Calendar Names of Days and Months in Different Languages
(a compilation of several languages)
The dates displayed in these pages are based on a compilation of the phases of time as expressed in several languages with a presentation of fascinating facts, fantasies, and fallacies that have merged as elements of time.
The equivalents in all of the following languages have been written with Roman/Latin fonts (letters), even in those situations when a language actually employs different letter forms. For example, such languages as Greek, Georgian, Russian (Cyrillic), Hebrew, and Arabic are transliterated into the Roman/Latin-type fonts.
yakkatit (February)
mäggabit (March)
miyazeya (April)
ganbot (May)
säne (June)
hamle (July)
nähase (August)
mäsharäm (September)
taqamt (October)
hadar (November)
tahsas (December)
maanantai (Monday)
tiistai (Tuesday)
keskiviikko (Wednesday)
torstai (Thursday)
perjantai (Friday)
lauantai (Saturday)
helmikuu (February)
maaliskuu (March)
huhikuu (April)
toukokuu (May)
kesäkuu (June)
heinäkuu (July)
elokuu (August)
syyskuu (September)
lokakuu (October)
marraskuu (November)
joulukuu (December)
lundi (Monday)
mardi (Tuesday)
mercredi (Wednesday)
jeudi (Thursday)
vendredi (Friday)
samedi (Saturday)
février (February)
mars (March)
avril (April)
mai (May)
juin (June)
juillet (July)
août (August)
septembre (September)
octobre (October)
novembre (November)
décembre (December)
ßamschabati (Tuesday)
otchschabati (Wednesday)
chutschabati (Thursday)
p’araßk’ewi (Friday)
schabati (Saturday)
k’wira (Sunday)
teberwali (February)
mart’i (March)
ap’rili (April)
maißi (May)
iwnißi (June)
iwilißi (July)
agwißt’o (August)
ßekt’emberi (September)
okt’omberi (October)
noemberi (November)
dek’emberi (December)
Dienstag (Tuesday)
Mittwoch (Wednesday)
Donnerstag (Thursday)
Freitag (Friday)
Samstag/Sonnabend (Saturday)
Sonntag (Sunday)
Dienstag does not necessarily mean, "day of service" as many Germans believe.
Originally, the "week" came from the Babylonians and then through the Jews to the Greeks and the Romans.
The days of the week were named after the gods of the seven ancient planets (thought to be the sun, moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn). The Germanic people learned about the planets from the Romans in about the 4th century A.D. and replaced the names with those of their corresponding German (Teutonic) gods.
The name Dienstag spread from the Lower Rhine in their dialect as Dinges, Dinsdach, and from the Middle Netherlands as Dinxendach which apparently goes back to an inscription which is Roman-Frisian from the third century A.D. named for the god Mars, Thingsus, the Thing, "protector".
Originally from Old English ping, "condition, state, meeting, court of justice"; related to pingian, "to intercede, to plead, to arrange"; Old Saxon, Old Frisian, thing, Old Norse, ping, "assembly"; Middle Dutch, dinc; Dutch, ding; Old High German, thing, ding; Middle High German, dinc, "assembly"; German Ding, "thing".
All of these words stand for the Indo-European tenkos, from the base ten-, "to extend (in space or in time)", and originally denoted "meeting at a fixed time", whence developed the meanings "affairs, things, thing". Gothic Peihs, "time"; originally meant "assembly taking place at a fixed time".
The word is a copy of the Latin Martis dies. The Germanic god is the equivalent of "heaven’s god" (himmel’s gott).
In Old High German, it was Ziu; in Old English, it was Tiw; and in Old Icelandic, it was Tyr [the name is originally related to the Greek god, Zeus, who as the god of war was changed to the equivalent Roman god, Mars.
The name of this god was also maintained in other names of the week days. For example, Alemannisch was Zistig; Middle High German, Ziestac; Old High German, Ziostag; Old English Tiwesdaeg; and Old Icelandic, Tysdagr; then Swedish, Tisdag; and English, Tuesday.
Corresponding to these names is the Bavarian, Ertag or Erchtag (Dienstag) as a word from the Gothic mission borrowed from the Greek Areos Hemera (day of Ares, meaning Mars, and Ziu). The Bavarian and Alemanisch dialect words were superseded in the 17th century by Dienstag.
Noah Webster wrote that one of the meanings for Saxon thing is "a meeting, council or convention"; thingan, thingian, "to hold a meeting, to plead, to supplicate".
