Viral
Mimi Launder
Jan 03, 2018
Jakub Marian
Europe may be entering the New Year still pretty much as one - but not much unites the continent when it comes to actually saying 'January'. Or 'januar', 'janvier' or, indeed, 'styczeń'.
Cartographer Jakub Marian - who also brought us European maps showing the age of consent, the age of prostitution and how to say 'Merry Christmas' - has mapped how people across Europe say 'January'.
It turns out that European words for the first month of the year have pretty wide-spread roots.
Picture: Jakub Marian
The English 'January' comes from the Latin 'ianuarius', which means 'of Janus', the Roman god of doorways, gates transitions, beginnings and endings, according to Marian.
Other European languages - shown in red in the map - share this derivitive.
Further East, in green, the Polish, Ukrainian and Croatian words 'styczeń', 'січень' and 'siječanj' share roots - the Proto Slavic '*sěčьńь', which referred to a time when trees were being cut down.
Here are some more etymologies:
- In blue, Czech 'leden' from 'led' (meaning 'ice')
- In turquoise, Belarusian студзень from a Slavic root for 'cold'
- In dark blue, Lithuanian 'sausis' from 'sausas' (meaning 'dry')
- In black, Scottish Gaelic 'Gaoilleach' from 'faol' (meaning 'wolf') and 'teach' (meaning 'burrow')
- In ochre, Turkish 'ocak' (meannig 'stove, fireplace', which we can all get on board with in January)
- In brown, Finnish tammikuu from 'tammi' (meaning 'heart, core') and 'kuu' (meaning 'month') as January comes in the middle of winter.
- In yellow, Basque 'urtarril' from 'urte' (meaning 'year'), 'berri' (meaning 'new') and 'hil' (meaning 'month')
And, no, 'more maps at jakubmarian.com' is not how you say 'January' in any North African language.
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