Yes, so far my attempts to learn Portuguese are mostly doing nothing but causing me to lose the caveman Spanish I had! I've hoped my brain would know how to keep Portuguese and Spanish in separate compartments, but nooooo. I don't know how polyglots do it. I think it's curious that Portuguese is the only language I've brushed up against …
Yes, so far my attempts to learn Portuguese are mostly doing nothing but causing me to lose the caveman Spanish I had! I've hoped my brain would know how to keep Portuguese and Spanish in separate compartments, but nooooo. I don't know how polyglots do it. I think it's curious that Portuguese is the only language I've brushed up against that has given up naming the days of the week after pagan gods. Yes, of course the reason is (click click search) "This stems from the 15th century, when priest Martinho de Dume, from Braga, Portugal, established the names of the days of the week based on Christian—and not Pagan—names." Except that there's nothing Christian about "first, second, third, fourth, fifth, Sabbath, Lord."
I found out some years ago, when teaching portuguese to a jewish french woman, that in hebrew it is (with a little "Sunday adaptation") the same! I was amazed! So, it goes like this: "The Hebrew names of the days of the week are numerical: Sunday - Yom rishon - "first day", Monday - Yom shani- "second day", Tuesday - Yom shlishi- "third day", Wednesday - Yom r'vi'i- "fourth day", Thursday - Yom hamishi- "fifth day", Friday - Yom shishi- "sixth day" (and also cErev shabbat -"eve of Sabbath"), Saturday -Yom Shabbat "Sabbath Day"!
Still on the portuguese names of the days, it is also fun that the latin "feria" (which is now in PT "feira" meaning also festival, holy day = holiday, fair/market) meant then, in Ecclesiastical Latin, "weekday" (day without a feast). "Féria" in PT exists too, meaning "the pay of a day's work". And so... we have now in PT (stemming from the same Latin root) "feriados" (public holidays) and "(as) férias" (holiday/s) - always plural (see before cf. "féria"). In conclusion: "feira" and "féria" and "feriado" and "férias" is enough to confuse any PT learner...
SOME smaller Protestant Christian denominations, notably Quakers (Quacres), object to pagan names and use numbered days in English: First Day for Sunday, Second Day, etc. Thank you for listing the "féria/feriados/férias" variatons, which is indeed confusing to THIS Portuguese learner.
If you look into it a little further you'll see references about it (segunda-feira, terça-feira...) being related to the Easter week. A recent discovery for me as well!
Yes, so far my attempts to learn Portuguese are mostly doing nothing but causing me to lose the caveman Spanish I had! I've hoped my brain would know how to keep Portuguese and Spanish in separate compartments, but nooooo. I don't know how polyglots do it. I think it's curious that Portuguese is the only language I've brushed up against that has given up naming the days of the week after pagan gods. Yes, of course the reason is (click click search) "This stems from the 15th century, when priest Martinho de Dume, from Braga, Portugal, established the names of the days of the week based on Christian—and not Pagan—names." Except that there's nothing Christian about "first, second, third, fourth, fifth, Sabbath, Lord."
I found out some years ago, when teaching portuguese to a jewish french woman, that in hebrew it is (with a little "Sunday adaptation") the same! I was amazed! So, it goes like this: "The Hebrew names of the days of the week are numerical: Sunday - Yom rishon - "first day", Monday - Yom shani- "second day", Tuesday - Yom shlishi- "third day", Wednesday - Yom r'vi'i- "fourth day", Thursday - Yom hamishi- "fifth day", Friday - Yom shishi- "sixth day" (and also cErev shabbat -"eve of Sabbath"), Saturday -Yom Shabbat "Sabbath Day"!
Still on the portuguese names of the days, it is also fun that the latin "feria" (which is now in PT "feira" meaning also festival, holy day = holiday, fair/market) meant then, in Ecclesiastical Latin, "weekday" (day without a feast). "Féria" in PT exists too, meaning "the pay of a day's work". And so... we have now in PT (stemming from the same Latin root) "feriados" (public holidays) and "(as) férias" (holiday/s) - always plural (see before cf. "féria"). In conclusion: "feira" and "féria" and "feriado" and "férias" is enough to confuse any PT learner...
SOME smaller Protestant Christian denominations, notably Quakers (Quacres), object to pagan names and use numbered days in English: First Day for Sunday, Second Day, etc. Thank you for listing the "féria/feriados/férias" variatons, which is indeed confusing to THIS Portuguese learner.
If you look into it a little further you'll see references about it (segunda-feira, terça-feira...) being related to the Easter week. A recent discovery for me as well!