Learning Common Chinese Chemical Terms and Characters. A

Chemistry for Everyone

Learning Common Chinese Chemical Terms and Characters A Resource for Scientific Research and Collaboration Hsiu-Yi Chao MOE Laboratory of Bioinorganic and Synthetic Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, People’s Republic of China David G. Churchill* Molecular Logic Gate Laboratory, Department of Chemistry and School of Molecular Science (BK 21), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, 305-701, Republic of Korea; *[email protected]

The human face of the chemical sciences is multiethnic. In particular, many East Asian students and practitioners contribute to chemistry at all levels in English-speaking nations including the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. While English is the global language of commerce, the sheer size and growing scientific influence of the People’s Republic of China (中华人民共和国), hereafter referred to simply as China (or 中国, China has been referred to as the “Middle Kingdom”), is unmistakable (1–3). Because there are approximately 1.3 billion Chinese citizens (4), a practical knowledge of written Chinese may help catalyze (catalyze, 催化)�� increasingly important bilateral and multilateral research efforts as well as engender important cross-cultural understanding. The accompanying influence and worth of learning Mandarin Chinese has been well publicized (5, 6), however, a 1963 article entitled “Naming Chemical Elements in Chinese” by R. Suter was arguably the last time the Chinese language was considered by this Journal (7). While many people (people, 人)—students and professionals—continue to emigrate from East Asia to English-speaking

Figure 1. ICCAS Building in Beijing, China, site of the recent first Winter School (JSPS Asia Core Program).1 Note the Chinese name of the institute containing some of the characters discussed herein. Table 1. Similarities of Words Used as Different Parts of Speech Term in English catalysis (noun) to catalyze (verb) catalyst (noun) catalytic (adjective)

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Chinese Characters

催化催化催化剂催化的

Term in Pinyin Form

cuī huà cuī huà cuī huà jì cuī huà dê

countries, an increasing number of chemistry (chemistry, 化学) practitioners from the West will visit and study in China (3). In fact, a recent international Winter School Program1 held at the ICCAS Beijing (attended by DGC), featuring chemistry students and faculty from the Republic of Korea, Taiwan (Republic of China, ROC), and Japan underscores the relevance of China, its people, and its official language, Mandarin Chinese. English–Mandarin Chinese phrase books generally contain practical guides to basic expressions, practical terms, an introduction to culture, and perhaps mention of customs as well.2 These guides are of great general utility, however they are not specialized for scientists. Technical, scientific, and key chemical terms (8) presented here are central to the chemist who has emigrated from China to an English-speaking country, or for an Englishspeaking visiting chemist traveling to China. Much in the way of domestic Chinese chemical literature3 is largely inaccessible without translation for those who do not speak Chinese. But through familiarity with relevant Chinese characters starting with these five—中 (zhōng, center or middle, Figure 1), 催化 (cuī huà, catalysis), 化学 (huà xué, chemistry, Figure 1), 电 (diàn, something electrical ), and 人 (rén, person)—a useful corpus of terms can be learned in an effort to breach an exceptionally difficult language barrier.4 The characters’ written representation is quite universal whether in China or abroad, and does not vary based on a speaker’s dialect of spoken Chinese (see next section). Mandarin Chinese and Simplified Characters At least seven�� language dialects are�� spoken�� in China�� (the Sinitic language family); Mandarin Chinese (普通话) is the most widely spoken of these and is the official language of China, also referred to as “modern standard Chinese” or Putonghua (9). Because Mandarin, prevalent in northern and southwest China, involves the greatest number of speakers (>70%, 836 million worldwide), we focus on this dialect. Other dialects used in China, and their total number of speakers, include: Wu (subdivided into Shanghainese and Hui), 77 million; Cantonese 71 million (including Ping, an additional 2 million), Min 60 million (of which 3.2 million Taiwanese speakers are included), Xiang, 36 million; Hakka, 34 million; and Gan, 31 million (9, 10). The use of spoken Chinese extends to entire nations outside of China with speakers in Taiwan and Singapore. In Taiwan, Mandarin is known as Gouyu and is the official language, whereas in Singapore it is one of four official languages and is known as Huayu (9). Lastly, groups of people (人) in Chinese expatriate communities also use Mandarin Chinese (8, 11). The Chinese pinyin system (中文读音) is China’s official romanization system. Table 1 shows that romanizing the characters 催化剂, meaning catalyst, gives cuī huà jì. Related words

Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 85 No. 9 September 2008 • www.JCE.DivCHED.org • © Division of Chemical Education


that belong to different parts of speech can usually be easily determined from a root. For instance, catalyst (催化剂; cuī huà jì) is a noun. Catalysis (noun) and catalyze (verb) (催化, cuī huà) are differentiated by context, catalyst is differentiated only with the addition of 剂, meaning reagent. The character 的 refers to adjective. See Table 1 for more examples. Other complexities are the presence of “simplified” characters and spoken intonations. While Hong Kong (as of 1997, politically part of China), Taiwan, and Singapore still use “unsimplified” characters or “fanti,” to date, over 2000 Chinese characters (of an original set of ~ 40,000) have been simplified, starting in 1958 (8).

Consider these examples of simplification: the old characters for metal were 金屬, whereas the new simplified characters are 金属; the old characters for chemistry were 化學, whereas the new simplified characters are 化学. The character huà (化) is also part of catalyst. In this paper we use simplified Chinese characters if they have been adopted. Another challenge in learning Chinese is the preponderance of tonal inflections in speech as illustrated by the words: yī (一), one; yí (移), move; yĭ (蚁), ant; and yì (易), easy. Intonations are essential in the spoken language and are reflected in the audio files in the online supplement.5 Additional chemical terms are grouped below in Tables 2–6.

Table 2. Comparison of Functional Group Terms

Table 3. Comparison of Terms Related to Atoms and Molecules

Term in English chemicals acid base salt ester ketone aldehyde amide alcohol alkane ether thiol alkene alkyne aromatic carboxylic acid anhydride amine nitrile amino acid

Chinese Characters

Term in Pinyin Form

Term in English

化学药品酸

huà xué yào pĭn

element

suān

atom

碱盐酯酮醛酰胺醇烷醚硫醇烯炔芳香的羧酸酸酐胺腈氨基酸

jiăn

molecule

yán

electron

zhĭ

orbital

tóng

proton

quán

neutron

xiān ān

ion

chún

nucleus

wán

ionic bond

mí

covalent bond

liú chún

isotope

xī

wave

quē

charge

fāng xiāng dê

quantum number

suō suān

ionization energy

suān gān

electron affinity

ān

electronegativity

qíng ān jī suān

Term in English oxidation reduction anode cathode electrolyte ionization energy electromotive force galvanic cell electrolytic cell work standard potential reduction potential

Chinese Characters

氧化还原阳极阴极电极离子化能量电动势原电池电解池功标准电位还原电位

元素原子分子电子轨道质子中子离子核离子键共价键同位素波电荷量子数电离能电子亲合能电负性

Term in Pinyin Form

yuán sù yuán zıˇ fēn zıˇ diàn zıˇ guıˇ dào zhì zıˇ zhōng zıˇ lí zıˇ hé lí zıˇ jiàn gòng jià jiàn tóng wèi sù bō diàn hé liàng zĭ shù diàn lí néng diàn zıˇ qīn hé néng diàn fù xìng

Table 5. Comparison of Other Practical Chemistry Terms Term in English

Table 4. Comparison of Electrochemical Terms

Chinese Characters

solution

Term in Pinyin Form

solvent

yăng huà

solute

huán yuán

solubility

yáng jí

pressure

yīn jí

temperature

diàn jí

equilibrium

lí zıˇ huà

enzyme

néng liàng

substrate

diàn dòng shì

receptor

yuán diàn chí

chemistry

diàn jiě chí

organic chemistry

gōng

inorganic chemistry

biāo zhuˇn diàn wèi

analytical chemistry

huán yuán diàn wèi

physical chemistry

Chinese Characters

溶液溶剂溶质溶解度压力温度平衡酶底物受体化学有机化学无机化学分析化学物理化学

Term in Pinyin Form

róng yè róng jì róng zhì róng jiĕ dù yā lì wēn dù píng héng méi dıˇ wù shòu tıˇ huà xué yoˇu jī huà xué wú jī huà xué fēn xī huà xué wù lıˇ huà xué

© Division of Chemical Education • www.JCE.DivCHED.org • Vol. 85 No. 9 September 2008 • Journal of Chemical Education

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Chemistry for Everyone Table 6. Comparison of Chemistry-Related Verbs Term in English