He goes on to say that German ding, "a thing, a court"; dingen, "to go to law, to hire or to haggle; Dingstag, Tuesday, "thing’s day"; beding, "condition, clause".
The primary sense of the root, which is tig or thig, is "to press, to urge, to drive or to strain", and hence, its application to "courts", or "suits at law"; "a seeking of right".
We observe that Dingsdag, Dingdag, in some of the dialects signifies "Tuesday", and this from the circumstance that that day of the week was, as it still is in some states, the day of opening courts; that is, litigation day, or suitors' day, a day of striving for justice; or perhaps "combatday", the day of trial by battle.
This leads to the unfolding of another fact. Among our ancestors, Tig or Tiig, was the name of the deity of combat and war, the Teutonic Mars; that is, strife, combat deified.
This word was contracted into tiw or tu, and hence Tiwesdæg or Tuesdæg, and then Tuesday, the day consecrated to Tiig, the god of war.
It seems this is merely the day of commencing court and trial; litigation day. This Tiig, the "god of war", is strife, and this leads us to the root of thing, which is "to drive, to urge, to strive".
From Noah Webster's definition of Tuesday, we find Tiwæsdæ or Tuesdæy comes from Tig, Tiig or Tuisco, the Mars of our ancestors the deity that presided over combats, strife and litigation. Hence Tuesday is court day, assize* day; the day for combat or commencing litigation.
*Assize (uh-SIGHZ) originally was an assembly of knights and other "substantial" men. It is now considered an enactment made by a legislative assembly.
Mittwoch
Apparently once the "fourth day" of the German week, Mittwoch, Middle High German Mit[te]woche, and before that it was Mitta-wewha in Late Old High German, which was the church (vulgar) Latin translation of "media Hebdomas".
Old High German Mittawewha has grown together from the adjective mitta (Old High German Mitti), meaning "located in the middle". The Roman Catholic Church tried to get rid of the memories of the pagan gods and goddesses by deleting formerly used Wuo-tanestag (Netherlands Woenstag; English Wednesday, and Swedish Onsdag) which were Wodansdag (Odinsdag) or tag, but now it simply means "middle-of-the-week" or Mittwoch.
Sonnabend
"Saturday" may either be Samstag or (in some instances) Sonnabend, which means "evening before sun(day)".
Based on an Old English (Anglo-Saxon) formation, brought to Europe from England by St. Boniface (Wynfrid or Wynfrith), ca. 675-754 A.D.; during his Christian-missionary efforts to Germany.
Old English sunnan-aefen first meant the evening before Sunday, then it became sonnanaband in Old High German, and later in Middle High German sun(nen) abent. This word later referred to the whole day, not just the evening.
Februar (February)
März (March)
April (April)
Mai (May)
Juni (June)
Juli (July)
August (August)
September (September)
Oktober (October)
November (November)
Dezember (December)
Earlier German months
- Jenner (January)
- Hornung (February)
- Mertz (March)
- Aprill (April)
- May (May)
- Brachmond (June)
- Heumond (July)
- Augstmond (August)
- Herbstmond (September)
- Weinmond (October)
- Wintermond(November)
- Christmond (December)
The following is based on information from an old 1665 German calendar:
There was once a time when Germans had additioinal meanings for the months such as:
January, "bare month (the bare, naked month), hard month, winter month, ice month, wolf month, threshing month, month of calves, and Great Horn."
February, "last winter month, wood month fox month, [and] Little Horn."
March, "(first) ploughing month, drying month, spring month, sowing month, pruning month, vernal month, [and] spring."
April, "second ploughing month, spring month, grass month, shepherds’ month, cuckoo month, [and] rough month."
May, "month of joy, month of flowers, [and] bean month."
June, "fallow month, dog month, rose month, [and] pasture month."
July, "(first) hay month, dog month, hay-harvest, [and] cutting (i.e. of the hay."
August, "(second) harvest month, cutting month, [and] month of fruit."
September, "second cutting of oats, (first) autumn month, sowing month, barley month, boar month, bean-harvest, first autumn, over-autumn, [and] autumn sowing."
October, "(first or second) autumn month, first winter month, sowing month, [and] slaughtering month."
November, "(second or third) autumn month, winter month, leaf month, month of rime, month of winds, month of dirt, hard month, slaughtering month, full month, wolf month, [and] acorn month."
December, "fourth autumn month, (second) winter month, hard month, slaughtering month, month of bacon, wolf month, hare month, [and] second winter."
