MINERAL NOMENCLATURE AND THE PRESERVATION OF HISTORICAL NAMES

Abstract

Mineral nomenclature, which has often trivial in nature, is gradually being improved in a rational. Terminology is proposed under the auspices of the International Mineralogical Association through nomenclature changes relating to large groups and supergroups of minerals, for example, amphiboles, tourmalines, and pyrochlore. To create a name of a new species, a historically trivial name of a mineral in a group is used and a suffix with a symbol or a prefix of a chemical element is added to it. As a consequence of these changes, the nomenclature of minerals has become rational-trivial. The Commission on Terminology of the Ukrainian Mineralogical Society was formed in 2017 to consider mineral nomenclature. One of the key challenges is to preserve the historical Ukrainian mineral name and its spelling. The Commission decided to consider the names of minerals given in the 1975 "Mineralogical Dictionary" as historical, and to keep the spelling of mineral names discovered before 1991. Minerals names approved after the changes in Ukrainian orthography should be written with the letters of the Ukrainian alphabet according to the rules of transcription from the original language and in accordance with 2019 Ukrainian orthography. The changes also affected two-word terms and the use of a hyphen. The name of a mineral should be taken as a symbol corresponding to a natural compound of a certain chemical composition and a defined crystal structure. To promote mutual understanding between scientists, a mineral name and its spelling should be the same. The recommendations of the Commission on Terminology are taken into account in preparation of the "Ukrainian Nomenclature of Minerals" (2022).