LL-L "History" 2009.07.05 (02) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 05 July 2009 - Volume 02
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From: Marcus Buck <list at marcusbuck.org>
Subject: LL-L "History" 2009.07.02 (03) [EN]

From: Jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de <mailto:jonny.meibohm at arcor.de >>

> Subject: LL-L "History"
>
> Dear Lowlanners,
>  last evening I read a (German) text written in A.D 1917. It deals with the
> conditions in Germany during WW I and its author is a "simple" craftsman.
>  One sentence attracted my special attention: *Damit Kohle und Elektrizität
> gespart werden, werden jetzt alle Geschäfte mit Ausnahme der
> Lebensmittel-Läden vom 10. Okt. an um 5 p.m. geschlossen. (14. Oktober
> 1917)* [E: To save coals and electricity all shops exempt those for food
> will be closed at 5 p.m.. (October 14th, 1917)]
>  You see the author using the Anglo-Saxon way to describe the time. This
> seems to be strange for Continental Europe, because according to ISO 8601 we
> use the 24-hours-system. I tried to find out more about the history of time
> destination in Europe outside U.K. but failed.
>  Does anyone around here know more about that theme? Was it at last any
> tribute of the last, very anglophile German Kaiser to his royal British
> relatives (Queen Victoria having been his aunt)?
>  Thanks in award for your answers!
>
In official uses (and by more standardsy speakers) the 24-hour system is
used. But in colloquial speech we traditionally use the 12-hour system. In
Low Saxon for example you always say "Klock fiev" and never "Klock
sömteihn". It's not even possible to use the 24 hour system or any
minute-exact times without resorting to the Standard German system. So the
use of the 12-hour system in this case is easy to explain. ISO norms did not
exist back then.

Use of the abbreviation "p.m." in this case is most likely not an Anglicism,
but an occasional Latinism. If you look up phrases like "um 7 p.m." on
Google Books, you can find some more examples of it.

Marcus Buck

•

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