his thesis in Welsh) wanted to be productive and advance his field, he would want his research to have the largest audience possible. Quoting the article: 'In his thesis, ‘Astudiaeth Gyfrifiadurol o Synthesis a Sefydlogrwydd Defnyddiau Mandyllog Anorganig’, Owain used computational science to see how porous materials could be used for green energy processes and sustainable ch…
Interesting observation, a language that hasn't evolved (due to lack of demand) to include scientific terms. Speaking zero Welsh I wonder if the choice for "density functional theory" was specifically chosen to sound "Welsh" instead of going for Anglicisation.
Take Romanian, the word for "cheese" goes all the way back to Dacians, but there was no "density functional theory" until rather recently so that was borrowed as "densitate functionala teoretica". Except for declination, basically the foreign words... which might actually be French: "la théorie fonctionnelle de la densité".
I wonder about the computer-related terms in Welsh: copied ad-litteram or adapted? Like English: "software", French-adapted: "douce-article". English: "mouse", French: "souris". Well.. funk me, the French actually say "la souris d'ordinateur"! :)
Re: Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh
#7No, it's not. If Owain (the PhD who wrote his thesis in Welsh) wanted to be productive and advance his field, he would want his research to have the largest audience possible. Quoting the article: 'In his thesis, ‘Astudiaeth Gyfrifiadurol o Synthesis a Sefydlogrwydd Defnyddiau Mandyllog Anorganig’, Owain used computational science to see how porous materials could be used for green energy processes and sustainable ch…
True, but at least we invented the equals sign!
Re: Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh
#8Unrelated, but, IIRC, Tolkien (whom one could perhaps regard as a language connoisseur) had a peculiar taste for languages, and Welsh was in fact his favorite?
He had particular affection for Welsh and Finnish, from what I remember. His academic specialty was Old English.
He must have really liked long words!
Re: Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh
#9No, it's not. If Owain (the PhD who wrote his thesis in Welsh) wanted to be productive and advance his field, he would want his research to have the largest audience possible. Quoting the article: 'In his thesis, ‘Astudiaeth Gyfrifiadurol o Synthesis a Sefydlogrwydd Defnyddiau Mandyllog Anorganig’, Owain used computational science to see how porous materials could be used for green energy processes and sustainable ch…
In order for a language to be used for science, it has to be made that way. For instance, 150 years ago Afrikaans was considered nothing more than corrupted Dutch. But the Afrikaner nationalists - for all their faults - did put a lot of effort into bringing the language to a similar standard as English: establishing universities, ensuring there was scientific and industrial vocabulary, and so on. They often took the route of coining new words, rather than borrowing from English or Dutch. For instance, a computer in Afrikaans is a rekenaar - which originally meant someone who does calculations (similar to the original meaning of 'computer')
Re: Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh
#10No, it's not. If Owain (the PhD who wrote his thesis in Welsh) wanted to be productive and advance his field, he would want his research to have the largest audience possible. Quoting the article: 'In his thesis, ‘Astudiaeth Gyfrifiadurol o Synthesis a Sefydlogrwydd Defnyddiau Mandyllog Anorganig’, Owain used computational science to see how porous materials could be used for green energy processes and sustainable ch…
Interesting observation, a language that hasn't evolved (due to lack of demand) to include scientific terms. Speaking zero Welsh I wonder if the choice for "density functional theory" was specifically chosen to sound "Welsh" instead of going for Anglicisation. Take Romanian, the word for "cheese" goes all the way back to Dacians, but there was no "density functional theory" until rather recently so that was borrowed…
There's a line in a Bill Bryson book about watching Welsh TV, and noticing they used the english term "dirty weekend", as (allegedly?) the Welsh don't have the concept