Author: Omotayo Ibukun Olalere & Nneka Rachel Igbeneghu
Date: 2026
Extant studies on terms related to Covid-19 have focused on neologism, axiology and semantic analysis (Asif, 2021, Edet, 2021 & Katermina & Yachenko, 2020). Although neologism, axiology and semantic analysis could be studied under translation as Oyali (2018) shows, little has been done in comparing the morphology of these terms in English, German and Yoruba in the field of translation. This study therefore seeks to fill this lacuna by examining the morphology of selected Covid-19 terms in English, German and Yoruba. The aim is to compare the German and Yoruba translations to show which of the two makes use of more compound words as equivalent of the English terms. To achieve this, twenty-five (25) Covid-19 terms in English were selected together with their German and Yoruba equivalents. The data was gathered from the internet, radio and television. The morphology of the terms in English, German and Yoruba was considered using the conceptual approach on nominalizations by Lees (1960). The dataset used for this study reveals that there are more compound words introduced into Yoruba lexicon and most of the terms are neologisms. The study will contribute to research on Covid-19 and its impacts on language enrichment in Africa and Europe by establishing that the pandemic has brought about more neologisms in Africa (Yoruba).
Keywords:Covid-19, Terms, English, German, Yoruba.
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