Pat Naughtin summarized the discussion of the symbol SI as applied to different languages (below). I may be asking a question that has already been answered here, but I unsubscribed for a time while I was away on vacation. Maybe I missed it. If so, my apologies.
My question is basically: What is wrong with "SI" regardless of language. It is not intended to be an abbreviation in ANY language (although it admittedly comes from the French language). As examples, the symbol # is frequently used for pounds (especially in engineeering, I think) and the symbol @ is used for the word "at" even in languages where the word for "at" does not begin with an "a". The dollar sign ($) and the pound sign (£) would appear to be derived from the letters ess (S) and el (L) respectively, but S would not be the abbreviation for "Dollars" nor would L be the abbreviation for "Pounds". Why should the symbol for the International System have to be related to a specific phrase in ANY language? Any effort to make it so in several languages is bound to fail when one tries to include Greek, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, etc. So, I see no purpose in trying to change the symbol SI. Actually, perhaps it would have been better not to have selected a symbol that appeared to be an abbreviation in ANY language, not even in French. (How about some combination of S and I, like a capital ess (S) with a capital eye (I) superimposed on top of it? It would look like this ... "$" ... Hey, everybody, I'm only kidding!) :-) Regards, Bill Hooper ============ Keep It Simple! Make It Metric! ============ > Dear All, > > Thank you for your responses. > > The story so far: > > SIU works in French for Le Système International d'Unités. > > SIU works in English for the System of International Units. > > SIU works in Spanish for El Sistema International de Unidades. > > but SIU does not work in German for Das Internationale Einheiten-System. > > Cheers, > Pat Naughtin > Geelong, Australia