There were also some names borrowed from Christian feasts and saints; days, such as (New) Year month and the synonymous kalemænd equals Calends month (January), Fassnachtmænd or Olle Wiwermænd(February), Klibelmænd Conception of the Virgin (March) and Holy Month or Christ Month.
Deutéra [second day] (Monday)
Tríti [third day] (Tuesday)
Tetárti [fourth day] (Wednesday)
Pémpti [fifth day] (Thursday)
Paraskeuí [sixth day] (Friday)
Sábbato or Sabbáto (?) (Saturday)
Kuriakí means, "Lord’s day" which is followed by "second, third, fourth, fifth" days. Paraskeuí, meaning, "preparation", is a biblical term used historically by Greek-church fathers. Sábbato or Sabbáto means the Sabbath, or "to rest" as in "day of rest".
The The Greek alphabet is available on this page.fevruários (February)
mártios (March)
aprílios (April)
máios (May)
iúnios (June)
iúlios (July)
avghustos (August)
septémvrios (September)
októvrios (October)
noémvrios (November)
thekiémvrios (December)
The The Greek alphabet is available on this page.Reflecting the days in a month or the “moon’s age.”
1. Hilo
2. Hoaka
3. Ku kahi
4. Ku lua
5. Ku kolu
6. Ku pau
7. Ole ku kahi
8. Ole ku lua
9. Ole ku kolu
10. Ole ku pau
11. Huna
12. Mohalu
13. Hua
14. Akua
15. Hoko
16. Mahealani
17. Kulu
18. Laau ku kahi
19. Laau ku lua
20. Laau pau
21. Ole ku kahi
22. Ole ku lua
23. Ole pau
24. Kaloa ku kahi
25. Kaloa ku lua
26. Kaloa pau
27. Kane
28. Lono
29. Mauli
30. Muku
yom rishon (yohm ree-sholm) (Sunday)
yom sheni (ahd yohm shay-nee) (Monday)
yom shelishi (yohm shlee-shee) (Tuesday)
yom revi’i (yohm reh-vee-ee) (Wednesday)
yom hamishi (yohm khah-mee-shee) (Thursday)
yom shishi (yohm shee-shee) (Friday)
yom *** (yohm shah-baht) (Saturday)
Tishri (30 days)
Marheshvan (variable)
Kislev (variable)
Tebeth (29 days)
Shebat (30 days)
Adar (29 days)
Nissan (30 days)
Iyyar (29 days)
Sivan (30 days)
Tammuz (29 days)
Ab (30 days)
Ellul (29 days)
The Hebrew, or Jewish, calendar developed over a long period and is not an old one in its present form. The original calendar is believed to have been primarily lunar and was probably based on observations rather than calculations.
During the 7th century B.C. (or C.E., "Common Era"), intercalary months were applied to adjust the lunar year to the solar year, but these were used now and then, and it was not until sometime during the 4th century A.D. that the calendar became "fixed".
During the Babylonian exile in the 6th century B.C., the Jewish calendar was greatly influenced by the Babylonian system. For example, the Jewish months were designated by numbers or with agricultural references.
Then as their months began to be called by the Babylonian names, the Hebrew names disappeared. The New Year, which had been celebrated in Nissan, was changed to Tishri, which is when the Babylonians started the beginning of their years.
The present Jewish calendar is luni-solar with the years being reckoned by the sun and the months by the moon. The day is designated as starting at 6 p.m. for the calendar. For religious and practical purposes, it begins at sunset.
Religious limitations, or specifications, complicate the Jewish calendar by dictating that certain events may not occur on certain days: The New Year must not fall on a Sunday, Wednesday or Friday; the Day of Atonement must not fall on a Friday or Sunday; the Day of the Tabernacle must not fall on a Saturday; Passover must precede the New Year by 163 days, and Pentecost must precede the New Year by 113 days.
To accommodate these specifications, a system that makes the years variable in length is used. The month is calculated from conjunction to conjunction, which is equal to 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 3.33 seconds.
To make sure that they have an exact number of days, a system of alternating 29 and 30 days came into existence. The months which contain 30 days are called "full" and those that have 29 days are called "defective". Most of the months have fixed lengths, but there are two which are variable.
mang’l, ma{ngava\r (Tuesday)
budhva\r (Wednesday)
guruva\r, br≥haspativa\r (Thursday)
s;ukrava\r, shukravar (Friday)
s;aniva\r, shanivar (Saturday)
itva\r, itvahr, raviva\r (Sunday)
