Chemical elements in East Asian languages
The names for chemical elements in East Asian languages, along with those for some chemical compounds, are among the newest words to enter the local vocabularies. Except for those metals well-known since antiquity, the names of most elements were created after modern chemistry was introduced to East Asia in the 18th and 19th century, with more translations being coined for those elements discovered later.
While most East Asian languages use—or have used—the Chinese script, only the Chinese language uses the characters as the predominant way of naming elements. On the other hand, the Japanese, Koreans and Vietnamese primarily employ native writing systems for the names of the elements, such as Katakana, Hangul and Quốc Ngữ, respectively.
Chinese
In Chinese, characters for the elements are the last officially created and recognized characters in the Chinese writing system. Unlike characters for unofficial varieties of Chinese or other now-defunct ad hoc characters, the names for the elements are official, consistent, and taught to every Chinese and Taiwanese student who has attended public schools. New names and symbols are decided upon by the China National Committee for Terms in Sciences and Technologies.Native characters
Some metallic elements were already familiar to the Chinese, as their ores were already excavated and used extensively in China for construction, alchemy, and medicine. These include the long-established group of "Five Metals" — gold, silver, copper, iron, and tin — as well as lead and mercury.Some non-metals were already named in Chinese as well, because their minerals were in widespread use. For example,
- boron as part of borax
- carbon in the form of charcoal
- sulfur had been used to make gunpowder since at least the 10th century in China.
Characters based on European pronunciations
- The semantic part is also the radical of the character. It refers to the element's usual state at room temperature and standard pressure. There are only four radicals used for elements: 釒/钅 for solid metals, 石 for solid non-metals, 水/氵 for liquids, and 气 for gases.
- The phonetic part represents the character's pronunciation and is a partial transliteration of the element. For each element character, this is a unique phonetic component. Since 118 elements have been discovered, there are over 100 different phonetic components used in naming the elements. Because many characters in modern Chinese are homophones, even when tone is taken into account, it is possible to select two different phonetic components that nevertheless gives the same pronunciation. Current practice dictates that new names should avoid being homophonous with previous element names or with organic functional groups. However, this rule was not rigorously followed in the past, and confusingly, tin and selenium have names that are pronounced the same way, including tone. This sometimes poses difficulties in verbal communication, as Sn and Se can both be divalent and tetravalent. Thus, SnO2 and SeO2 are both pronounced èryǎnghuàxī 二氧化锡 and are indistinguishable verbally. To avoid further confusion, P.R.C. authorities avoided using the name 矽 xī for silicon.
| Semantic | Phonetic | Source | |
| 釒/钅 + | 里 lǐ | = 鋰/锂 | lithium |
| 釒/钅 + | 甲 jiǎ | = 鉀/钾 | kalium, Latin name for potassium |
| 釒/钅 + | 內/内 nèi or nà † | = 鈉/钠 | natrium, Latin name for sodium |
| 釒/钅 + | 弟 dì or tì † | = 銻/锑 | stibium, Latin name for antimony |
| 釒/钅 + | 臬 niè | = 鎳/镍 | nickel |
| 釒/钅 + | 鬲 gé | = 鎘/镉 | cadmium |
| 釒/钅 + | 烏/乌 wū | = 鎢/钨 | wolframium, Latin name for tungsten |
| 釒/钅 + | 必 bì | = 鉍/铋 | bismuth |
| 釒/钅 + | 由 yóu | = 鈾/铀 | uranium |
| 釒/钅 + | 呂/吕 lǚ | = 鋁/铝 | aluminium |
| 石 + | 典 diǎn | = 碘 | iodine |
| 气 + | 亥 hài | = 氦 | helium |
| 气 + | 弗 fú | = 氟 | fluorine |
| 气 + | 乃 nǎi | = 氖 | neon |
| 石 + | 夕 xī | =矽 | silicon. Mainly used in R.O.C., Hong Kong, and Macau |
| 石 + | 圭 guī | = 硅 | silicon. Derived from Japanese transliteration '珪' of archaic Dutch keiaarde. Mostly used in P.R.C. |
The "water" radical is rarely used, since only two elements are truly liquid at standard room temperature and pressure. Both of their characters are not based on the European pronunciation of the elements' names. Bromine, the only liquid nonmetal at room temperature, is explained in the following section. Mercury, now grouped with the heavy metals, was long classified as a kind of fluid in ancient China.
