Diccionario histórico del Español Moderno de la Ciencia y de la Técnica (fase de desarrollo)

The Diccionario histórico del español moderno de la ciencia y de la técnica (DHEMCYT: Scientific and Technical Dictionary of Modern Spanish) aims to amass Spanish scientific and technical lexis from the C18 and C19. The lexical renovation that took place in this period is highly significant, since scientific and technical principles underwent a veritable revolution, on the one hand, and, on the other, went from being recorded in Latin to being written in the vernacular. The consequences of such a change are the numerous lexical innovations in specialised languages, innovations that are reflected in various European languages. The Spanish language is not distinct in this sense. What is distinct, however, is the model that this lexical renovation follows, almost always dependent on the scientific advances made by other European nations and, as a result, also dependent on lexical innovations that were external, in principle, to Spanish. For this reason, the role played by translation in the renovation of the language is absolutely fundamental. Study of the language of science and technology in the C18 & C19 thus becomes central to the history of the Spanish language, particularly bearing in mind the fact that modern Spanish lexis been has renovated by around 80% from the C18 to current times. If our team bases its interest on the last few centuries, this is essentially due to its wish to compensate for the considerable lacuna observable in the history of the Spanish language, as the following justifications highlight: a) the history of the Spanish language has above all been constructed on the basis of literary texts; b) the history of the Spanish language has been only very slightly concerned with recent centuries, since these were seen as so close to our own times as to be almost transparent; c) the history of the Spanish language frequently mixes the idea that Spanish went from its origins to a definitive perfection, attained in the C18.(...)