Terminikasutuse problemaatilisusest COVID-19 näitel
Navigating the challenges of term usage: A case study of COVID-19

Summary/Abstract: Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, one positive outcome, particularly noteworthy from a linguistic perspective, is the rare opportunity to witness the birth, dissemination, and integration of new terms into the language. The article explores the term variation and spelling variants using COVID-19 as a case study to highlight the obstacles posed by such diversity, as well as the discussions that it sparked in the media. To investigate the correct usage of the term, articles published on the websites of four ministries in 2020 were examined. The results indicated a satisfactory situation, though there was room for improvement. When analysing different spelling variants, corpus data from the Estonian National Corpus 2023 was utilized. The findings were then compared with text data collected from 1,454 native Estonian speakers in early 2023. Corpus data revealed that the fully capitalized “COVID-19” was the preferred variant, the same was true for ministry announcements. However, study participants favoured a lowercase, numberless variant. The more Estonian sounding “koroona” component was preferred over the more foreign “covid”. In ministry announcements, “covid” was slightly more common. The article aims to emphasize the significance of employing terms competently, underscoring the complexity of such an endeavour, particularly in the extraordinary circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic.

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