Re: Telling time in Tunisia: the "drej"


Alan wrote:
Years ago I spent a summer in Tunisia and became aware of a rather odd
method of expressing time that did not obtain at all in Egypt or in Yemen
(regions whose Arabic I am much more familiar with).

In addition to the rather widespread use of words for "quarter" and "half",
the Tunisians also expressed time in terms of the "drej" which is a unit of
20 minutes:

5:20 = khamsa wa drej (five and a "drej")
5:40 = khamsa wa derjayn (five and "two drej")
5:40 = sitta gheer drej (six lacking a "drej")

Is this unit of time found in any other Arabic dialect? Or in any other
language group? And what would be the origin and history of that unit of
time?

according to Lane (taken from medieval dictionaries) , a daraja(t) of
time is 4 minutes.

perhaps it was defined differently in N. Africa andhappnes to survive
in Tunisian dialect.


Thanks in advance . . .

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Telling time in Tunisia: the "drej"
    ... method of expressing time that did not obtain at all in Egypt or in Yemen ... Is this unit of time found in any other Arabic dialect? ... in Tunisian dialect. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Telling time in Tunisia: the "drej"
    ... Years ago I spent a summer in Tunisia and became aware of a rather odd ... method of expressing time that did not obtain at all in Egypt or in Yemen ... Is this unit of time found in any other Arabic dialect? ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Telling time in Tunisia: the "drej"
    ... method of expressing time that did not obtain at all in Egypt or in ... Is this unit of time found in any other Arabic dialect? ... Yusuf -- thanks for the references from Lane and Dozy; ... RBe` DRa:j (for Tunisian) un tiers d'heure ...
    (sci.lang)