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Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh

cardiff.ac.uk

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Re: Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh

#31

Post by jl6 »

MichaelRo wrote: post #6
Bostonian wrote: post #2

No, 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…

> “damcaniaeth dwysedd ffwythianolion”

Each of those three words was already a Welsh word - clearly Welsh already has words meaning “density”, “function”, and “theory” - so it seems the innovation is combining them in a new sense rather than making up new words as such.

Re: Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh

#32

Post by autophagian »

BruceEel wrote: post #3

Unrelated, 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?

I believe Welsh was one of the main inspirations behinds his elvish conlang Sindarin.

Re: Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh

#33

Post by dontlaugh »

carlmr wrote: post #20
jmopp wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>For instance, a computer in Afrikaans is a rekenaar In German it's Rechner , meaning the same.

Which in English is reckoner, with related meaning.

Re: Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh

#34

Post by evertedsphere »

MichaelRo wrote: post #6
Bostonian wrote: post #2

No, 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…

(it's "[density functional] theory" so it would be théorie de la fonctionnelle de la densité, "theory of the density functional", not "functional theory of density")

Re: Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh

#35

Post by 6LLvveMx2koXfwn »

Owain added new scientific terms to the Welsh dictionary.

These include:

    “damcaniaeth dwysedd ffwythianolion” meaning “density functional theory”
    “brasamcan graddiant cyffredinol” which means a “general gradient approximation”
    “dull gwahaniaeth feidriadd” which translates as “finite difference method”
Which sort of disproves the hypothesis that 'Welsh Is a Language for Science'.

Re: Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh

#37

Post by konschubert »

jmopp wrote: post #9
Bostonian wrote: post #2

No, 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…

Rekenaar is a German word (Rechner) and simply means computer.

Re: Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh

#38

Post by forinti »

Bostonian wrote: post #2

No, 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…

Surely he must have published articles in English.

Re: Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh

#39

Post by defrost »

6LLvveMx2koXfwn wrote: post #35

Owain added new scientific terms to the Welsh dictionary. These include: “damcaniaeth dwysedd ffwythianolion” meaning “density functional theory” “brasamcan graddiant cyffredinol” which means a “general gradient approximation” “dull gwahaniaeth feidriadd” which translates as “finite difference method” Which sort of disproves the hypothesis that 'Welsh Is a Language for Science'.

Not in the slightest.

When Isaac Asimov was doing his doctoral thesis in Chemistry the defacto language for reading and understanding any applied | industrial chemistry work was German.

The three Welsh examples above appear to the untrained eye just as long, unweildly, and complex as German expressions in chemistry .. the real test is whether they become easier with familiarity and regular use.

Re: Doctoral student completes a PhD in Chemistry entirely in Welsh

#40

Post by free_flintshire »

kome wrote: post #16
fdsafdsafds wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case, Welsh is not the local language of Cardiff, nor is it for large areas of Wales (judging by % of Welsh speakers).

yes, in this case it's preserving a language that is almost dead, because killed by English internal colonialism/centralism so to say, and preserving a language is also a good endeavor.

Regional languages and dialects often decline with the emergence of modern states without a directed centralised effort to kill them.
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