IsiZulu Terminology Development in Nursing and Midwifery

Abstract The Education White Paper of 1997 on transformation in higher education in South Africa (South Africa 1997) indicated that because of the multilingual nature of the diverse communities in the new democracy, higher education should play a role in the development of all the official languages including the indigenous languages, as well as the Khoi, Nama, San and Sign languages. The School of Nursing of the University of KwaZulu-Natal took this obligation to heart by participating in the SANTED multilingualism project. This emanated from the needs of the student nurses who are being educated and trained in English, but serve in communities where Zulu is the dominant language. To meet the identified student needs, the nursing and midwifery specialists, in collaboration with various language specialists in KwaZulu-Natal, engaged in a process to develop terminology which enhances isiZulu as a scientific language. This article discusses the language policies and multilingual trends, both locally and globally and describes the experiences of the nursing specialists who participated in the terminology development process. The main categories for deriving terms based on the linguistic decisions made by the team are also described, and examples provided. The challenges are outlined and the recommendations include the importance of institutional buy-in at all academic levels and strategies for the sustainability of the project