I recently came across this YouTube video, and it echoed a lot of the same discoveries I made, back in the day. If you’re learning Chinese, and you’re even a little bit curious about the names of the elements in Chinese (and yes, this involves some special characters!), check it out:
A got AI to provide a nice little summary of what the video covers:
- Unique Characters: Unlike the Japanese system which largely uses phonetic borrowings, each element in Chinese has its own distinct character, which is unusual as most Chinese words are compounds of multiple characters [01:33].
- Rarely Used Characters: Many of these element-specific characters are very rare, and the discovery of new elements presents opportunities to coin new Chinese characters [01:54, 02:08].
- Phonsemantic Compounds: Almost all characters on the Chinese periodic table belong to the category of phonsemantic compounds [05:22, 06:29]. These characters combine a semantic radical, which hints at the element’s general category, and a phonetic element, which suggests its pronunciation [05:22, 05:52].
- Radical Categories: The semantic radicals used for elements are often based on their state at room temperature: the metal radical for solid metals, the stone radical for solid non-metals, the air radical for gases, and the water radical for liquids [06:56].
- Phonetic Elements: The phonetic component of the character is usually a simplified transliteration of the element’s international name (often English or Latin) [07:35]. However, some common elements have native Chinese names [07:52].
- Conjoined Meaning Elements: About ten elements also belong to the conjoined meaning category, where the character combines elements with related meanings, such as oxygen including the character for nourishment [06:38, 08:16]. These are also phonsemantic [08:41].
- Naming New Elements: Naming new elements involves assigning a radical based on predicted physical properties and a phonetic element based on the international name. Homophones with existing element names need to be avoided [08:49, 09:36].
- Pronunciation: Generally, the pronunciation of these modern element characters closely follows their phonetic components, even in tone, as sound changes haven’t significantly altered them yet [09:55, 10:03].
- Homophone Issues: While there are generally no homophones among element names, tin and selenium are both pronounced “C,†leading to an alternative reading for tin [10:17, 10:27].
- Lack of Disambiguation Suffix: Surprisingly, the suffix “su,†commonly used for disambiguation in Chinese, especially for monosyllabic words, is not typically used with element names [10:41, 11:05]. The speaker finds the Chinese system of naming elements to be interesting and well-designed, despite being a non-expert in chemistry [11:35].
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