Re: Day & month names

At 5:58 pm -0400 30/4/00, Nik Taylor wrote:
>Raymond Brown wrote:
>> So did the Greeks from the very beginning
>
>Very beginning of what?  Of the Christian Era?
>Obviously not from
>before then, since Sunday is "Lord's Day".
Christian era - indeed the term "Kyriake: he:mera" (Lord's day) is actually
found in the last book of the New Testament.

There's not much evidence, in fact, that the 7-day week was much used in
the Graeco-Roman world before the AD period at all.

>
>> The early Quakers also objected to the names of pagan deities being
>> enshrined in the weekdays and in some of the month names, and simply
>> numbered them.  But this didn't catch on.
>
>Numbered *all* of the months, or only those with pagan names?
All AFAIK.

[....]
>
>> But I don't think it was a dislike of pagan names that led Dutton to adopt
>> numbered names the week days & months, but rather for the same reason as
>> the Chinese do this.
>
>Which is?
Simplicity & convenience.  If they weren't numbered then the Chinese either
have had to mangle the Latin names into acceptable Chinese syllables or to
rename the months entirely.  If the latter, do they rename them in line
with the Latin names (difficult where the etymolgy is obscure, e.g. April,
May, June) or do they create purely Chinese names - if so, how?  But the
Chinese simply 'cut the Gordian knot' and named them.
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At 12:48 am +0200 1/5/00, Irina Rempt wrote:
>On Sun, 30 Apr 2000, Nik Taylor wrote:
>
>> What caused Friday to be considered the first day of the week [in
>Islamic countries]?
>Probably the fact that Friday is the holy day in Islam, like Saturday
>for the Jews and Sunday for the Christians.
Indeed, yes - and the numbering system of Swahili would suggest that
Saturday, Jumamosi, is the 1st day.  There is a tendency to consider the
day one returns to work after the holy day as the start of a new week.
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At 7:18 pm -0400 30/4/00, Padraic Brown wrote:
>On Mon, 1 May 2000, Irina Rempt wrote:
[...
>>and secular Western culture tends to put Sunday at the end of
>>the week as well, starting the (working) week on Monday. It's quite
>>hard to get a calendar that starts on Sunday!
>
>It's the only sort I've ever been able to find. They commonly start on
>Sunday in the US, even though most folk, as you say, consider Monday
>the first day of the week.
Yep - but Irina, like me, lives this side of the pond.  In Britain also
it's pretty difficult to find a calendar that starts the week on Sunday.
Indeed, the UK in 1971 officially adopted the ISO decision to make Monday
the 1st day of the week  :=(
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At 11:48 pm -0400 30/4/00, Nik Taylor wrote:
[...]
>
>However, I do remember reading that when the Babylonians originally
>invented the week, Saturday was the first day, before being moved
>forward to Sunday.
Yep - it wouldn't surprise to find that somewhere, somewhen each of the
seven days had its turn at marking the beginning of the week.  That's why I
decided not to number the things in briefscript.

In an artlang, I wouldn't number the months either; but that's because in
artlang one should IMHO show some creativity & artistry :)
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At 12:07 am -0500 1/5/00, Carlos Thompson wrote:
>On First Life of Tenderness of first Red Cat Padraic Brown wrote:
[....]
>> It's the only sort I've ever been able to find. They commonly start on
>> Sunday in the US, even though most folk, as you say, consider Monday
>> the first day of the week.
>
>Ditto for Colombia.  I remember having trubble reading calendars in Sweden
>begining on monday.
Glad to know that the New World still retains the JudeaoChristian tradition
in this matter and hasn't caved into 'post-religion modernism' as we seem
to have done over here (at least in Britain, the Netherlands & Sweden  :)

Ray.



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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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