Element 112
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The suggestion to name element 112 after Nicolas Copernicus is unobjectionable; certainly Copernicus is a pivotal figure in the development of science and worthy of the honor. However, given the large number of elements beginning with the letter “C” and the antepenultimate accent rule in English,
- copernicium
would end up being pronounced something like [kəˌpɝrnɨˈsijəm] which sounds awful. Given the fact that his Moravian name was Kopernik, and that the latinized form was Copernicus not *Copernicius, wouldn’t it be better to propose
- copernicum
or
- kopernicum
(symbol Kp) pronounced [kǝˈpɝrnɨˌkəm] or [kǝˈpɛrnɨˌkəm]?

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