XPost: alt.language.latin, soc.culture.spanish
On Fri, 20 Sep 2024 16:40:36 +0000, Ed Cryer wrote:
Helmut Richter wrote:
On Fri, 20 Sep 2024, Ed Cryer wrote:
The Spanish palate must have had trouble with "gn"; but not with "gr".
As to time, it's English that's unusual here.
¿Qué hora es?
Quelle heure est-il?
Wie viel Uhr ist es?
... which is different from the others by not using the German word for
hour (Stunde) nor time (Zeit), but the word for clock/watch (Uhr). The
same word is used to tell the time if you are using the 24 hour system
(0
Uhr, 0 Uhr 1, ..., 23 Uhr 59).
In colloquial speech, you would more idiomatically ask "Wie spät ist
es?",
(how late is it?) at least in large portions of Germany.
Quota hora est?
Τι ώρα είναι;
What time is it?
Here's where English's Germanic roots show up. We used to say "What
o'clock is it?"
I don't know why we moved to "What time?" It seems strange to me when I compare it with other European languages.
Ed
"What o'clock is it?"
i think i've heard this in movies from 1940's (?)
but i can't be sure.
Maybe it was more common in the UK
_______________________________
one char. of Jp is that the Nan- ("what")
acts as a versatile (productive) prefix, so that one can say:
Nan-ji desuka? (What time is it?)
Nan-hun desuka? (What ... minute is it?)
Nan-ban desuka? (What'th place (is it) ? )
Nan-hon desuka? (What (how many) sticks ? )
Nan-hon-me desuka? (What (how many)-th stick ? )
the last example could mean:
[What-th drink is it?]
(You've already drunk to many (too much)!)
_______________________________
Etymology of German Uhr:
From late Middle High German ūre, from Middle Low German ûre (“hour”), from Middle Dutch ure, from Old Dutch *ūra, from Old French houre, from Latin hōra, from Ancient Greek ὥρα (hṓra), from Proto-Indo-European *yeh₁- (“year, season”). The word was borrowed in
the late 14th century when the diphthongization of -ū- into -ou-, -au-
was already complete in most dialects; a shifted form exists, however,
in dialects (compare Luxembourgish Auer). In German, the word early on developed the sense “timing device”, not present in other languages. Compare further Dutch uur, English hour, French heure. Doublet of Jahr.
cognate with English [year] but not French [jour]
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