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Learning Croatian:  004 Which is the first day of the week?

21/4/2019

1 Comment

 
What are the days of the week?
 
Well of course … Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
 
Or …. nedjelja, ponedjeljak, utorak, srijeda, četvrtak, petak, subota.
 
[It took me a while to realise that Croatians do not capitalise the first letter of the days. Funny buggers!]
 
Anyway, I have always thought that Sunday is the first day of each week – no doubt influenced by the fact that when I was young, every calendar had Sunday on the left side of each week in the month as you see in this calendar with a photo of beautiful Perth.
​

Picture

In recent times, more and more calendars (including electronic ones) have Monday as the first day of each week.
 
“What rubbish!” I say. (Who is a creature of habit!?)
 
“Just some Americanism!” Although I was happy about the fact that each of us can make our own choices about this not-very-important issue.
 
But hang on! Not if you are Croatian! Croatians have no choice for the days of the week other than ponedjeljak (prvi dan), utorak, srijeda, četvrtak, petak, subota, and nedjelja.


Why so? Well, Mateja recently read me some text (testing my aural skills, which are so poor!) that included a teacher-student conversation about the names of the days of the week, and their origins. And then it dawned on me (The last person on Earth, again!) ……
 
If day 1 is nedjelja, it doesn’t make sense that the fourth day of the week is četvrtak (četvrti dan), and the fifth day is petak (peti dan)!
 
 The names of these days only make sense if day 1 is ponedjeljak. Well I'll be ....!

 
Picture
I digress ..... Can anyone tell me where this is?

And, the notion that subota and nedjelja are the weekend also fits in with ponedjeljak as the first day of the week, doesn’t it?
 
Wow, another example of how language influences us in so many ways, big and small ..
 
But then again ……… the name subota is derived from the word Sabbath – a day of rest and the seventh day of the week according to the bible - as practised (I think) by people of Jewish faith. So Sunday is day 1?

But Christians regard Sunday as the day of rest. I give up!
 
I am gradually coming to see that black is actually (not very) darkish grey, and white is (not very) lightish grey.
 

Napisao sam ovaj post u utorak – drugi (ili treći?) dan tjedna.
​

 

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  • HOME
    • Navigation: A ROAD MAP
    • Contacts
  • LEARNING CROATIAN
    • CROATIAN: Posts 1 - 10 >
      • 001 Kosa, koza, koža
      • 002 Pronouncing 'au'
      • 003 Can language influence behaviour?
      • 004 First day of the week
      • 005 Do Croatians assign gender to objects?
      • 006 Za četiri dana, na dva dana
      • 007 My brain becomes full!
      • 008 Sretan rođendan ti
      • 009 Na kavu, po kavu, za kavu?
      • 010 Until you don't do it
    • CROATIAN: Posts 11 - 20 >
      • 011 Nazvati nekoga, telefonirati nekomu
      • 012 If she were a man ....
      • 013 Streets with two names?
      • 015 Tri, četiri, sad!
      • 016 I feel like crying!
      • 017 I felt like crying, I will feel like crying
    • DAKLE ŽELIŠ BITI KAO PRAVI HRVAT, JE L' DA? HOME >
      • 001 Ovako!
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      • 004 Izvoli! Izvolite!
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      • 001 Crossword puzzle 1
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      • 004 "u" ili "na" ?
      • 005 The declensions of Tko? and Što?
      • 006 Ja sam na Trgu bana Josipa Jelačića
      • 007 Going and coming: u-iz, but na-sa
      • 008 Sav - All, every
      • 009 Number of subjects and the verb 'biti'
      • 010 Koga nazoveš? Komu telefoniraš?
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      • 011 Declension of place names
    • GRAMMAR TITBITS - HOME >
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      • 001 Questions that define the case of nouns
      • 002 All nouns have gender
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      • 004 Nouns: Declension categories
      • 005 Declension of regular nouns
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      • 001 Ne daj se!
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      • 005 Što je, tu je!
      • 006 Eto ti ga na!
      • 007 Na licu mjesta
      • 008 Sve si to ti kriv!
  • VOCAB
    • Vocabulary: POSTS 1 - 10 >
      • 001 Even dying is not easy!
      • 002 To laugh or to smile?
      • 003 Nahraniti, sahraniti .... schmahraniti
      • 004 Prefixes that modify verb meanings
      • 005 Prefixes on base verb stati
      • 006 Country names - noun or adjective?
      • 007 Names of towns: A grammatical nightmare
      • 008 Countries: What do we call their citizens?
      • 009 Baš
      • 010 What a joke! vic or šala?
    • Vocab THEMES: HOME >
      • 001 In the time of coronavirus
    • Što je korijen riječi?: HOME >
      • 001 Nadimak
      • 002 Zora, prozor, zoran, ….
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      • 001 Bookara
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      • 004 Ućitelji
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      • 006 Kakav stil!
      • 007 The people of Magorje
      • 008 Where did the "j" go?
      • 009 koliko je kiše 50 litara po kvadratom metru?
      • 010 The dark side of the moon
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      • 001 Licitarska srca
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  • ABOUT CROATIA
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    • Where/What/Who is that? HOME >
      • Where/What/Who? Pages 1 - 10 >
        • 001 A girl and a bird
        • 002 His left foot
        • 003 A rebel
        • 004 Čuvarica Omiša
        • 005 Giorgio or Juraj?
        • 006 Tovar and friend
        • 007 Up on high
        • 008 On an island
        • 009 Water wonderland
    • REGIONS, CITIES, TOWNS: HOME >
      • ZAGREB: HOME >
        • 001 Zagreb cathedral
        • 002 Advent in Zagreb
        • 003 Interliber book fair
        • 004 On the tramvaj in Zagreb
      • Dalmacija: HOME >
        • BEING AND SPEAKING DALMATIAN: HOME >
          • 001 Molin?
          • 002 Eleven Dalmatian commandments
          • Dalmatinski rječnik HOME >
            • Keywords A - J
            • Keywords K - N
            • Keywords O - R
            • Keywords S - Ž
            • English to Dalmatian
      • Zagorje: HOME >
        • 001 Autumn tones
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      • 001 A night at the ballet
  • TKO SAM JA?
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      • 001 The way we spoke