Are there names for hours other than 12am and 12pm? For instance does 1pm have a name? Certainly 6pm should have a name. It's the point where the day is 3/4 done.
The Lojban language has something that kinda does that.
la pacac. 1 A.M., or the hour called the 'first hour'
la recac. 2 A.M., or the hour called the 'second hour'
la cicac. 3 A.M., or the hour called the 'third hour'
la vocac. 4 A.M., or the hour called the 'fourth hour'
la mucac. 5 A.M., or the hour called the 'fifth hour'
la xacac. 6 A.M., or the hour called the 'sixth hour'
la zecac. 7 A.M., or the hour called the 'seventh hour'
la bicac. 8 A.M., or the hour called the 'eighth hour'
la socac. 9 A.M., or the hour called the 'ninth hour'
la panocac. 10 A.M., or the hour called the 'tenth hour'
la papacac. 11 A.M., or the hour called the 'eleventh hour'
la midycac. 12 noon, or the hour called the 'twelfth hour', or the hour called the middle hour
la pacicac. 1 P.M., or the hour called the 'thirteenth hour'
la pavocac. 2 P.M., or the hour called the 'fourteenth hour'
la pamucac. 3 P.M., or the hour called the 'fifteenth hour'
la paxacac. 4 P.M., or the hour called the 'sixteenth hour'
la pazecac. 5 P.M., or the hour called the 'seventeenth hour'
la pabicac. 6 P.M., or the hour called the 'eighteenth hour'
la pasocac. 7 P.M., or the hour called the 'nineteenth hour'
la renocac. 8 P.M., or the hour called the 'twentieth hour'
la repacac. 9 P.M., or the hour called the 'twenty-first hour'
la rerecac. 10 P.M., or the hour called the 'twenty-second hour'
la recicac. 11 P.M., or the hour called the 'twenty-third hour'
la nocac. 12 midnight, or the hour called the 'twenty-fourth hour', or the hour called the 'zeroth hour'
This is based on their number system:
pa 1
re 2
ci 3
vo 4
mu 5
xa 6
ze 7
bi 8
so 9
no 0
The artificial language Lojban was created by the Logical Language Group in 1987, with the intent to make the language more complete, usable, and freely available.
Lojban numbers are read off as strings of numerals, each representing
a digit of the number as it is written. You can thus practice the
numerals by reading the two numbers: "12345" and "67890":
Something of the flavor of Lojban (and Loglan) can be imparted by this lightbulb joke:
Q: How many Lojbanists does it take to change a broken light bulb?
A: Two: one to decide what to change it into, and one to figure out what kind of bulb emits broken light.
This makes use of two features of the language; first, the language attempts to eliminate polysemy; that is, having a phrase with more than one meaning. So while the English word "change" can mean "to transform into a different state", or "to replace", or even "small-denomination currency", Lojban has different words for each. In particular, the use of a brivla such as the word for "change" ("binxo") implies that all of its predicate places exist, so there must be something for it to change into. Another feature of the language is that it has no grammatical ambiguities that appear in English phrases like "big dog catcher", which can mean either a big person who catches dogs or a person who catches big dogs. In Lojban, unless you clearly specify otherwise with cmavo, such modifiers always group left-to-right, so "big dog catcher" is a catcher of big dogs, and a "broken light bulb" is a bulb that emits broken light (you can achieve the desired meaning with the appropriate cmavo or by creating a new word, in effect saying "broken lightbulb").
I was typing a response to this very early this morning and was trying to say exactly what you just said: No matter what another languages' word for the time, it is still the same time.
After doing some more research, the only two hours that have names outside of their numbers are Noon and Midnight. According to the Greenwich Mean Time website the time 00:00:00 has no meaning, thus it is called "midnight". It's a matter of proper etiquette to refer to the noon or midnight hour as such so as not to confuse the person with whom you are speaking or otherwise communicating.
I like the creative idea behind naming the hours though. Which is your favorite hour? Maybe we can name it "Matt" :^]
This is really interesting and intriguing.
How can I learn loglan/lojban?.
Can anybody tell me?.
Your input will be very much appreciated.
Thank you very much.
Alberto in Australia
Posted by: Alberto on Dec 15, 06 | 2:47 am
Hi. I'm Matt Maldre. Every single weekday my blog on spudart.org has a new post with an original idea or discovery. Be sure to stop by daily to see what's happening.
