Comment on Anon hates aluminum

• Th4tGuyII@kbin.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Oh, really?

  The official IUPAC spelling is "Aluminium" - notice how there are two "I"s in there.

  Since IUPAC is quite literally the international authority on chemical terminology, I'd suggest their spelling is the correct one.

  If you want to spell it wrong, you do you, but don't act like it's the correct way to spell it.

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  • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The IUPAC can spell it how they like. But what is correct in language is determined by the way people use it, not whatever archaic rules your middleschool teacher told you (english) or some central authority publishes (looking at you French and Spanish).

    A quick search of lemmy gives >75 pages of aluminum comments, and <35 pages of aluminium comments.

    I’m sure that will change when American cultural hegemony fades, but for now, it is what it is.

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    • Th4tGuyII@kbin.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Ah of course, the heavily American-centric forum is obviously the perfect way to prove the entirely American misspelling is the correct one /s

      You can spell or pronounce Aluminium however you like, but there is only one internationally recognised spelling, and it's not "Aluminum"

      Those "archaic rules" exist to standardise international science communication, not to make America feel better about its inability to standardise to save its life.

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      • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Those “archaic rules” exist to standardise

        That may be their objective, but they’ve clearly failed, evidenced by the fact that half of scientific journals use Aluminum.

        Of course if you’d like to stick entirely with the academic prescriptions, you’re free to not use “email” in French, singular they in English, KI for AI in Norwegean, or find a use for “coronabebe”, a word that is only used by the Royal Spanish Academy and people mocking how detached they are.

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    • Skua@kbin.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      If we're going by the way people use it, both are correct, because loads of people use both. As your search demonstrates. American cultural hegemony has not erased other varieties of English

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      • rainynight65@feddit.de ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        It Hal’s also no erased other languages, many of which use (and pronounce) two i’s.

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    • exocrinous@startrek.website ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yeah but the thing is, Th4tguyII has the most upvoted comment in this subthread. Language is a democracy and the people have spoken.

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