The difference between Silicon Valley and Silicon Valley in the United States: Why does Taiwan pronounce Silicon Valley as Silicon Valley?

Why does Taiwan硅谷pronounced as矽谷? The reason behind it is revealed! ㊙️😲

美国硅谷和矽谷stupidly can not tell? This article tells you the answer!

Come and see the Taiwanese perspective! 👀🇹🇼

To students, the element silicon may be just one cell on the periodic table, but in today's scientific and technological field, silicon has become an indispensable resource.

It is easy to find silicon in the daily necessities around us, especially in the semiconductor industry, where its applications are astonishingly wide.

Interestingly,矽This Chinese name is not as common in Chinese circles as you might think.

across the strait,矽Elements also have an alias - "硅",and硅Chinese characters are more commonly used.

The difference between Silicon Valley and Silicon Valley in the United States

In Taiwan, "Silicon Valley" in California's Santa Clara Valley is translated as矽谷, while in mainland China the矽Change the word to硅word, called "硅谷. "

矽versus硅, these two characters have different shapes and different pronunciations, but they actually refer to the same thing, the same chemical element.

矽The appearance is like this, dark gray crystal, with a touch of blue light on the surface when reflected ▼

How did this translation come about? It turns out that everything was a coincidence!

SiliconThis element is often called in Taiwan矽, people of the older generation may pronounce it as "司利控” This is because the discovery of silicon was relatively late.

Why is Silicon Valley not called Silicon Valley?

• 1787, France科学Jarawa discovered the existence of silicon, and in EnglishSiliconThe name was not confirmed until 1817.
• The Chinese translation came out nearly a century later. Xu Shou, a scientist in the late Qing Dynasty, translated "Chemical Jianyuan" with reference to Western scientific books.Silicontransliterated as矽word, this is矽The origin of this word.
• It is said that Xu Shou's translation of "Chemistry" was mainly based on the British textbook "Well's Principles of Chemistry".

Of course, in addition to the existing naming in ancient classics, such as gold, silver, copper, and iron, the choice of text translation may also be influenced by Japanese monks' translation of Dutch. However, in any case, this is the earliest confirmed source of translation.

"Chemical Identification" translated by Xu Shou, a scientist in the late Qing Dynasty (a work that standardized the various chemical elements discovered at that time) ▼

In addition to Xu Shou's translated version, Japan acquired modern scientific knowledge through trade with the Netherlands, known as "Lan Xue".

Japan's Udagawa Yongan translated the original book "Elements of Experimental Chemistry》method, published this magnificent work "舎密开宗", that fascinating word "舎密"Like a word artist, he reveals his Dutch origin and points directly to the profound foundation of the field of chemistry.

He put "" in Dutchkeiaarde"Translated as 珪 (けい), later evolved into "硅素. "

"舎密"This word seems to be playing a game of hide-and-seek between languages. It turns out that it is actually a Dutch word.Chemie, means chemistry.

Japanese orchidist Udagawa Rongan's translation of "Rong Mi Kaizong" made Japan's first foray into the translation of chemical substances, and spread to China, which also belongs to the Chinese character culture circle ▼

Influenced by such translations in Japan, the 1906 "中国矿产志"", two scholars, Gu Lang and Zhou Shuren, adopted the "硅"The word asSilicontranslation.

Since then,硅versus矽Refers to both in Chinese academic circlesSilicon, until the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China and the Chinese Academy of Sciences of the People's Republic of China respectively矽和硅Used as a standard word. This phenomenon creates a situation where one element has two names.

OneSiliconThere are two words for the translation, which are commonly used in Taiwan.矽characters, while mainland China chooses硅word.

The picture below is a screenshot of the webpage of the "Revised Mandarin Dictionary" issued by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan ▼

• Strictly speaking, when the word silicon was first used, it was not pronounced as it is today.归(gui)", but pronounced as "细(Xi)", the reason is somewhat complicated...
• Proponents of the use of silicon argue that silicon should be pronounced "细”, because first of all it isSiliconThe transliteration of , secondly, this word is borrowed from田畦Of畦word (pronounced as希sound or奇sound), and add the stone part representing the soil element in the table of elements.
• 畦The word also means soil, so it is used硅word representationSiliconThe relationship between elements and soil couldn't be more fitting.

translate it to硅The main reason for the word is its borrowing畦The meaning and image of the word, and change the radical to石Department ▼

But the biggest problem with this character is that it consists of the stone part and the "圭" is composed of words, and "圭"The word "should generally be pronounced as "归. "

• then,硅But it has to be pronounced as "细. "
• In the early days when the Chinese phonetic notation system was immature, this was a very serious problem.
• Without the standard pronunciation, everyone will pronounce it as "归. "
• therefore,矽谷In China it will be pronounced as "龟"valley.
• Today China will still矽谷written as硅谷, this has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

The search engine will even automatically switch between the two words.矽和硅Treat as synonyms ▼

Why does Taiwan pronounce Silicon Valley as Silicon Valley?

矽The reason why this word is so popular in Taiwan is because the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China established the "Principles of Chemical Nomenclature" published in 1933.矽The canonical status of the word and stipulates the standard pronunciation, so硅Chinese characters are not popular in Taiwan.

• The People's Republic of China did not fully adopt it until 1955 after a long period of debate.硅word.
• Although everyone is still required to pronounce it as "细”, possibly due to insufficient publicity, coupled with “归"The pronunciation may be more suitable硅This one.
• So until now, the translated Chinese character for silicon element still ends with "归"The pronunciation of " is dominant, and only some proper nouns remain矽glyphs and pronunciations.

One element, two forms, this is the uniqueness of the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China.

Between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, the translated name of the same element has different glyphs and pronunciations.

only "矽"Only can we take the lead in this field.

At this moment, how do you read矽谷(or硅谷) is not the key, the important thing is that we all know what you are talking about.

Perhaps this difference will be difficult to reconcile in decades, or perhaps new translation methods or expressions will gradually emerge. These are all variables left to the future.

Then you have a preference"矽谷"still is"硅谷What about the pronunciation of "?"