Keelekujund

Keelekujund, or language design, is a field at the intersection of linguistics, language planning, and applied communication. It concerns deliberate, systematic shaping of a language’s use and its vocabulary to meet specific goals, such as clarity, consistency, accessibility, or technological compatibility. The practice includes standardizing spelling and grammar, developing and maintaining terminology, and creating style guides and other language resources.

Keelekujund operates at macro and micro levels. At the macro level, it informs national or organizational language policy and standardization efforts. At the micro level, it guides terminology management, documentation, and writing practices for institutions, publishers, and product teams. The aim is to produce language that is predictable, efficient, and appropriate for its audience and context.

Common methods include corpus analysis to identify usage patterns, terminology engineering to create and harmonize terms, glossaries and ontologies, orthography reform or modernization, and user testing to ensure that language serves its audience. Collaboration across linguists, subject-matter experts, translators, designers, and educators is typical.

Applications span public administration, education, media, software localization, technical communication, and science communication. In Estonian contexts, keelekujund often supports creating consistent terminology for rapidly developing domains such as information technology and health care, while ensuring alignment with national language norms and legal requirements.

Keelekujund relates to language policy, terminology management, and plain-language initiatives, and it intersects with language technology, including spell checkers and natural language processing, which benefit from standardized language resources. Challenges include balancing linguistic purity with practicality, keeping pace with new domains, and securing organizational support.