#26396
04/10/2001 10:18 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
Sparteye's wonderful post on the days of the week got me thinking about Maaori names for the days of the week, which led me to discover that there aren't any. That is to say, pre-European Maaori did not use a weekly cycle, but a lunar month cycle, with each day in the cycle having its own name. This link, http://www.culture.co.nz/maramataka/ shows the names of the days in the Maaori spoken where I live, and this one http://www.att.virtualclassroom.org/vc99/vc_44/po.html shows the list in another (unspecified) regional variant. Modern Maaori has transliterated the English names for weekdays, Manei, Turei, etc. Are there any other official national languages which have and use names for days of the month, rather than days of the week?
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#26397
04/11/2001 9:13 AM
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Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 609
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And can I add another related question? How long are weeks in other cultures? In East Nigeria they had weeks of both 4 and 8 days (and our imported "normal" 7). I am not sure if they were two rival systems, or intertwined in some way. I can't remember how the days of either system were named, although I have a feeling they might have just been numbered.
Rod
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#26398
04/12/2001 7:07 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 393
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 393 |
On week lengths: three consecutive days of the Basque (seven-day) week are called 'First day', 'Middle day', and 'Last day'. Presumably reflecting an ancient system.
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#26399
04/12/2001 11:46 AM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
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the same issue of Natural History (April) that has the article about dying languages (visigoth thread) has as its lead article (not available on line)on the Codex Borgia, an Aztec document, represents half of a 260-day ritual calendar. http://www.amnh.org/naturalhistory/index.htmlIt seems the aztec calendar had unique days-- I fox, 2 wolf, 3 deer-- which repeated once every 52 years! so in effect your the day of your birth also named the year of your birth! All of this was even more confussing since the Aztecs also had a 365 solar calendar-- (as well as the 260 ritual calendar!) -- and i have trouble enough remembering what day of the week it is!
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#26400
04/12/2001 12:05 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 3,409 |
It seems the aztec calendar had unique days-- I fox, 2 wolf, 3 deer-- which repeated once every 52 years! so in effect your the day of your birth also named the year of your birth! AMAZING!! If I read that correctly, and if the calendar in question was the 260 day one, that means they had 13,520 uniquely named days. I wonder how many objects in the Aztec universe were not used, if they managed to come up with so many. Of course, if they used stars, that might help - I was born on star 5,000, my daughter on star 12,500  I challenge anyone here to come up with a list of 13,520 unique objects for use in naming anything. Naturally, as Aztec civilisation had not been introduced to Gutenberg, your lists must be from mental recall only. 
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#26401
04/12/2001 12:15 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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No, they had 2 rotors-- one with numbers-- (1 to 13 as i recall, and one with names-- 20) so one year would start with 1 dog, 2 fox, 3 wolf, 4 deer, and the next year might start with 1 llama, 2 dog, 3 fox, 4 wolf, 5 deer
so it was a combination of name and number, and since they off set each year... and since in each year, you would only have one occation of 12 fox-- it named a unique date!
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#26402
04/12/2001 12:29 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 428
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Another interesting twist on the Aztec 52-year calendar (hazily remembered from a Freshman college class) is that after a certain number of revolutions of that cycle were up, the Aztecs believed that the world was destroyed and created anew. There had already been 2 such rebirths, and the next one was coming due sometime in the not-too-distant future (2002 or 2012 I think). Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
Flatlander
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#26403
04/12/2001 12:31 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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OK, helen. It's 01:30 here, and maths was never my strong suit, so I shall have to try and wrap my feeble wits around that one later. 
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#26404
04/12/2001 1:28 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
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Aha! Found it! http://people.we.mediaone.net/kelsung/other/calendar/mayan.htmThe 13 numbers and 20 names cycle to produce the 260 day ritual calendar. This meshes with the 365 day calendar* to produce the 52 year cycle. This comes to 94,900 uniquely named days, given a name for each month and a number(?) for each day of the month. *13 months times 28 days per month plus one day "out of time".
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#26405
04/12/2001 1:35 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
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Thanks, Faldage. I shall peruse the link after I have figured what the $%^# I'm doing up at 02:35!
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