Re: "par coeur" origin



Neeraj Mathur wrote:

Hi Franz, was this your question?

The explanation is simple and historical. Our calendar is Roman in origin.
The first month of the Roman calendar was March, which marked the beginning
of the military campaign season. Caesar's calendar reforms included starting
the year in January; the Gregorian calendar also used January 1 as New
Year's Day. Many countries only changed to starting with January relatively
recently (France in 1564, Great Britain in 1752).

Obviously, if you count from March, then September is indeed the seventh
month, and all of the numbers work properly.

There's no reason to pretend that there's anything stone-age happening here!

Neeraj Mathur


Yes, that was my question. Contrary to the others you
give an answer, which I appreciate. However, your answer
immediately raises a second question. Why did Julius
Caesar, whose intelligence quotient was slightly higher than
the one of the average Usenet poster, stick to the wrong
numbers implied in September October November December?
The names of his calendar make sense in the frame of my
late Magdalenian calendar. PhON has been replaced by March
in honor of the war god Mars. PhON is my period of early spring,
when the winter camp was bustling with life, when hunting
activities were planned, when young men fought over women,
when rivalities broke out (which is indicated by the two meanings
of phonae with omega and omikron). Julius Caesar gave his name
to the month that covers a part of my PAS and of SAI, pas for
everywhere, here, south and north of me, east and west of me,
suiting to Caesar, and sai for life, existence, the sixth period
of time, Italian sei for six, Latin sex for six, testifying to sexual
activities in that hot and happy time. The link to Casear is that
his family lineage goes back to Venus. Augustus of the same
family claimed part of ancient SAI and of SEP for himself, sai
with the meaning of life and existence, sap with the meaning of
wise, experienced, knowing the world in all dimensions. If they
(Caesar and Augustus) had no meaning to give to the subsequent
months, they could have chosen the correct numbers. But no, they
kept the wrong numbers, which, in my opinion, testifies to an ancient
meaning of those names.

To formulate a short question for those who can only read two lines:
why did Caesar allow wrong numbers in his calendar?

Regards to you, Neeraj, and to those who can read more than
two lines

Franz Gnaedinger


I write this addendum for people who know what "sci"
in sci.lang means. The other ones may please create
another group and call it, say, mob.lang. Thank you.

The oldest Roman calendar was attributed to Romulus.
The year consisted of ten months of varying length.
Numa Pompilius added January and February. From
Anzio in the Roman Campagna we have a lunar calendar,
dating to around 100 BC: a year had 353 days, with an
intercalary month of 27 days on alternating years. The
Roman calendar was mismanaged in the time of Julius
Caesar. He reformed the calendar and came up with
this solution:

Month 1, Martius, 31 days
Month 2, Aprilis, 30 days
Month 3, Maius, 31 days
Month 4, Junius, 30 days
Month 5, Quintilis, 31 days
Month 6, Sextilis, 31 days
Month 7, Septembris, 30 days
Month 8, Octobris, 31 days
Month 9, Novembris, 30 days
Month 10, Decembris, 31 days
Month 11, Januaris, 31 days
Month 12, Februaris, 28 days

Later on, he made the year begin with January,
so the names Quintilis, Sextilis, Septembris,
Octobris, Decembris, implying the numbers 5 6
7 8 9 10, were wrong. During Caesar's lifetime,
the month Quintilis was changed into Julius,
because Julius Caesar was born in that month.
And, I dare say, because of the reasons I gave
this morning (quote above). Good solutions are
those that fit in several ways. Then Sextilis was
renamed for Augustus. Did they plan to rename
the further months and give them names of their
successors? Might explain why Caesar kept the
wrong numbers. But I still prefer my explanation
of an old calendar, which was at least partially
known in Caesar's time. Further evidence for
me is the name Aprilis, whose etymology is
not yet given. I have an etymology via my late
Magdalenian calendar. April covers most of
my period called PhON (March 23 - April 27).
The inverse period NOPh covers our whole
November (October 28 - December 2). NOPh
was the begin of the winter half year, the period
of the fist snow that falls in November and covers
the landscape overnight, giving it a new appearance,
ancient Greek neiphos for snow (storm), Latin nives
(plural) for masses of snow, novem for nine, novus
for new. April reminds of our word 'aper' for an area
freed of snow, when the snow is molten away, Latin
apertus for open - when the snow is gone many ways
are open again. Aprilis would then have been an
ancient counterpart of NOPh, the landscape covered
with snow in November, freed from snow in April.
Another piece of the puzzle falling into place.

.

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