On the Names of Thursday in Germanic Dialects (ePub)

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,0, Birzeit University, course: PS Lexicology, language: English, abstract: The names of the days have been well known to all of us since we were born. We use them without thinking about their meanings and origins and do not think about their changes in the past. Most often people do not know that until 1976 Sunday was the first day of the week in Christian and Jewish countries. With the DIN-Standardization 1355 Monday became the first day of the week, bound to the UNO decision ISO 8601 in 19731. Though of the world wide decision of the UNO England, Northern America and other countries still count the Sunday as the first day of the week. Even the Islam still use the seven day system with Sunday as the starting day.

The arrangement of the seven day system goes back to the moon cycle of 28 days. Full moon, decreasing half moon, new moon and increasing half moon are the four states that gives us an arrangement of four seven day systems. The naming of the week days goes back to the egocentric world view where the earth is the centre of the universe. The seven viewable planets Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon were used to name the seven week days.