Thread: Croatian months

I just saw that the names of the months in Croatian were completely different from the Serbian ones, and I think also from the other South Slavic languages.

So I'm wondering where those words come from... If you have the answer, I'd be interested to learn that.

The Croatian names for the months are old Slavic forms. Compare them to the names of the months in Polish and Czech (and I think Ukrainian also) and you'll notice that a lot of them are very similar.

What is interesting though is that the names of the months in these four languages, though they are very similar, do not all fall at the same time. Some of them are pretty constant though (like listopad)

And how come those forms are used in Croatia and not in Serbia for instance? Are there historical reasons (which is often the case in things of that kind)?

Originally Posted by iblix

And how come those forms are used in Croatia and not in Serbia for instance? Are there historical reasons (which is often the case in things of that kind)?

It's sort of for the same reason that Croatian is written in the Latin alphabet, and Serbian in Cyrillic.

Croats are mostly Catholic (Western)
Serbs are mostly Orthodox (Eastern)

The Catholic slavs languages tend to be written in the Latin alphabet (it's more Western). - Czech, Slovak, Polish, Croatian. Slovenian

The Orthodox slavs languages tend to be in Cyrillic: - Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian, Belarusian

The Orthodox slavs' languages mostly replaced their old slavonic months with the more Western, Latin based ones (like English months):
Russian: Yanvar', fevral', mart, aprel', may, iyun', iyul', avgust, sentabr', oktyabr', novyabr', dekabr'.


As far as I am aware: The languages with the jan, feb, april, may style months are: Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian

The others have nice old slavic style months: Czech, Slovak, Polish, Belarussian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian.

The Catholic slavs languages tend to be written in the Latin alphabet (it's more Western). - Czech, Slovak, Polish, Croatian. Slovenian

The Orthodox slavs languages tend to be in Cyrillic: - Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian, Belarusian

The Orthodox slavs' languages mostly replaced their old slavonic months with the more Western, Latin based ones (like English months):

It's kind of paradoxal, isn't it? I would have thought the languages using the cyrillic alphabet would be the ones to keep the slavonic months...
That's why I was wondering about this.

Originally Posted by iblix

The Catholic slavs languages tend to be written in the Latin alphabet (it's more Western). - Czech, Slovak, Polish, Croatian. Slovenian

The Orthodox slavs languages tend to be in Cyrillic: - Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian, Belarusian

The Orthodox slavs' languages mostly replaced their old slavonic months with the more Western, Latin based ones (like English months):

It's kind of paradoxal, isn't it? I would have thought the languages using the cyrillic alphabet would be the ones to keep the slavonic months...
That's why I was wondering about this.

Well Cyrillic was invented (via Glagolitic) to translate the Bible into Slavonic for the Slavs. The inventers were two Greek Orthodox monks St. Cyril and his brother Methodius, who were from Greek Macedonia (not to be confused with FYRO Macedonian!!!). Anyway, that's sort of why the Orthodox slavs use Cyrillic.

As for the months, I believe January, February, march months came in via Greek which is where Orthodoxy came from. But don't quote me on that.

Originally Posted by TATY

As for the months, I believe January, February, march months came in via Greek which is where Orthodoxy came from. But don't quote me on that.

Wrong! Months like : January, February, March... are all came from Latin. And I'll tell you the origin of that names.

January- Roman god Ianuarius, god of the doors, and New Year
February- some Roman holiday, Fevrualis
March- Roman god Mars, god of war (Mars,-is)
April- don't remember really...
May- some Roman godess
Jun- ...
July- from Gaius Iulis Caesar, he put a name of month
August- Octavian Augustus, Roman Emperor (Augustus means diveine)
September- Romans had 10 months originally so they called, September, seventh month (Septem= seven, in Latin)
October- same as September (octem= eight)
November- (novem= nine)
December- (decem= ten)

I think that religion doesn't have any connection with the name sof the months. You see that and Orthodox Slavs use old Slavic forms of months. It's just a matter of tradition, decision.

Originally Posted by Vlacko

Originally Posted by TATY

As for the months, I believe January, February, march months came in via Greek which is where Orthodoxy came from. But don't quote me on that.

Wrong! Months like : January, February, March... are all came from Latin. And I'll tell you the origin of that names.

January- Roman god Ianuarius, god of the doors, and New Year
February- some Roman holiday, Fevrualis
March- Roman god Mars, god of war (Mars,-is)
April- don't remember really...
May- some Roman godess
Jun- ...
July- from Gaius Iulis Caesar, he put a name of month
August- Octavian Augustus, Roman Emperor (Augustus means diveine)
September- Romans had 10 months originally so they called, September, seventh month (Septem= seven, in Latin)
October- same as September (octem= eight)
November- (novem= nine)
December- (decem= ten)

I think that religion doesn't have any connection with the name sof the months. You see that and Orthodox Slavs use old Slavic forms of months. It's just a matter of tradition, decision.

I said came in VIA Greek. Not that they came from Greek.

Originally Posted by Vlacko

Wrong! Months like : January, February, March... are all came from Latin. And I'll tell you the origin of that names.

..

I think that religion doesn't have any connection with the name sof the months. You see that and Orthodox Slavs use old Slavic forms of months. It's just a matter of tradition, decision.

I think that religion is of great importance for the names of the months. Orthodox countries use names borrowed from Greek. Of course, those names were borrowed into Greek from Latin. But Russians, Bulgarians, Serbs took the names of the months from the Orthodox calendar in its Greek version.

What about Ukraine? There are still competions there: between Orthodox and Uniate people, between Russian and Ukrainian language, between Russian and Polish influence. So, other names of the months are used in Ukraine because of Uniate and Polish influence. I doubt that "old Slavic names of the months" have been preserved in Ukraine. Rather, they have been borrowed from Polish, most probably.