On 03-Mar-02 $B$m!;!;!;!;(B $B$m!;!;!;(B wrote:
> Month names. Month names. Who needs month names, anyway? Do we name the
> hours of the day? Do we name the days *within* each month? Tell the
> Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans that THEY need month names.
>
> Also, it is my understanding that some European languages do not name the
> days of the week (except maybe Sunday or something).
Maybe you're referring to the fact that in some languages the names are
constructed from numerals? At the moment, I can think of four examples,
out of which only one is European:
In Chinese they are 星期一 ("weekday one" = Monday), 星期二 ("weekday
two" = Tuesday), 星期三 ("weekday 3"), 星期四 ("weekday 4"), 星期五
("weekday 5"), 星期六 ("weekday 6"), and the only exception, Sunday:
星期日 ("weekday Sun").
In Portuguese names from Monday to Friday are based on ordinal numbers:
segunda-feira ("2nd day" = Monday), terça-feira, quarta-feira,
quinta-feira, sexta-feira. Saturday is sábado (which in fact originates
in the Semitic word for "seven") and Sunday is domingo.
Also Arabic weekdays are clearly constructed from numerals, although
these precise forms are used only as names of days: الاحد ("day 1" =
Sunday), الاثنين ("day 2" = Monday), الثلاثاء ("day 3"), الاربعاء ("day 4"),
الخميس ("day 5"). Friday is الجمعة ("day of gathering [to the mosque?]")
and Saturday السبت (originally from number seven, maybe through
the name in Hebrew).
The Arabic names are also used in Indonesian: hari Senin ("day of
Senin" = "2nd day" = Monday), hari Selasa, hari Rebo, hari Kamis,
hari Jumat, hari Sabtu, and hari Minggu (this one's not Arabic; I'm
not sure what it means).
IMHO, having a meaningful name for something doesn't mean it's not a
name at all. The Chinese, Portuguese, Arabs and Indonesians would
probably _not_ use any kind of a near-match to the names, such as
第一平常日, o segundo dia da semana, اليوم الثاني, or hari kedua (all
these meaning "the first/second day"), when referring to Monday, but
rather use the standardised forms listed above.
Best regards,
Miikka-Markus Alhonen
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