Names of months in different languages
In Irish
Eanáir
Feabhra(Faoilleach)
Márta
Aibreán
Bealtaine
Meitheamh
Iúil
Lúnasa
Meán Fómhair
Deireadh Fómhair
Samhain
Nollaig
as you can see many are borrowed and others, bealtaine lúnasa, and samhain, are names for ancient feast days. Also meán fómhair means middle of autmn and deireadh fómhair end of autmn. Nollaig comes from the latin for christmas. And meitheamh supposedly means middle month, but i see a great similarity between that and the welsh, posted above.
I've recently starting teaching myself Finnish....Just today I realized that the months actually were made up with other words... joulukuu...means Christmas month in English...(literally yule moon)and kesäkuu means summer month. So I though I would check out the rest...so far here is what I found (the word "kuu" means "moon":
Jan tammikuu....oak month....I haven't figured out yet why???
Feb helmikuu
Mar maaliskuu
Apr huhtikuu
May toukokuu...sowing or seeding month
June kesäkuu...summer month
July heinäkuu
Aug elokuu
Sep syyskuu...autumn(or fall) month...Finnish for autumn is sykksy (the different spelling probably has something to do with case and consontant gradation)...one of the joys of learning FInnish...:) )
Oct lokakuu
Nov marraskuu...dying month
Dec joulukuu...Christmas month
From the earlier post (soumalainen Tue Jan 09, 2007) I now know that helmikuu (February) is pearl month; huhtikuu(April) is month of "burn-beaten area"; heinäkuu (July) is haymonth; elokuu (August), harvest month (it is cold, dark and northern, Finland afterall...:) ) lokakuu (October), mud month...makes sense to me...
I see someone already posted the Albanian months but I'll post them again and tell the meanings of some of them:
January-Janar--->
February-Shkurt---->shkurt also means short
March-Mars
April- Prill
May-Maj----> "maj" means tip of smth in Albanian
June-Qershor
July-Korrik
August-Gusht
September-Shtator---> shtat ore means seven hours
October- Tetor-----> Eight hours
November-Nentor----> nine hours
December-Dhjetor---->ten hours
In Chinese:
January 一月
February 二月
March 三月
April 四月
May 五月
June 六月
July 七月
August 八月
September 九月
October 十月
November 十一月
December 十二月
English / Basque
months:
january / urtarrila
february / otsaila
march / martxoa
april / apirila
may / maiatza
june / ekaina
july / uztaila
august / abuztua
september / iraila
october / urria
november / azaroa
december / abendua
during the 1st french republic:
AUTUMN:
vendémiaire / Mahaxte
Brumaire / Lanhote
Frimaire / Içozte
WINTER :
Nivôse / Elhurcor
Pluviôse / Eouricor
Ventôse / Aycecor
SPRING :
Germinal / Sapadun
Floréal / Lilidun
Prairial / Belhardun
SUMMER :
Messidor / Bihilis
Thermidor / Berolis
Fructidor / Fructilis
i have no idea what danes used to call the months before the latin names were introduced
Rob,
I wish you good fortune with your studies of Finnish! As far as I know, the ethymology of 'tammikuu' (January) isn´t quite clear. It might have meant 'month of midwinter'. You are right, in contemporary usage 'tammi' means oak (it is an old Finno-Ugric word), but that is a tree that grows in wild only on southern coast of Finland and even there it is rare. And it doesn´t really have anything to do with the coldest month of the year.
In Korean, it's very very simple and boring.
They are like the first month, the second month and so on...
So it's not confusing or difficult at all if you can count numbers in Korean.
January=1월 (Il-Wol)
February=2월 (I-Wol)
March=3월 (Sam-Wol)
April=4월 (Sa-Wol)
May=5월 (O-Wol)
June=6월 (Yu-Wol)
July=7월 (Chil-Wol)
August=8월 (Pal-Wol)
September=9월 (Gu-Wol)
October=10월 (Shi-Wol)
November=11월 (Shibil-Wol)
December=12월 (Shibi-Wol)
I bet Japanese and Chinese have the same pattern.
"The numbers + Month" : simple simple simple
Thanks Suomalainen
Any idea what maaliskuu might mean, literally, in English?...it happens to be my birth month..:) Or, might that be one of those words with a distant and unclear etymology?... I'm also wondering what the significance of hemikuu (pearl month) is? Huhtikuu will likely have the sense in English of the burning of field stubble and preparing the ground for sowing...(at the moment, I can't think of an English 'one-word' expression to capture that meaning...). Also speaking of tree names...a couple of weeks ago I found an excellent Finnish site with a large number of tree names from around the world in Finnish, Latin (genus,species) and English (Finnish and English using the generally known common names)...very interesting site, at least to me...:) Unfortunately, the link is bookmarked on my computer at work...I'll post next week just in case you, or others are interested...
Japanese Month Names
月の和名の一覧
睦月
如月
弥生
卯月
皐月
水無月
文月
葉月
長月
神無月
霜月
師走
睦月（むつき）／正月（しょうがつ）
如月（きさらぎ）
弥生（やよい）
卯月（うづき）
皐月（さつき）
水無月（みなづき）
文月（ふづき）
葉月（はづき）
長月（ながつき）
神無月（かんなづき）
霜月（しもつき）
師走（しわす）／極月（ごくげつ）
In Filipino (Phillipine language):
January - Enero
February - Pebrero
March - Marso
April - Abril
May - Mayo
June - Hunyo
July - Hulyo
August - Agosto
September - Setyembre
October - Oktubre
November - Nobyembre
December - Disyembre
Very easy.
Rob,
I have no idea what 'maaliskuu' (March) could mean. If I get to know any explanation, I will return to the topic. Tell about the website with tree names, please!
A certain guest with limited knowledge of Albanian and of other languages as well posted here some explanations regarding the months in albanian.
well it like this:
English - Albanian
January - Janar - from the latin god Janus (his feminile version, Jana or Diana is the albanian Hana - Moon). Therefore the month of the moon
February - Shkurt - from albanian "i shkurtër". meaning "the short"
March - Mars - from the latin god Mars. In modern albanian "i marrë, i marrosur" means "the mad", and we know that Mars, the god of war was known for his madness
May - Maj - from latin
June - Qershor - from "Qershi" albanian for "Cherry", the month of cherries
July - Korrik - from albanian "Korr" - Harvest, or "Korrje" Harvesting
August - Gusht - from latin Augustus
September - Shtator meaning "the seventh". It is the same ethymology as punë - punëtor (work - worker). Shtatë - shtator (seven, the seventh)
October - Tetor - from albanian "tetë" - eight
November - nëntor - from albanian "nëntë" - nine
December - dhjetor - from albanian "dhjetë" meaning ten.
The names of the last four months have nothing to do with hours they mean the seventh, the eighth, the ninth and the tenth.
My wife help to solve the enigma with Finnish 'maaliskuu'. There is a proverb: "Maaliskuu maan avaa" (March opens the earth). Thus, 'maaliskuu' is derived from the word 'maa' (earth, ground).