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From: iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Ivan A Derzhanski)
Subject: Re: Polish month names
Message-ID: <Cy13EC.L2o@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK
References: <CxIw5L.MAC@inter.NL.net> <37rkuh$23q@gordon.enea.se> <CxsxvD.MIn@inter.NL.net>
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 1994 15:08:34 GMT
Lines: 64

In article <CxsxvD.MIn@inter.NL.net> mcv@inter.NL.net (Miguel Carrasquer) writes:
>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.

I'm told that Lower Sorbian is spoken by Lutherans and Upper Sorbian
by Catholics, and the dictionaries I consulted list Slavic month names
(though fairly different from the Czech or the Polish ones), for Lower
Sorbian along with the Latin-derived ones, for Upper Sorbian as the
only ones used (confirming the correlation with Catholicism).

>The same with Catholic Croats (and Slovenians, I guess)

Actually, no, Slovene (-ian?) uses Latin-derived month names.

>Back to language:

Old Slavic: Belorussian:  Upper Sorbian:

            studzen'      wulki ro'z^k
            ljuty         mal/y ro'z^k
souxU       sakavik       nale^tnik
br&zInU     krasavik      jutrownik
tr&vInU     maj           ro'z^ownik
izokU       chehrven'     smaz^nik
chrUvenU    lipen'        praz^nik
zarevU      zhniven'      z^njen'c
vr&sInU     verasen'      po'z^njen'c
listopadU   kastrychnik   winowc
groudInU    listapad      listopad
stoudenU    snezhan'      hodownik

Lower Sorbian has _o_ instead of _o'_ and _g_ instead of _h_; also
`January' is _wjeliki roz^k_ and `April' is _jats^ownik_.  I couldn't
find the Old Slavic words for the first two months, unfortunately.

>I can't give the Lithuanian words, alas.

But I can; along with the Welsh and the Turkish ones, as you said,
for completeness' sake:

Lithuanian:   Welsh:       Turkish:

sau~sis       Ionawr       ocak
vasa~ris      Chwefror     s/ubat
ko'vas        Mawrth       mart
balan~dis     Ebrill       nisan
geguz^e*~     Mai          mayIs
birz^e~lis    Mehefin      haziran
li'epa        Gorffennaf   temmuz
rugpiu='tis   Awst         ag~ustos
rugse*'jis    Medi         eylu^l
spa~lis       Hydref       ekim
la~pkritis    Tachwedd     kasIm
gru'odis      Rhagfyr      aralIk

Anyone have any ideas why the words for `May' and `March' tend to be
borrowed from Latin more frequently?  Or is that just a coincidence?

-- 
`That's yer oan problem, Judas', they telt him.  `It's nae concern tae us.'
Ivan A Derzhanski (iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk/chaos.cs.brandeis.edu)  (The G-- G--)
* Centre for Cognitive Science,  2 Buccleuch Place,   Edinburgh EH8 9LW,  UK
* Cowan House E113, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Pk Rd, Edinburgh EH16 5BD, UK