Chinese Characters

混合加热回流搅拌溶解中和蒸镏沉淀过滤冷却

mix heat reflux stir dissolve neutralize distill precipitate filter cool

Term in Pinyin Form

hùn hé jiā rè huí liú jiăo bàn róng jiě zhōng hé zhēng liú chén diàn guò lü` lěng què

Chinese Characters in Chemistry-Related Terms The discussion below details some of the common characters found in chemistry-related terms. The left part of the character for alkane (烷), alkene (烯), and alkyne (炔) is 火, meaning flammable (shown in Figure 2B). 完 means full and implies saturated; 希 comes from 稀, meaning rare; the right part of 炔 comes from 缺, which means lack. The left part of the character for the words ester, ketone, aldehyde, alcohol, and

ether is the same as well, 酉, �� and can be likened to the character 酒, meaning wine or liquor. 酮 has a similar sound to the word ketone, although others do not have sounds similar to those in English. It is also interesting to note that thiol is composed of two characters (硫醇), the second of which is alcohol (醇); 硫 can be seen in the character for sulfur (Table 7). The character 电 (diàn) means something electrical (see Figure 2C). The character for wave (波) can refer to all kinds of waves. For example, electromagnetic wave is 电磁波 and microwave is 微波. The romanized syllable yuán is used in both atom and element; while 原 and 元 have the same sound (they are homophonic) and share a pinyin designation, they are different words with different meanings. 电 is also observed in the terms electrolyte (电极), electromotive force (电动势), and electrolytic cell (电解池). For the term galvanic cell, the left portion of the character 池 (in 原电池) means water. 功 means work and is a scientific term. For 化学, which means chemistry, the 化 term means change and 学 means learning. The terms 化学 can be seen in the last five entries of Table 5. 平 in 平衡 (equilibrium) means balance. Table 6 lists verbs that are useful in the realm of chemistry (化学) and especially in the laboratory. In Chinese grammar, verbs are easier to use than in English because they are not inflected for tense or subject (8). Among the ten verbs listed, some interesting combinations of characters yield chemistry terms: the term 回 (huí) in 回流 (reflux) means to “come back” as if concentric circular arrows are drawn. The term 合 means come together. The character 中 (center or middle) is seen again and in the word neutralize (中和). 和 means balance and mix.

Table 7. A Likeness of the Familiar Periodic Table of the Elements with Chinese Element Names and Pinyin Forms

氢 qīng

氦 hài

锂 lıˇ

铍 pí

硼 péng

碳 tàn

氮 dàn

氧 yaˇng

氟 fú

氖 naˇi

钠 nà

镁 měi

铝 lüˇ

硅 guī

磷 lín

硫 líu

氯 lü`

氩 yà

钾 jiaˇ

钙 gài

钪 kàng

钛 tài

钒 fán

铬 gè

锰 měng

铁 tiě

钴 guˇ

镍 niè

铜 tóng

锌 xīn

镓 jiā

锗 zhě

砷 shēn

硒 xī

溴 xiù

氪 kè

铷 rú

锶 sī

钇 yıˇ

锆 gào

铌 ní

钼 mù

锝 dé#

钌 liaˇo

铑 laˇo

钯 bā

银 yín

镉 gè

铟 yīn

锡 xī

锑 tì

碲 dì

碘 diaˇn

氙 xiān

铯 sè

钡 bèi

镧 lán

铪 hā

钽 taˇn

钨 wū

铼 lái

锇 é

铱 yī

铂 bó

金 jīn

汞 goˇng

铊 tā

铅 qiān

铋 bì

钋 pō#

砹 ài#

氡 dōng#

钫 făng#

镭 léi#

锕 ā#

铈 shì

镨 puˇ

钕 nüˇ

钷 poˇ#

钐 shān

钬 huoˇ

铒 ěr

铥 diū

镱 yì

镥 luˇ

钍 tuˇ#

镤 pú#

铀 yòu#

镎 ná#

钚镅锔锫锎 bù# méi*,# jū*,# pèi*,# kāi*,#

钅卢钅杜钅喜钅波钅黑钅麦 lú*,# dù*,# xıˇ*,# bō*,# hēi*,# mài*,# 铕 yoˇu

钆 zá

铽 tè

镝 dí

锿 āi*,#

镄钔锘铹 fèi*,# mén*,# nuò*,# láo*,#

Note: The symbol “#” denotes 放射性元素 (fàng shè xìng yuán sù) or radioactive elements; the symbol “*” denotes 人造元素 (rén zhào yuán sù) or personmade elements.

