Japanese Chemical elements in East Asian languages
1 japanese
1.1 names based on european pronunciations
1.2 native names
1.3 meaning-based names
japanese
like other words in language, elements names in japanese can native, china (sino-japanese) or europe (gairaigo).
names based on european pronunciations
even though japanese language uses chinese characters (kanji), employs katakana transliterate names of elements european languages (often german/dutch or latin [via german] or english). example,
native names
on other hand, elements known since antiquity chinese loanwords, identical chinese counterparts, albeit in shinjitai, example, iron (鉄) tetsu (tang-dynasty loan) , lead (鉛) namari (native reading). while elements in chinese single-character in official system, japanese elements have 2 characters. parallels colloquial or everyday names such elements in chinese, such 水銀/水银 (pinyin: shuǐyín) mercury , 硫黃/硫黄 (pinyin: liúhuáng) sulfur. special case tin (錫, suzu), more written in katakana (スズ).
meaning-based names
some names describe later invented properties or characteristics of element. introduced around 18th century japan, , differ drastically chinese counterparts. following comparison shows japanese not use radical system naming elements chinese.
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