Days of the Week

My friend and I are discussing the parallels between the days of the week in Chinese/Korean/Japanese languages and European languages.

日曜日-(Sun-week-day)
月曜日-(Moon-week-day)
火曜日-(Mars-week-day)
水曜日-(Mercury-week-day)
木曜日-(Jupiter-week-day)
金曜日-(Venus-week-day)
土曜日-(Saturn

What is the explanation? Who came up with it first?

I believe Chinese is the simplest:

星期天/星期日- (week sky / week sun) = Sunday
星期一 - (week one) = Monday
星期二 - (week two) = Tuesday
星期三 - (week three) Wednesday
星期四 - (week four) = Thursday
星期五 - (week five) = Friday
星期六 - (week six) = Saturday

星 = star
期 = period

In case somebody might also wonder...

The twelve months in Chinese:

From January:
一月
二月
三月
四月
五月
六月
七月
八月
九月
十月
十一月
十二月

Yes, it's 'first month', 'second month', 'third month' and so on

Mandarin vocabulary becomes exponentially easier to pick up as you accumulate more and more vocabulary. Chinese characters are highly 'recycled' and this makes it more effective to learn new words.

Dimanche - Lundi - Mardi - Mercredi - Jeudi - Vendredi - Samedi (french)

Domenica - Lunedi - Martedi - Mercoledi - Giovedì - Venerdì - Sabato (italian)

Domingo - Lunes - Martes - Miércoles - Jueves - Viernes - Sábado (spanish)

Domingo - Segunda (feira) - Terça - Quarta - Quinta - Sexta - Sábado (portuguese)

Duminică - Luni - Marţi - Miercuri - Joi - Vineri - Sâmbătă (romanian)

Sonntag - Montag - Dienstag - Mittwoch - Donnerstag - Freitag - Samstag (german)

Zondag - Maandag - Dinsdag - Woensdag - Donderdag - Vrijdag - Zaterdag (dutch)

Söndag - Måndag - tisdag -onsdag - torsdag - fredag - lördag (sweden)

søndag - mandag - tirsdag - onsdag - torsdag - fredag - lørdag (norwegian)

sunnuntai - maanantai - tiistai - keskiviikko - torstai - perjantai - lauantai
(suomi/finnish)

pühapäev - esmaspäev - teisipäev - kolmapäev - neljapäev - reede - laupäev (estonian)

Svētdiena - Pirmdiena - Otrdiena - Trešdiena - Ceturtdiena - Piektdiena - Sestdiena ( latvian)

sekmadienis - pirmadienis - antradienis - trečiadienis - ketvirtadienis - penktadienis - šeštadienis (lithuanian)

Niedziela - Poniedzialek - Wtorek - Środa - Czwartek - Piątek - Sobota (polish)

nedjelja - ponedjeljak - utorak - srijeda - cetvrtak - petak - subota ( croatian)

nedelja (недел) - ponedelnik (понеделник) - vtornik (вторник) - srjada - �чetv'rt'k (четвъртък ) - pet'k (петък) - s'bota ( bulgarian)

voskresenje (воскресенье) - ponedelnik (понедельник) - vtornik(вторник) - sreda (среда) - chetverg (четверг) - pyatnitca (пятница) - subbota(суббота) (russian)

Κυριακή (Kyriakh) - Δευτέρα (Deutera) - Τρίτη (Trite) - Τετάρτη (Tetarte) - Πέμπτη (Pempte) - Παρασκευή (Paraskeue) - Σάββατο (Savvato) (greek)

I believe Chinese is the simplest:

星期天/星期日- (week sky / week sun) = Sunday
星期一 - (week one) = Monday
星期二 - (week two) = Tuesday
星期三 - (week three) Wednesday
星期四 - (week four) = Thursday
星期五 - (week five) = Friday
星期六 - (week six) = Saturday

Portuguese do that too:

Domingo = the Day of the Lord
Segunda-feira = second day
Terça-feira = three day
Quarta-feira = four day
Quinta-feira = five day
Sexta-feira = six day
Sábado = Shabbat

West Frisian:
moandei-monday
tiisdei-tuesday
woansdei-wednesday
tongersdei-thursday
freed-friday
sneon,saterdei-saturday
snein-sunday

monday - tuesday - wednesday - thursday - friday - saturday - sunday
Maandag - Dinsdag - Woensdag - Donderdag - Vrijdag - Zaterdag - Zondag
moandei - tiisdei - woansdei - tongersdei - freed - saterdei - snein
Montag - Dienstag - Mittwoch - Donnerstag - Freitag - Samstag - Sonntag


Where does "mittwoch " come from ? It doesn't look like others .

<<Where does "mittwoch " come from ? It doesn't look like others . >>

"Mittwoch" is the German suppletive for 'Wednesday' meaning "Midweek" and corresponds to similar forms in Gothic, which also made their way into some Slavic forms for Wednesday (Polish 'Sroda', Russian 'Sreda' "Wednesday, middle")

Slavic =

nonworkingday
thedayafternonworkingday
secondday
middleday
fourthday
fifthday
sabbath

English: Monday - Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday - Friday - Saturday - Sunday

Frisian: Moandei - Tiisdei - Woansdei - Tongersdei - Freed - Saterdei - Snein

Dutch: Maandag - Dinsdag - Woensdag - Donderdag - Vrijdag - Zaterdag - Zondag

German: Montag - Dienstag - Mittwoch - Donnerstag - Freitag - Samstag - Sonntag

Add to this:

Danish: Mandag - Tirsdag - Onsdag - Torsdag - Fredag - Lørdag - Søndag

Swedish: Måndag - Tisdag - Onsdag - Torsdag - Fredag - Lördag - Söndag

Norwegian: Mandag/Måndag - Tirsdag/Tysdag - Onsdag - Torsdag - Fredag - Lørdag/Laurdag - Søndag/Sundag

Icelandic: Mánudagur - þriðjudagur - Miðvikudagur - Fimmtudagur - Föstudagur - Laugardagur - Sunnudagur

Faroese: mánadagur - týsdagur - mikudagur/ónsdagur - hósdagur/tórsdagur - fríggjadagur - leygardagur - sunnudagur


Both Icelandis and Faroese also show the "Midweek" forms in stead of Wednesday (Odin's day)

North Frisian:

Monnendei
Tirsdei
Winsdei
Türsdei
Fridei
Sennin
Sennedei

Montag - Monday

Tnnstag - an extra day, most certainly needed to rest from Monday

Dienstag - Tuesday

Mittwoch - Wednesday

Donnerstag - Thursday

Hmmstag - an extra day, to get through the week and finish all the work in time before Friday

Freitag - Friday

Samstag - Saturday

Hnnstag - a special day to get enough rest before the weekend is over

Sonntag - Sunday