An Coiste Téarmaíochta (The Terminology Committee) has accepted two new terms relating to the LGBTQ+ community that were submitted to it at this month's meeting, and accordingly, the two new terms have been added to tearma.ie, the national terminology database for the Irish language, which is managed by the Gaois, Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge research group, Dublin City University, in collaboration with An Coiste Téarmaíochta, Foras na Gaeilge.

The committee aims to develop, approve and provide authoritative standard Irish language terminology to support the Irish language as a medium of communication in modern society. An Coiste Téarmaíochta, a voluntary committee of approximately 25 members, appointed for a period of three years, meets monthly and sets terminology principles, plans and supervises the work, defines terms, deals with various queries from the public and translation issues from the EU Irish language offices, and establishes expert subcommittees as necessary.

As Foras na Gaeilge employees discussed ways in which we could support Pride Month this year, the importance of accurate and authoritative terminology for those seeking to understand and express their own identity to the wider world was highlighted. It was agreed that we should shine a spotlight on queer terminology in Irish during the month as part of the celebration and the possibilities were discussed with our Equality Committee, our in-house terminologists, as well as the Gaois team, in Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge, Dublin City University.

After discussing the possibilities, it was decided to create a special LGBTQ+ version of the ongoing Téarma an Lae (Term of the Day) series, in which terms from the tearma.ie terminology database are shared on social media. We decided to share queer terminology throughout the month, terminology that would help the LGBTQ+ Irish language community express themselves, accurately describe themselves and their identity, and share their own stories and aspirations with the world in their own language of choice.

We began to compile a list of terms for the series of posts and as a first step in this process, the queer terms in the tearma.ie terminology database and in An Foclóir Aiteach (the queer dictionary) were compared. While the Terminology Committee assisted in the process of compiling the second version of An Foclóir Aiteach, and over 186,000 bilingual entries are available in the database on the site, it was noted that there were a number of terms listed in An Foclóir Aiteach that were not available on tearma.ie.

A list of terms not available on tearma.ie was made and our in-house terminologists were asked if it would be possible to submit these terms to the Committee at this month’s meeting, during Pride Month. The terminologists agreed to go the extra mile and go out of their way to ensure that the terms were on the list of new terms to be discussed at that month’s meeting. A list of terms was submitted to the Committee, the meaning and context of the words’ use were thoroughly examined and various options for possible Irish versions were discussed, and by the end of the meeting, authoritative versions of a pair of new terms were approved, ‘aitigh’, which is ‘to queer’ (as a verb), and ‘malartóir’ corresponding to the English term ‘switch’. Both new terms were promptly added to the site’s database, and are now available to the general public.

LGBTQ+ terminology is a particular field that is constantly growing and developing, especially in English, and accordingly, it is very important to ensure the provision of this terminology in other languages ​​as well, especially in the case of a minoritised language, such as Irish. Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn deserve great recognition for the excellent work they have done and for the feat they have achieved with An Foclóir Aiteach. Our terminology database is now richer as a result. We are very pleased that we were able to support this work in some small way and it is a great honour for us to always support various groups in the Irish language community as much as possible, as we strongly believe that the Irish language belongs to everyone.

If you are looking for a specific term that is not available on tearma.ie, you can use the query form to request Irish versions of new terms from the Committee. The Committee can also be contacted directly by sending an email to tearmai@forasnagaeilge.ie or by calling 01-6398418.

Publications about terminology by Gaois can be found here. If you wish to keep up with terminology and other new developments, you can sign up for the Gaois newsletter (in Irish), read the Gaois blog (in Irish), or get the Term of the Day on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. The story of the tearma.ie project can be read here. You can also sign up for Foras na Gaeilge’s bilingual monthly newsletter here.