Czech chemical nomenclature

Foundations of the Czech chemical nomenclature (official term in Czech: české chemické názvosloví) and terminology were laid during the 1820s and 1830s. These early naming conventions fit the Czech language and, being mostly work of a single person, provided consistent way to name chemical compounds. Over the time the nomenclature expanded considerably, following the recommendations by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) in recent era.

Unlike nomenclature used in biology or in medicine the chemical nomenclature stays closer to the Czech language, uses Czech pronunciation and inflection rules but developed its own - very complex - system of morphemes (taken from Greek and Latin), grammar, syntax, punctuation and use of brackets and numerals. Certain terms (e.g. etanol - ethanol) use the phonetic transcription but the rules for spelling are inconsistent.

History

Medieval alchemists in the Czech lands used obscure and inconsistent terminology to describe their experiments. Edward Kelley, an alchemist at the court of Rudolf II, even invented his own secret language. Growth of the industry the region during the 19th century and the nationalistic fervour of the Czech National Revival resulted in development of Czech terminologies for natural and applied sciences.

Jan Svatopluk Presl (1791–1849), an all-round natural scientist, proposed a new Czech nomenclature and terminology in books Lučba čili chemie zkusná (1828–35) and Nerostopis (1837). Presl had invented Czech neologisms for most of the then known chemical elements; ten of these including vodík - hydrogen, kyslík - oxygen, uhlík - carbon, dusík - nitrogen and křemík - silicon has entered into the language. ^[1] Presl also created naming conventions for oxides where electronegative component of the compound became noun and the electropositive component became adjective. The adjectives obtained suffix according to valence number of the component they represented (originally there were five suffixes: -ný, -natý, -itý, -ový, -elý, later expanded to eight by Vojtěch Šafařík: -ný, -natý, -itý, -ičitý, -ičný and -ečný, -ový, -istý, -ičelý). Salts were identified by suffix -an added to the noun. Many of the terms created by Presl derive from Latin, German or Russian; only some had succeeded and stayed in use.

Similar attempt, published in "Orbis pictus" (1852), by Karel Slavoj Amerling (1807-1884) to create Czech names for chemical elements (and to order the elements into a structure, similar to the effort by Russian chemist Nikolay Beketov) was not successful. ^[2]

Later work on the nomenclature was done by Vojtěch Šafařík (1829-1902). In 1876 Šafařík started to publish journal "Listy chemické", the first chemistry journal in Austria-Hungary (today issued under the name "Chemické listy") and this journal has played important role in codification of the nomenclature and terminology. On a congress of Czech chemists in 1914 the nomenclature was reworked and the new system became normative in 1918. Alexandr Sommer-Batěk (1874-1944) and Emil Votoček (1872-1950) were the major proponents of this change. The original Presl's conventions remained in use but formed only small part of the naming system.

Several changes were applied to the basic terminology during the second half of the 20. century, usually moving closer to the international nomenclature; e.g. old term kysličník was officially replaced by oxid (oxide), uhlovodan by uhlovodík and later even karbohydrát (carbohydrate) and spelling of some chemical elements changed; e.g. Berylium should be now written Beryllium. ^[3] Adoption of these changes by the Czech public was quite slow and the older terms are still used decades later.

Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (founded in 1953) took over responsibility for maintenance of the nomenclature and proper implementation of the IUPAC recommendations. After the Velvet Revolution (1989) this activity has slowed down considerably.

Notes

1. ^ "Czech names for chemical elements by Presl and Amerling" (in Czech). http://xerius.jergym.hiedu.cz/~canovm/objevite/objevite/tabulka.html. Retrieved 2007-12-08. 
2. ^ "Amerling's line of elements" (in Czech). http://xerius.jergym.hiedu.cz/~canovm/objevite/objevite/mluna.html. 
3. ^ "Comparison between the names of chemical elements in 1946 and today" (in Czech). http://xerius.jergym.hiedu.cz/~canovm/objevite/objevite/tabulka3.html. 

External links

• Website about the early history of the Czech chemical nomenclature (in Czech)
• Article in a Czech Academy of Sciences bulletin: current problems faced by the Czech chemical nomenclature (2000, section "Současný stav a problémy českého chemického názvosloví")

Organizations

• Journal Chemické listy (nomenclature related articles are in Czech, ISSN 1213-7103, printed version ISSN 0009-2770)
• Czech Chemical Society (Česká společnost chemická, ČSCH, founded in 1866)
• National IUPAC Centre for the Czech Republic