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I'm seeking the document which mentions the names of chemical elements in German. Some of them were changed in the past (e.g. Jod to Iod for iodine). IUPAC defines the standard name of elements for English but not for German. I searched the German Chemical Society's (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker) homepages, but can't find such document. Is there such a document? Are the names unified among Germany, Austria and Switzerland?

I'm East Asian, and I searched official terminologies for relatively developed East Asian countries: People's Republic of China, Republic of China, Japan and South Korea. The four countries has official document about the name of all elements in their national chemistry society. Such names are used in educations and their laws. Therefore, on a national level, different local names may cause confusion and people need official names.

For example, the law of Germany uses German IUPAC name: BtMG Anlage I - Betäubungsmittelgesetz (BtMG). So someone needs to define German IUPAC name.

According to Wikipedia — Nomenklatur (Chemie):

So ist im deutschsprachigen Raum der Deutsche Zentralausschuss für Chemie unter Geschäftsführung der Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) im Einvernehmen mit den nationalen IUPAC-Mitgliedsgesellschaften der Schweiz und Österreich für die Umsetzung zuständig.

Thus the representative of the German IUPAC nomenclature is DZfCh or GDCh.

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  • $\begingroup$ Isn't IUPAC an international body and everyone respects their decisions for element names? $\endgroup$
    – ACR
    Commented May 11 at 15:29
  • $\begingroup$ related chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/64901/… $\endgroup$
    – Mithoron
    Commented May 11 at 16:09
  • $\begingroup$ Globalisation! Eventually scientists end up adapting the more common names, that are said internationally, more often, at conferences/events or in journals. This might explain the change from Jod to Iod for iodine. Rest assured, IUPAC is the international body responsible for the internationally accepted names for compounds and elements. On a national level, I am sure the local names might be different, but the chemical symbols will be the same. $\endgroup$
    – Ronith
    Commented May 12 at 5:12

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It’s explained in the introduction to this article on computer translation: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2659868/ (doi: 10.1021/ci800243w)

The original standards are published in English, and then each national body (National Adhering Organization in IUPAC terminology) is responsible for publishing the localized versions of the standards.

In the case of the German language, German, Swiss and Austrian national bodies coordinate. In the case of English, the USA sometimes has different language than the United Kingdom, with other English-speaking countries tagging along.

In an essay in IUPAC's Chemistry International News Magazine, Bernado Herold writes:

Although English is the official language of IUPAC and it therefore does not make any recommendations on how to name chemical substances in other languages, some of the most important nomenclature books or recommendations have been translated into other languages. A list of these translations compiled by Dr. Gerard P. Moss can be found at <www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iupac/bibliog/books.html>.

The collection of translations is no longer available at this site, but you can access it through the internet archive. The site, updated in 2013, lists the following translation of the Red book:

W Liebscher and J Neels, Nomenclatur der Anorganischen Chemie: Deutsche Ausgabe der Empfehlungen 1990, VCH Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Weinheim, 1994 (ISBN 3-527-25713-6)

The work is also listed at https://iupac.qmul.ac.uk/bibliog/inorg.html, which was last updated in June 2022 (similar pages for other chemical disciplines available via https://iupac.qmul.ac.uk/index.html).

In a surprising decision (https://doi.org/10.1002/nadc.20174064443), a panel of experts decided not to completely follow the English names for Nihonium (113), Moscovium (115), Tenness [sic] (117) and Oganesson (118). In English, it is Tennessine, suggesting that the element is a halogen. Apparently, the panel of experts decided not follow the English, perhaps because the other halogens don't have a consistent endings in German either (Fluor, Chlor, Brom, Iod, Astat).

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    $\begingroup$ True, but I think the question is where these "localized versions of the standards" can be found and how they should be cited. And a DOI is more linkrot-resilient, and a complete citation is even better. $\endgroup$
    – andselisk ♦
    Commented May 12 at 14:59
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    $\begingroup$ @andselisk Excellent points. I tried to address some of them in my edits. $\endgroup$
    – Karsten ♦
    Commented May 12 at 16:45
  • $\begingroup$ @Karsten There is a typographic error "Nomenclatur der Anorganischen Chemie" should be "Nomenklatur" but I can't edit because StackExchange doesn't allow editing with the following error message: "Edits must be at least 6 characters". Can you fix it? Additionally, the DOI link seems broken. $\endgroup$
    – Paalon
    Commented May 13 at 0:12
  • $\begingroup$ Sorry, it's not wrong title. There's no typo. Can you fix only the DOI link? $\endgroup$
    – Paalon
    Commented May 13 at 0:26
  • $\begingroup$ @Paalon fixed it $\endgroup$
    – Karsten ♦
    Commented May 13 at 2:17

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