Re: Telling time in Tunisia: the "drej"


Alan wrote:
"Yusuf B Gursey" wrote

Yusuf B Gursey wrote:
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.

Dozy also mentions daraj "a moment in time"


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

Yusuf -- thanks for the references from Lane and Dozy; looks like there's at
least some solid evidence that derivatives of "drj" having been used to
indicate time do have some historical precedence. Still curious how drej
came to refer to a 20 minute interval --- perhaps some pre-conquest usage?
Also curious if this shows up in other North African Arabic dialects as
well. Thanking you again for your information . . .

Michel Quitout "Initiation a l'Arabe Maghrebin" p. 51 has tulu:t sa:`a
{unmarked as to country}, RBe` DRa:j (for Tunisian) un tiers d'heure
("third of an hour")

but I'll see if I can find out more.

.

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    (sci.lang)
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    (sci.lang)
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