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The Periodic Table In a format familiar to chemists, Table 7 shows a periodic table with the element symbols omitted to make room for Chinese character(s) and pinyin romanizations, which allows for the visualization of language patterns. The sounds of the elements in some cases bear resemblance to the English pronunciation (see the online supplement). Suter mentioned some methods and trends for naming the elements in Chinese (7). However, he used the “old” pinyin system; here the new pinyin system is used. Additionally, the normal trend involves 钅 for metal radical; 石 is for a non-metal radical; 气 is for a gas radical; the term water (or liquid) can be found on the left side of 溴 and has already been seen above (Tables 5, 6). 钅麦 is the heaviest element to be assigned a Chinese name to date. In Table 7, “#” denotes 放射性元素 (fàng shè xìng yuán sù) or radioactive elements and “*” denotes 人造元素 (rén zhào yuán sù) or person-made elements. 人 is a simple character meaning person or people (Figure 2 E, F); note that the characters for woman (女人) and man (男人) are based on the 人 character. This last table of terms (Table 8) is meant to aid a foreign visitor to a Chinese department of chemistry (化学系) in which signs on doors and buildings might not be anglicized. Figure 2 shows photos of some actual signs that adorn the halls of the buildings of the ICCAS (Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences). 大 in 大学 means large; 学 means learning. 问 in 问题 means ask and is meant to resemble a mouth inside a doorway— think of this the next time a student appears at your office door seeking a grade change! Internet is made up of three syllables with the third character wăng (网) meaning quite literally, net, and looking convincingly like the sketch of a simple net.

A

B

C

D

E

F

Figure 2. Some signs found inside of the buildings of the ICCAS containing Chinese characters discussed herein: A. 办公室 (office); B. 消火栓 (hydrant); C. 强电间 (a room with high electricity); D. 清洁间 (washing room); E. 13人 (13 people; elevator is 电梯); F. 空调机房 (a room with air conditioning machinery).

Table 8. Useful Terms When Visiting a Chinese Chemistry (化学) Department Term in English

Conclusions

university

Some level of introduction to the Chinese language is extremely helpful for scientists who want to embrace China as a place to live, study, work, or for business travel (3). Our contribution targets the growing number of chemistry practitioners traveling to and from East Asia. Knowing some of the Mandarin Chinese language can have far-reaching effects, including unanticipated research collaborations. Alternatively, for the travel-weary, one can use these language skills to impress Chinese coworkers in English-speaking countries. Our main goals in this manuscript have been to: (i) validate Suter’s attempt at cultural understanding (7) and appreciation in the realm of chemistry (and science) between peoples of disparate cultures and languages, (ii) catalyze (催化) the learning process for chemists who do not speak Chinese, and (iii) give the great many Chinese people (人) in English-speaking countries engaged in science or related disciplines a perspective of their own language and its relevance. The chemistry (化学)-related material herein may serve as a concise primer that could be learned before traveling to the region or working with a Chinese-speaking colleague. In particular, we have grouped short lists of related Chinese chemical terms accompanied by their English-language and pinyin counterparts for learning reinforcement: 中 (zhōng, middle ), 催化 (cuī huà, catalysis), 化学 (huà xué, chemistry), 电 (diàn, something electrical ), and 人 (rén, person).

college department of chemistry laboratory office professor student library presentation seminar room bathroom laser pointer slide table figure question audience Internet e-mail

Chinese Characters

Term in Pinyin Form

大学学院化学系

dà xué

实验室办公室教授学生图书馆演讲讲演厅厕所激光笔幻灯片表图问题听众因特网电子邮件

shí yàn shì

xué yuàn huà xué xì

bàn gōng shì jiào shòu xué shēng tú shū guăn yăn jiăng jiăng yăn tīng cè suŏ jī guāng bĭ huàn dēng piàn biăo tú wèn tí tīng zhòng yīn tè wăng diàn zĭ yóu jiàn

© Division of Chemical Education • www.JCE.DivCHED.org • Vol. 85 No. 9 September 2008 • Journal of Chemical Education

