MicahJohn

Did You Know?

I just discovered that the days of the week in Thai are named after the same planets/sun/moon as the days of the week in English. I guess whenever the seven day week showed up it came with each day’s tie to a planet. 

For those of you who don’t know each day’s celestial body: Sunday-Sun, Monday-Moon, Tuesday-Mars, Wednesday-Mercury, Thursday-Jupiter, Friday-Venus, Saturday-Saturn.  

Additionally, if you’re wondering why Tuesday (or Wednesday, or Thursday, or Friday) don’t look anything like Mars (or Mercury, or Jupiter, or Venus), it is because in English the days are named after the German gods associated with the planets while the planets are given their Roman names.  

For those of you who speak (the Latin derivative) Spanish, the names of the days and the names of the planets are more obviously similar. Martes (Tuesday)-Mars, Miercoles (Wednesday)-Mercury, Jueves (Thursday)-Jupiter, Viernes (Friday)-Venus). I never did learn the Spanish names of the planets. And, not being online (or having any other way to access a Spanish English dictionary at the moment) I can’t look them up. 

All this is a new discovery to me. Those of you who know more/better, please feel free to add/correct.

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2 responses to “Did You Know?”

  1. Josiah Avatar
    Josiah

    Micah,

    I’m often fascinated by the funny ties between languages. Thursday in English comes from “Thor’s day,” or the day of Thor, the thunder god. I had already known that, but didn’t realize any connection between that and the German “Donnerstag,” until I realized that ‘Donner” is the german word for thunder. Thunder-day! Incidentally, I also found it amusing that two of the reindeer in the famous “Rudolph” ballad are “Thunder” and “Lightning;” Donner and Blitzen.

    That’s my language rant for today 🙂

    praying for you!

    Reply
  2. Angelina Avatar
    Angelina

    I noticed this in Spanish, too, but I never took the time to look it up. So, your blog motivated me to do a little research…

    I found this concise explanation on good ol’ Wikipedia (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planeta). And I’ll provide the translation interlinearly for any whose Spanish is rusty…

    El nombre de los planetas (The planet names):
    Mercurio: mensajero de los dioses. (Mercury: messenger of the gods)
    Venus: diosa del amor y de la belleza. (Venus: goddess of love and beauty)
    La Tierra: madre de todos los dioses. (Earth: mother of all the gods)
    Marte: dios de la guerra. (Mars: god of war)
    Júpiter: dios supremo y creador del universo. (Jupiter: supreme god and creator of the universe)
    Saturno: dios titán, padre de Júpiter. (Saturn: Titan god, father of Júpiter)
    Urano: dios del cielo. (Uranus: god of the sky/heaven)
    Neptuno: dios del mar. (Neptune: god of the sea)

    ..and FYI, Pluto (Plutón), which used to be considered a planet, was named by an eleven-year old girl, who won a contest, it’s also named after a Greek god, too, I think…

    En diferentes culturas los días de la semana provienen de los nombres de los dioses asociados con cada uno de estos astros. (In different cultures the days of the week come from the names of the gods associated with each of these planets.)
    Lunes por la Luna (Monday for the moon)
    Martes por Marte (Tuesday for Mars)
    Miércoles por Mercurio (Wednesday for Mercury)
    Jueves por Júpiter (Thursday for Jupiter)
    Viernes por Venus (Friday for Venus)
    Sábado por Saturno (Saturday for Saturn, NOTE: Sábado is also the word for Sabbath in Spanish)
    Domingo por el Sol (die domini en latín) (Sunday for the sun, (die domini in Latin))

    Anyway, it’s good to hear that your enjoying the studying. Don’t you think that studying different cultures and customs, and languages in particular, help a person understand more about the commonality of human nature that transcends cultural boundaries?

    Take care . . . I’m praying for you. A couple weeks ago we enjoyed a joint prayer service for you and the others in Thailand–our Spanish- and English-speaking people all together as one group at Mt. Rock. May you reap the blessings.

    ~Angelina

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