Re: The English/French counting system (WAS: number systemsfromconlangs)

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003, Nik Taylor wrote:

> Tristan McLeay wrote:
> > Spring in Australia starts on 1 September and finishes on 30 November.
> > (People stare at me in disbelief and might follow up with comments of
> > Americans' stupidity if I mention you start your seasons around the
> > soltices and equinoxes.) Sorry, I forgot to mention that, coming from
> > Australia as I do, the seasons are switched.
>
> Well, certainly, but so what?  I've never found it confusing when
> speaking with Australians that their summer is my winter, or their fall
> my spring.  It's no more confusing than keeping track of time zones.
So absolutely nothing, other than the fact that Americans saying 'fall'
more often than not means Sept.--Nov. i.e. the time occupied by my spring,
rather than my autumn.

> And doesn't spring start on September *23* for you?
I've never heard of that. Most definitely 1 September. We had a Dilbert
calendar floating around last year: on 1 September, it had 'First day of
Spring (southern hemisphere)' whereas on 23 (or whatever) September it had
'First day of Autumn (Northern Hemisphere)'. (As far as the weather is
concerned, this year I would say the first day of spring was in mid
August, but that may just be an illusion caused by a drought breaking at
that time---Melbourne's wettest season is by far Spring, and until then I
could probably have counted the times it rained this year on my fingers.)

--
Tristan                  <kesuari@...>

Yesterday I was a dog. Today I'm a dog. Tomorrow I'll probably still
be a dog. Sigh! There's so little hope for advancement.
                -- Snoopy

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