LL-L: "Numerals" LOWLANDS-L, 20.DEC.1999 (03) [E]

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From: $ Elsie Zinsser [ezinsser at simpross.co.za]
Subject: LL-L: "Numerals" (was "Y2K") LOWLANDS-L, 19.DEC.1999 (04) [E]

hi, all!

Anja asked re. "por quincena" or "quincenalmente" (fortnightly)/ "in
acht Daag": Would it be possible to used a similar expression in
English, Scots, Dutch, and Afrikaans?

Not in Afrikaans, that I know of. It's apt to pay a labourer for a day's
work which would is called a 'dagloon'

Regards

Elsie Zinsser

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From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject: Numerals

Anja wrote:

>Saying "in acht Daag" is quite normal in Germany (both in High German as in
Low Saxon). "Fifteen days" would not be used. Would it be possible to use a
similar expression in English, Scots, Dutch, and Afrikaans?<

Not in standard English. We normally count in weeks of seven days (or seven
nights, which gave the archaic "sennight") and fortnights of 14 days. The
expression "ten days" can be used to mean a period somewhere between the
two, eg "The goods will be delivered in ten days." Travel agents and tour
operators count the first and last days of their holidays, of course.

There are two examples of older counting which as far as I know are still
preserved in English law. A person is only guilty of murder if his/her
victim dies within a year and a day of the original act, counting in both
that day and the day of death. (There is talk of repealing this.) A person
reaches a stated age on the day before the corresponding birthday, the logic
being (I suppose) that one completes (say) 16 years of life at the end of
the 16th year and starts the 17th on one's 16th birthday. It may be that
modern acts of Parliament use a form of words which brings legal practice
into accord with our normal usage.

On gravestones up to the last century it was quite common  to state that
someone had died "in the Nth year of his age" (possibly a habit copied from
Latin models), where we would now say that they were N-1.

John Feather
johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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