The annual meeting of the UIC Terminology Group was held at UIC HQ from 22 – 23 October 2015. The Terminology Group meeting brought together experts from railway companies from more than 10 different railway companies. The main task of the working group is the translation and updating of the RailLexic term database which contains at present 25 languages.
UIC is in charge of updating the database in English, French and German and coordinates the translation work for all languages. The translations into these other languages are being done by the members of the group. The working group meets once a year to report on progress made and to define future priorities.
Marc Antoni, Director of the UIC Rail System Department, gave an overview of UIC key facts and figures and provided an update on developments at UIC including IRS (International Railway Standards). He emphasised the importance of the harmonisation of railway terminology which facilitated a more precise, detailed and better translation of documents.
Timothy Cooper, Senior English terminologist from the Directorate-General for Translation, held a presentation about terminology work at the European Commission. He stressed the importance of high-quality data in a term base like IATE and the one concept in one entry approach. Further cooperation in relation to railway terms and exchange of best practices between the European Commission and UIC are planned.
Besides exchanging experiences in the field of terminology and setting priorities for new terminology work, the main focus at this year’s Terminology Group meeting was the new RailLexic online version which was launched in June and since then available to the public.
A hands-on workshop on the second day gave participants and especially newcomers the opportunity to learn more about the functionalities and features of the web-based interface for terminology input in detail and how to put them into practice.
The next actions to be taken are the new edition of the electronic version (former CD-ROM), an update of the online version as well as a new paper edition of the UIC Railway Dictionary which will be published before the end of the year.
During the year 2016, the activity of terminology will continue to focus on the needs and demands defined by UIC members such as giving TCDD support for finalising Turkish in the RailLexic database and adding new terminology.