Meaning-based characters
A few characters, though, are not created using the above "phono-semantic" design, but are "semantic-semantic", that is, both of its parts indicate meanings. One part refers to the element's usual state, while the other part indicates some additional property or function of the element. In addition, the second part also indicates the pronunciation of the element. Such elements are:| Semantic | Semantic | English | Note | |
| 釒/钅 + | 白 bái | = 鉑/铂 bó | platinum | The character is repurposed. |
| 氵 + | 臭 chòu | = 溴 xiù | bromine | odorous |
| 气 + | 羊 yáng, short for 養/养 yǎng | = 氧 yǎng | oxygen | A continuous supply of oxygenated air nourishes almost all animals |
| 气 + | 巠/? jīng, short for 輕/轻 qīng | = 氫/氢 qīng | hydrogen | the lightest of all elements |
| 气 + | 彔/录 lù, short for 綠/绿 lǜ | = 氯/氯 lǜ | chlorine | greenish yellow in color |
| 气 + | 炎 yán, short for 淡 dàn | = 氮 dàn | nitrogen | dilutes breathable air |
| 石 + | 粦 lín, short for 燐 lín | = 磷 lín | phosphorus | emits a faint glow in the dark |
Usage in the nomenclature for simple inorganic compounds
Simple covalent binary inorganic compounds EmXn are named aswhere X is more electronegative than E, using the IUPAC formal electronegativity order. For example, P4S10 is called 十硫化四磷 . As in English nomenclature, if m = 1, the numerical prefix of E is usually dropped in covalent compounds. For example, CO is called 一氧化碳 . However, for compounds named as salts, numerical prefixes are dropped altogether, as in English. Thus, calcium chloride, CaCl2, is named 氯化钙.
There is also a Chinese analog of the -ic/-ous nomenclature for higher/lower oxidation states. The lower oxidation state is marked with the character 亚. For example FeCl2 and FeCl3 are 氯化亚铁 and 氯化铁, respectively. In a four-way contrast, hypo- and per- are marked with 次 and 高, respectively. For example, the acids HClOn are called 次氯酸, 亚氯酸, 氯酸, and 高氯酸. In this example, the character 酸 means acid. The more modern Stock nomenclature in which oxidation state is explicitly specified can also be used: thus, tin oxide is simply 氧化锡.
Recently discovered elements
In 2015, IUPAC recognised the discovery of four new elements. In November 2016, IUPAC published their formal names and symbols: nihonium, moscovium, tennessine, and oganesson.Subsequently, in January 2017, the China National Committee for Terms in Sciences and Technologies published four naming characters for these elements. The National Academy for Educational Research under the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China on Taiwan published an identical list in April 2017. For traditional Chinese, nihonium and moscovium were then existing characters; while in simplified Chinese, only moscovium already existed in the Unicode Standard. The missing characters were added to Unicode version 11.0 as urgently-needed characters in June 2018.
The Chinese characters for these symbols are:
In the periodic table
Japanese
Like other words in the language, elements' names in Japanese can be native, from China or from Europe.Names based on European pronunciations
Even though the Japanese language also uses Chinese characters, it primarily employs katakana to transliterate names of the elements from European languages. For example,| English | Japanese | Note |
| antimony | This form without the final vowel is likely from Dutch or German | |
| tungsten | from English; other major European languages refer to this element as wolfram or tungsten with some additional syllable. | |
| sodium | natrium in Latin | |
| uranium | Uran in German | |
| iodine | +. Chinese uses 碘, the second syllable of iodine. | |
| fluorine | approximates flu-. Similar to the Chinese: 氟, plus the "air" radical. As 弗 is not a commonly used kanji, it is often written フッ素, using katakana. |
Native names
On the other hand, elements known since antiquity are Chinese loanwords, which are mostly identical to their Chinese counterparts, albeit in the Shinjitai, for example, iron is tetsu and lead is namari. While all elements in Chinese are single-character in the official system, some Japanese elements have two characters. Often this parallels colloquial or everyday names for such elements in Chinese, such as 水銀/水银 for mercury and 硫黃/硫黄 for sulfur. A special case is tin, which is more often written in katakana.| English | Japanese | Chinese | Note |
| mercury | 汞 | "watery silver" aka. quicksilver, like the element's symbol, Hg. In the Greater China Region, 水銀/水银 is more generally used than 汞, because 汞 is not taught until the chemistry class but 水銀/水银 is the word used in daily life; for example, when people talk about the mercury liquid in the thermometer, most people would say "水銀/水银" but not 汞. This kind of thermometer is called "水銀溫度計/水银温度计" in Chinese instead of "汞溫度計/汞温度计", which is not being used at all. In Japanese too, exists but is extremely rare, having an alternative obsolete reading mizugane. | |
| sulfur | iō, formerly iwō | 硫 | means "yellow", to distinguish from other characters pronounced the same. |
| zinc | 鋅/锌 | meaning "light lead"; 鉛 is "lead" in Japanese and Chinese. | |
| platinum | 鉑 | "white gold". Like 水銀/水银 and 汞 in Chinese, 白金 is the "daily" word, and 鉑/铂 is the formal name and usually won't be taught until the chemistry class. In mainland China, jewelry stores usually use the word "白金" or "铂金". | |
| arsenic | 砷 | hi < hishima, the Chinese name for arsenic trioxide. In modern Chinese, arsenic is instead shēn, an approximation of the second syllable of arsenic. The kanji 砒 is quite rare. Often written ヒ素 using katakana. | |
| boron | 硼 | Hō <, the Chinese name for borax. Boron is still called péng in modern Chinese. The kanji 硼 is extremely rare. Mostly written ホウ素 using katakana. |
Meaning-based names
Some names were later invented to describe properties or characteristics of the element.They were mostly introduced around the 18th century to Japan, and they sometimes differ drastically from their Chinese counterparts. The following comparison shows that Japanese does not use the radical system for naming elements like Chinese.
