What is the first day of the week?


What is the first day of the week? As in the picture above, often Monday is regarded as the first day of the week because in many countries it is the start of the working week. And in Chinese, the days of the week are numbered from Monday as literally "first day of the week" (星期一/周一 xingqiyi/zhouyi) to Saturday as the "sixth day of the week" (星期六/周一). Only the Sunday has a special name as "sunday" or "heaven day" (星期日/星期天/周日). Ok, problem solved.

But, wait a minute. Isn't in Christian church Sunday regarded as the first day of the week? That would make Monday the second day of the week. Yes, so the Portuguese are right. In Portuguese, the days of the week are counted as in Chinese, but Monday is as "segunda-feira" the second day of the week and Friday is as "sexta-feira" the sixth day. Saturday (sábado) and Sunday (domingo) have separate names. Well, it must be a Christian thing then to count the days of the week like this.

Oh, no, wait again. In Persian, the days of the week are counted similarly. Monday is as دوشنبه (do-šambe) also counted as the second day.  Sunday is as یكشنبه (jek-šambe)  the first day, Thursday is as پنج‌شنبه (panğ-šambe) the fifth day. Friday (جمعه ğom'e) and Saturday (شنبه šambe) have separate names. In Arabic, the days are also counted this way with Sunday الأحد [(jaum) al-ʔaħad] being the first day of the week and Thursday  (يوم) الخميس [(jaum) al-xaˈmiːs] the fifth.

But, I clearly remember my Syrian teacher saying that the actual first day of the week was Saturday because Friday would be the last day of the week and the weekend would go from Friday to Saturday. Interestingly in Swahili, Saturday is indeed called the first day of the week: jumamosi. The days are counted until Wednesday (jumatano), the fifth day. And Thursday, the actual sixth day, derives its name from Arabic and is called alhamisi, which means, yes, the fifth day. So, the Swahili week has two fifth days...

So, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday can all be regarded as first days of the week. I have yet to find a language or culture where Tuesday is the first day ...





Kommentare

Kommentar veröffentlichen

Beliebte Posts aus diesem Blog

Mixing Chinese and Italian (Zhenjie Paifang vs Archi di castità)

Bild
One of my preferred methods of learning multiple languages at the same time, is reading something in one language and then writing about it in another language. So, this month, I take part in the Chinese reading challenge by Hacking Chinese and decided to read an anthology by Yu Qiuyu  ( 余秋雨读本 ), one of the most famous and influential contemporary writers in China. I want to use what I read as an inspiration for writing texts in other languages. So, yesterday I wrote a short text in Italian about a topic inspired by this book. Let me first explain the topic a bit. The first essay in the anthology is about paifang , traditional Chinese arches. When I stumbled upon the word zhenjie paifang (贞节牌坊), which means chastity arch , I remembered that I've been to a village called Tangyue (堂樾) in Anhui Province 14 years ago. The village is famous for their seven memorial archways built by the Bao family during the course of several centuries. The first archway can be traced back to...
Mehr anzeigen

What's in a face? About Stereotypes

Bild
This week I finally started my new job as a lecturer in a masters studies program called "Germanistik und Interkulturalität/Multilingualität " ("German Studies and Interculturalism/Multilingualism"). As you may figure, this seems to be just the right thing for me and I'm excited to go back to teaching again. Interestingly, a new colleague asked me, if I was from New Zealand. It seemed that I looked a bit Maori to her. Not long ago, I talked to another italki user and told him, that I was mixed-race to which he replied that he always thought of me being American Indian. This prompted me to conduct a little experiment on stereotypes and I posted this discussion on italki:  https://www.italki.com/discussion/165794 . If you're not an italki user, you can't read the whole discussion, so I'm going to summarize it. My initial post was:  I had some discussions with other users that it seems to be difficult to guess my ethnicity and my age from...
Mehr anzeigen

Talk to my hand! Learning sign language with one hand

Bild
The first time I learnt something about sign language was when I visited a dormitory for deaf youngsters who pursued a vocational training in Munich. The director of the dorm explained that German Sign Language (GSL, Deutsche Gebärdensprache) was a language completely independent of spoken German. I learnt that GSL had its own complex grammar and even dialects. After the tour through the dorm, the visitors could have drinks in the dorms café and suddenly I felt mute. How was I supposed to communicate that I wanted a coke? I didn't know any sign language! It was an interesting experience and since that time I was fascinated by sign language and by Deaf culture . Yes, Deaf people have their own culture. A world that is unfamiliar to hearing people. But I love it that the Deaf community embraces their own culture rather than seeing themselves as disabled. "Able-bodied" or "disabled" are just terms defined by society, but not necessarily how people feel themsel...
Mehr anzeigen