Newsgroups: sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!MathWorks.Com!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!sunic!trane.uninett.no!eunet.no!nuug!EU.net!sun4nl!mcv
From: mcv@inter.NL.net (Miguel Carrasquer)
Subject: Re: Polish month names
Message-ID: <CxsxvD.MIn@inter.NL.net>
Organization: /etc/organization
References: <37d7mp$jps@clarknet.clark.net> <37e8l8INNls2@symiserver.symantec.com> <CxIw5L.MAC@inter.NL.net> <37rkuh$23q@gordon.enea.se>
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 05:28:25 GMT
Lines: 73

In article <37rkuh$23q@gordon.enea.se>,
Erland Sommarskog <sommar@enea.se> wrote:
>Miguel Carrasquer (mcv@inter.NL.net) writes:
>>Don't ask about Polish month names...
>
>Of course we should ask about Polish month names! When all other 
>languages I've been in contact with (they're European all of
>them) have the month names of the same origin, Polish stands
>out with only marzec and maj from the regular Latin family
>and the rest are their own inventions.
>
>How come? Are there are any other European languages with any
>deviations? When I was in Donostia it seemed that October in
>Basque was something completely different, but I am not sure.

In Eastern Europe it's a Catholic thing.  Polish, Czech (and
Slovak, I guess) use the "Slavic" month-names.  Sorbian (in
Lutheran Saxony) uses Jan, Feb etc.  The same with Catholic
Croats (and Slovenians, I guess) versus Orthodox Serbs,
Macedonians and Bulgarians.  (I don't know what they use in
Bosnia or Albania).  The same with Catholic Lithuanians vs.
Lutheran Latvians.  Only the Ukrainians seem an exception,
but they were under Polish influence for very long (the Uniate
Orthodox recognize the Pope as their spritual leader).

Back to language:

Polish:		Ukrainian:	Czech:		Croat:

styczen'	sic^en'		leden		sijec^anj
luty		ljutyj		u'nor		veljac^a
marzec		berezen'	br^ezen		oz^ukaj
kwiecien'	kviten'		duben		travanj
maj		traven'		kve^ten		svibanj
czerwiec	c^erven'	c^erven		lipanj
lipiec		lypen'		c^ervenec	srpanj
sierpien'	serpen'		srpen		kolovoz
wrzesien'	veresen'	za'r^i'		rujan
paz'dziernik	z^ovten'	r^i'jen		listopad
listopad	lystopad	listopad	studeni
grudzien'	gruden'		prosinec	prosinac

Most words have an obvious meaning (kve^t=flower, lipa=linden,
s'rp=sickle, listopad=leave's fall, trava=grass, zholty=yellow,
dub=oak etc.)  There's an interesting shift between Croat and
the others.

I can't give the Lithuanian words, alas.  I've been meaning to
get a Lithuanian grammar+dictionary for as long as I can remember,
but somehow it's never happened.

For completeness' sake, here's Basque:

	Guip.		Euskera Batua
jan	ilbeltz		urtarril
feb	otsail		otsail
mar	epail		martxo
apr	jorrail		apiril
may	orril		maiatz
jun	garagarril	ekain
jul	uztail		uztail
aug	dagonil		abuztu
sep	agor		irail
oct	urri		urri
nov	azil		azaroa
dec	lotazil		abendu

(As you can guess, "il" is month)

-- 
Miguel Carrasquer         ____________________  ~~~
Amsterdam                [                  ||]~  
mcv@inter.NL.net         ce .sig n'est pas une .cig 
