Re: Time in various languages...

Am Sun, 15 Jan 2006 02:57:33 -0000 schrieb Neeraj Mathur:

> "Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1vkfa80lndzhv$.ag2yd6b0dak4$.dlg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 02:35:42 -0000, Neeraj Mathur
>> <neemathur@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
>> <news:dqccdq$cct$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> in sci.lang:
>>
>>> "Brian M. Scott" <b.scott@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>>> news:1nyg56iccd80l$.1kvafxls58u4q.dlg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>
>>>> On Sat, 14 Jan 2006 13:32:00 +0000, Thomas Widmann
>>>> <twid@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
>>>> <news:m3fynr2awf.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> in sci.lang:
>>
>>>>> Does it mean 9:30 in any variety of English?
>>
>>>> I don't believe so. Unfortunately. 'Halb zehn' = 9:30
>>>> makes sense; the English usage is thoroughly unreasonable.
>>
>>> Not at all! When half of the ten o'clock hour has gone past, it is half
>>> ten - 10.30.
>>
>> That makes no sense to me, because I don't consider 'the ten
>> o'clock hour' a natural entity.
>
> You're thinking of 10:00 as the end of the tenth hour, but this is highly
> unnatural - the most natural entity is for all of the times that start with

Whatever usage might be reasonably called unreasonable or not - it is like
it is.

And the areas in eastern Germany drive it further: they also relate the
quarters to the hour before the named one:

(1) "Viertel Zehn" - 9:15 (quarter of ten)
(2) "Halb Zehn" - 9:30 (half of ten)
(3) "Dreiviertel Zehn" - 9:45 (three quarters of ten)

In the western areas of Germany, the preferred usage is
(1) Viertel nach Neun - 9:15
(2) Halb Zehn - 9:30
(3) Viertel vor Zehn - 9:45

Joachim
.