Date and time notation in Africa
- Date and time notation in Africa
-
East Africa
Time
In many East African languages, the start of the daily time system is at dawn, not midnight.[citation needed] Thus, what would be seven o'clock in the morning in English becomes one o'clock in the morning in Swahili and other East African languages. This also affects the date: the whole night is the same date as the preceding day. For example, Tuesday does not become Wednesday until morning breaks, rather than changing at midnight.
For multi-lingual speakers in East Africa, the convention is to use the time system applicable to the language one happens to be speaking at the time. A person speaking of an early morning event in English would report that it happened at eight o'clock. However, in repeating the same facts in Swahili, one would state that the events occurred at saa mbili ('two hours').[1][2]
The Ganda form, ssawa bbiri, is equivalent to the Swahili in that it means literally 'two hours'.[3]
References
- ^ Erickson, Helen L. and Marianne Gustafsson, "TIME - KISWAHILI GRAMMAR NOTES - Time: Saa Ngapi?", The Kamusi Project - The Internet Living Swahili Dictionary, Yale Program in African Languages
- ^ Ali, Hassan O., "Useful Swahili Words: Time", Swahili Language & Culture.
- ^ Chesswas, J. D. (1963) Essentials of Luganda. Oxford University Press
See also
| v · d · eDate and time notation in Africa |
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Sovereign
states |
- Algeria
- Angola
- Benin
- Botswana
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cameroon
- Cape Verde
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Comoros
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Republic of the Congo
- Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
- Djibouti
- Egypt
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Ethiopia
- Gabon
- The Gambia
- Ghana
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Kenya
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Libya
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Mali
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Rwanda
- São Tomé and Príncipe
- Senegal
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- South Africa
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Swaziland
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Tunisia
- Uganda
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
|
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States with limited
recognition |
- Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
- Somaliland
|
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Dependencies and
other territories |
- Canary Islands / Ceuta / Melilla / Plazas de soberanía (Spain)
- Madeira (Portugal)
- Mayotte / Réunion (France)
- Saint Helena / Ascension Island / Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom)
- Western Sahara
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Categories:
- Africa
- Date and time representation
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