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From: rte@elmo.lz.att.com (Ralph T. Edwards)
Subject: Re: Arabic numbering system
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References: <1995Sep17.023007.4088@rosevax.rosemount.com> <811374785snz@hpsl.demon.co.uk> <19SEP199515410843@psi.ch> <811556744snz@hpsl.demon.co.uk> <43p64i$9rf@clarknet.clark.net> <43q451$7nq@ixnews2.ix.netcom.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 18:30:01 GMT
Lines: 34

In article <43q451$7nq@ixnews2.ix.netcom.com>, mcknighl@ix.netcom.com
(Lawrence E. McKnight) wrote:

> gusty@clark.net (Harlan Messinger) wrote:
> 
> >Ken Moore (Ken@hpsl.demon.co.uk) wrote:
> >: 
> >: I got used to what I believe is the common German time convention in the
> >: Netherlands, where, once again, IIRC, 0425 is "vijf voor half vijf".
> >: Also "een-en-twintig", etc.
> >: 
> >
> >The Dutch convention for the half hour is not quite the same as the German
> >one. German "halb sechs" = "half six" is half past 6, or 6:30.  Dutch
> >"half zes" is half of the sixth hour, i.e., halfway from five until six,
> >therefore 5:30.
> >
> 
> Well, many. many years ago, my German instructor told us that there
> were, in fact, regional variations.  In some areas, 'halb sechs' would
> be 6:30, in others 5:30.  He related a personal anectdote: during WW
> II, his mother and the officer billeted in their house had different
> interpretations, and the officer was awakened an hour late.  (I
> personally think the instructor was an unreconstructed Nazi, and was
> trying to say that they would have won the war if there had not been
> this misunderstanding.)
> 

Well, in Hamburg I learned that halb sechs meant 5:30.  I once used this
expression to translate info from an Italian information person to a
German traveller.  I wonder if he caught his plane?

-- 
R.T.Edwards rte@elmo.att.com 908 576-3031
