Tuesday 5 May 2015

Names of the chemical elements in Chinese - and Jèrriais

Language Log a bliodgi:

The first thing we may say about the names of the chemical elements in Chinese is that every single one of them is monosyllabic. This actually causes great problems for Chinese chemists and other scientists, as well as the lay public, since there are so many homophones and near-homophones among them and with other monosyllabic words not on the list. Listening to a lecture or holding discussions that mention chemical elements and hearing the elements referred to by these monosyllabic names is challenging, to say the least. They just don't stand out the way, say, "chlorine" and "hydrogen" do.

Né v'chîn eune liste d's êléments en Jèrriais - les noms sont pus conv'nables qu'en Chinnouais!

And here's a list of the elements in Jèrriais - more straightforward than in Chinese!

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