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Acknowledgments DGC gratefully acknowledges financial support from KAIST and the BK 21 Project. HYC gratefully acknowledges financial support from MOE and Sun Yat-Sen University, China.�� We appreciate the insights and comments from the following people whose help made this article more accurate and error free: Melvyn R. Churchill (SUNY at Buffalo); Dinan Liu, Luo Hu, Shin Hei Choi, and Kibong Kim (all four are graduate students at KAIST); and Jenny Zhang (of Daejeon City). We also thank all four reviewers of this manuscript for meaningful feedback. Kibong Kim aided in all stages of the audio recording and in preparation of audio files. Notes 1. “The First Winter School of JSPS Asia Core Program” (i.e., the Asian Core Program) in Beijing—Frontiers of Materials, Photo, and Theoretical Molecular Sciences” was held on December 5–9, 2006, in Beijing, China. 2. A (first) trip to China by a Westerner (and to the West by a Chinese person) may require significant preparations and may involve the close consultation of a destination travel guide. A conference‑goer heading to a metropolitan area in China can benefit from knowing general greetings and common expressions, found in a regular phrase book (8). Importantly, effective cross-cultural understanding goes beyond memorizing lists of key words and phrases to knowing Chinese customs (there are significant regional differences within China also); this is a really important topic, but it is beyond the scope of this article. We direct you elsewhere to lists of do’s and don’ts regarding (sub)topics such as “meeting etiquette”, “gift-giving etiquette”, “dining etiquette” (12), and “business etiquette and protocol” (13). Customs relevant to a professional are very useful for avoiding faux pas, showing and gaining respect, and surviving in common social situations. One main difference between Chinese culture and Western culture is the way elders and those with seniority are deferred to. 3. These journals are published in China in Chinese: Acta Chimica Sinica (化学学报), Acta Metallurgica Sinica (金属学报), Acta Physico-Chimica Sinica (物理化学学报), Acta Polymerica Sinica (高分子学报), Chinese Journal of Analytical Chemistry (分析化学学报), Chinese Journal of Catalysis (催化学报), Chinese Journal of Inorganic Chemistry (无机化学学报), Chinese Journal of Organic Chemistry (有机化学学报), Chinese Journal of Structural Chemistry (结构化学学报), Chemical Journal of Chinese Universities (高等学校化学学报 –中文版), Journal of Inorganic Materials (无机材料学报), Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics (生物化学与生物物理学进展), Progress in Chemistry (化学进展), and Spectroscopy and Spectral Analysis (光谱学与光谱分析).

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4. Vocabulary color-coding in the online PDF of this article aids in recognizing a manageable number of characters for the first time. 5. The audio files of chemistry vocabulary terms in the online supplement were spoken by DGC and Dinan Liu on May 18, 2007 and recorded at the Voice of KAIST radio station, Daejeon, Korea, http:// voki.kaist.ac.kr/ (accessed Jun 2008).

Literature Cited 1. Heylin, M. Chem. Eng. News 2006, 84, 26–31. 2. Cao, C.; Suttmeier, R. P.; Simon, D. F. Phys Today 2006, 59, 38–43. 3. Tremblay, J.-F. Chem. Eng. News 2007, 85, 15–19. 4. U.S. Department of State Background Note: China. http://www. state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/18902.htm (accessed Jun 2008). 5. Ramzy, A. Time Asia Article: Get Ahead, Learn Mandarin. http:// www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501060626/story.html (accessed Jun 2008). 6. Weiner, E. National Public Radio News Story: Teaching Mandarin for a “Chinese Century”. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story. php?storyId=5191835 (accessed Jun 2008). 7. Suter, R. J. Chem. Educ. 1963, 40, 44–46. 8. Mandarin Phrasebook, 5th ed.; Lonely Planet Publications: Footscray, Australia, 2004. 9. Spoken Chinese Entry in Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Spoken_Chinese (accessed Jun 2008). 10. List of Chinese Dialects Entry in Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_dialects (accessed Jun 2008). 11. Mandarin Chinese Entry in Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Mandarin_Chinese (accessed Jun 2008). 12. Diner’s Digest: Everyday Eating Customs in China. http://www. cuisinenet.com/glossary/chinaday.html (accessed Jun 2008). 13. Kwintessential Cross Cultural Solutions: China—Language, Culture, Customs, and Etiquette. http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/ resources/global-etiquette/china-country-profile.html (accessed Jun 2008).

Supporting JCE Online Material

http://www.jce.divched.org/Journal/Issues/2008/Sep/abs1210.html Abstract and keywords Full text (PDF) Links to cited URLs and JCE articles

Color figures and color-coding for the Chinese characters and terms described in the paper

Supplement Audio files of spoken Mandarin Chinese chemistry terms


Learning Common Chinese Chemical Terms and Characters. A

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