| English | Japanese | Chinese | Note |
| hydrogen | 氫/氢 | translation of the hydro- prefix, or translation of the Dutch word for hydrogen, waterstof | |
| carbon | 碳 | translation of the Dutch word for carbon, koolstof. | |
| nitrogen | 氮 | translation of the Dutch word for nitrogen, stikstof. While nitrogen is not toxic per se, air-breathing animals cannot survive breathing it alone. | |
| oxygen | 氧 | similar to the Dutch word for oxygen, zuurstof or the Greek-based oxygen. Many 19th-century European chemists erroneously believed that all acids contain oxygen. | |
| silicon | 硅 | same as Chinese; the kanji 硅 is extremely rare. Often written ケイ素 using katakana. Its origin lies in the Dutch word keiaarde; kei is a partial calque. The Chinese word is an orthographical loan from Japanese. | |
| phosphorus | 磷 | similar to Chinese, except the "fire" radical replacing the "stone" radical. The kanji 燐 is rare. Usually written リン using katakana. | |
| chlorine | 氯 | it and sodium make up common table salt ; 塩 is the Shinjitai version of 鹽. | |
| bromine | 溴 | similar to Chinese, except the lack of the "water" radical. |
Korean
As Hanja are now rarely used in Korea, all of the elements are written in Hangul.Since many Korean scientific terms were translated from Japanese sources, the pattern of naming is mostly similar to that of Japanese. Namely, the classical elements are loanwords from China, with new elements from European languages. But recently, some elements' names were changed. For example:
| English | Korean | Source | Korean |
| gold | geum | from Chinese jin | geum |
| silver | eun | from Chinese yin | eun |
| antimony | antimon | from German | antimoni |
| tungsten | teongseuten | from English | teongseuten |
| sodium | nateuryum | from Latin or German | sodyum |
| potassium | kalyum | from Latin or German kalium | potasyum |
| manganese | manggan | from German Mangan | mangganijeu |
Pre-modern elements often are the Korean pronunciation of their Japanese equivalents, e.g.,
| English | Korean |
| hydrogen | suso |
| carbon | tanso |
| nitrogen | jilso |
| oxygen | sanso |
| chlorine | yeomso |
| zinc | ayeon |
| mercury | sueun |
Vietnamese
Some of the metals known since antiquity are loanwords from Chinese, such as copper, tin, mercury, sulfur, oxygen and platinum.Others have native or old Sino-Vietnamese names, such as sắt for iron, bạc for silver, chì for lead, vàng for gold, kền for nickel and kẽm for zinc.
In either case, now they are written in the Vietnamese alphabet. Before the Latin alphabet was introduced, sắt was rendered as, bạc as, chì as, vàng as, kền as and kẽm as in Chữ Nôm.
The majority of elements are shortened and localized pronunciations of the European names. For example:
- Phosphorus becomes phốtpho.
- The -ine suffix is lost, e.g., chlorine, iodine and fluorine become clo, iốt and flo, respectively.
- The -um suffix is lost, e.g., caesium becomes xêzi, pronounced ; compare the French césium, pronounced .
- * Similarly, beryllium, tellurium, lithium, natrium, and lanthanum become berili, telua, liti, natri, and lantan respectively
- The -gen suffix is lost, e.g., nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen become nitơ, ôxy and hiđrô, respectively
- Tungsten becomes volfram.
- Bismuth becomes bitmut.
- Aluminium becomes nhôm, because the ending -nium has a similar pronunciation. It was the first element to be known in English in Vietnam.
- Elements with the -on suffix seem to be inconsistent. Boron and silicon are respectively shortened to bo and silic. On the other hand, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon do not have common shorter forms.
- Unlike the other halogens, astatine retains its suffix.
- Antimony is shortened to antimon, and arsenic to asen; these names are similar to the German ones.
Periodic tables
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Articles
- by John Fryer and Xu Shou