Comment on Anon hates aluminum

• alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml ⁨7⁩ ⁨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 ⁨7⁩ ⁨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 ⁨7⁩ ⁨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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      • Th4tGuyII@kbin.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

        Once again - American journals.
        You're downright ignorant to suggest that because one country refuses to follow an internationally agreed upon naming scheme it should be rewritten to suit you. That's the kind of logic that should come from a little kid, not a country.

        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, AI instead of KI in Norwegian [...]

        I don't have enough context about all the examples you list to make an informed opiniomuch of them, but I can certainly take a crack at a couple...

        singular they in English

        Singular they was historically discouraged in academic writing as it was seen as informal, but doesn't mean it was never acknowledged.
        It has been used, just not widely - though with an academic swing towards gender-neutral, it is seen as acceptable by most academic style guide...
        However, in the scientific world you're not really supposed to refer to yourself personally in papers in the first place, so it's about as accepted as any other pronoun.

        AI instead of KI in Norwegian

        That's not just a Norwegian thing, it's a difference due to language.
        AI is not an internationally standardised terminology, so of course different languages with different component words and/or grammar are going to end up with different acronyms.

        For example, the Germans and Dutch also refer to it as KI (though in Dutch AI is also acceptable), and in Spain and France IA is the standard - that doesn't mean that academics wouldn't just agree on a term when working internationally.

        As said before, I don't know enough about the other examples to make informed discussion of them, but the examples I do have context for are do not fall in the same category as America outright refusing to use internationally agreed upon terminology.

        In any case, I don't think you're going to be convinced by any of the words I'm saying, nor do I think I'll be convinced by anything you could say, so I'm going to leave this here before I throw too much time into an endless back and forth.

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  • Skua@kbin.social ⁨7⁩ ⁨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 ⁨7⁩ ⁨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 ⁨7⁩ ⁨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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