this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
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As a science enthusiast, until the US stops using the "Alu-min-um" pronunciation, I refuse to spell Sulphur as "Sulfur", even if it is part of IUPAC.
Edit: Forgot to add this originally, but Aluminium is also the IUPAC standard spelling/pronunciation, which I argue makes my petty hill all the more valid.
As an American, I would just like to say that "aluminium" is better than "aluminum" because it matches the -ium suffix of most other elements.
But I am gonna have to disagree with you on the sulfur/sulphur debate. We already got shit like naphthalene and phenolphthalein to worry about spelling, i don't need any more spurrious "ph"s when a nice simple "f" will do just fine.
Oh I do think it's simpler, I just disagree on the principle of conceding our cooler spelling of Sulphur to the US version when the US still refuses to use the proper Aluminium pronunciation (which is also the official IUPAC pronunciation BTW)
Can't have the cake and eat it too afterall.
Be consistent and do all of them: Sulfur, Naftalene, Fenolftalein.
But there's not another vowel between the 'n' and the 'u', why would you pronounce it "AL-yoo-MINI-um"!?
It's similar to people who pronounce nuclear "nuke-yoo-lar", those extra letters just aren't in the word!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium
Except it does have those letters ;)
This is just a British vs. American English difference, like gray/grey.
It's also how the rest of the world spells that element.
Well, no, it's how the parts of the world that speak British English spell it, plus countries that borrowed it directly as a loanword from BE (most of the EU). In Russia it's алюминий, in Egypt it's الألومنيوم, in Italian it's alluminio, Turkish it's aluminyum, etc.
We spell it different too!? I literally thought it was spelled "aluminum" the world over! My opinion may do a 180 on this one...
German here and yanks are as wrong about this as they're about fighting the metric system.
Aluminum came before aluminium.
You'll find that hardly matters considering only the US uses that spelling and pronunciation, and the official IUPAC spelling and pronunciation is Aluminium.