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The "a" is a normal indefinite article. "Divorce" is a count (countable) noun in this context and can also be a mass (uncountable) noun in other contexts. The question about "supposed to be" is meaningless. --
174.89.12.187 (
talk)
06:13, 5 May 2023 (UTC)reply
It's just one of the many inconsistencies of the English language that you can either get divorced or get a divorce but you can only get married and not *get a marriage. —
Mahāgaja ·
talk07:38, 5 May 2023 (UTC)reply
"a marriage" is perfectly cromulent. The sentence "I have had three marriages and two divorces" is perfectly reasonable. And yes, "divorce" is a countable noun, as I just demonstrated. --
Jayron3212:43, 5 May 2023 (UTC)reply
I never denied that marriage is a countable noun, I'm just asserting that no one says "I'm getting a marriage" to mean "I'm getting married" the way people say "I'm getting a divorce" to mean "I'm getting divorced". —
Mahāgaja ·
talk07:39, 6 May 2023 (UTC)reply
I'm reading the
list of member fraternities of the Cartellverband. Apparently their names are in Latin and somehow refer to their respective territory/city. Some of them are transparent, such as: Badenia, Bavaria, Carinthia, Guestfalia, Palatia, Rhenania or Saxonia, but a few of them are quite mysterious, in particular: Aenania, Alcimonia, Algovia, Ascania, Tuisconia/Tuiskonia, Makaria, Moenania, Novesia. Do you have any idea about their meaning?
79.26.53.210 (
talk)
07:16, 5 May 2023 (UTC)reply
The situation seems similar to the developments in Icelandic, Portuguese and Modern Greek, where the older system was (mostly) replaced. In the European cases, it would largely have been due to Christian views on paganism. In Chinese, it seems that the modern system basically originated with the founding of the
Republic of China in 1911. The founders mostly seem to have been revolutionaries and nationalists, but not strictly communists, so I guess the older system might have been seen as convoluted and superstitious. The old name for Sunday might have been kept, as it was exceptional as a resting day.
惑乱 Wakuran (
talk)
14:50, 5 May 2023 (UTC)reply
Before they adopted the Western-style week, the Chinese used a ten-day cycle known as a 旬 xún in ordering their daily lives and activities. Although the Christian week was not unknown (it was known, for instance, from contact with the Jesuits in the 16th-18th centuries), the seven-day week as we know it first became widely familiar in the 19th century with the coming of traders and missionaries from Western powers.
Well, actually the seven-day week arrived in China quite a while ago.
From the Cihai: 中国在4世纪时有此法。("This reckoning [the seven-day week] existed in China in the 4th century", i.e. Jin dynasty). Buddhists and Manichaeans from the
Western Regions probably brought it in again in the 8th century, i.e. Tang dynasty. The site you link to describes all of this when
discussing the weekdays in Japanese. The recent innovation was actually adopting the 7-day week for the daily schedule. When China and Japan did this, Japan put the traditional planetary names in daily use, whereas Chinese replaced them with numerical names.
For completeness, Korean uses the same Chinese-character names as Japanese (but read in Korean and mostly today written in Hangul), whereas Vietnamese
rather follows the Portuguese pattern (numbered days with special Sunday, and Monday as the second day), as do the traditional names used by Chinese Catholics.
Double sharp (
talk)
22:49, 5 May 2023 (UTC)reply
It has nothing to do with the traditional ten-day week. Sunday is a special day in the Christian religion, which was the introduction vector of the seven-day week. It might be worth considering that the second syllable of the word "week" (xingqi) is homophonous with the word for "seven". I could see the pronunciation being misparsed, especially as time terms tend to come at the beginning of the sentence in Chinese and thus are easily miscontextualised. No references.
Folly Mox (
talk)
12:26, 6 May 2023 (UTC)reply
Looking at the table
here I've only encountered the informal 禮拜 in Cantonese, in Hong Kong in particular where it is the usual form. Interestingly in Cantonese 一 and 日 are a
minimal pair, both pronounced "yat" but with different tones. So 禮拜一 and 禮拜日 are both "laibaiyat", only distinguished by their tones, a particular problem for anyone trying to get by without tones.
92.40.5.34 (
talk)
09:09, 7 May 2023 (UTC)reply
Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a
transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the
current reference desk pages.
The "a" is a normal indefinite article. "Divorce" is a count (countable) noun in this context and can also be a mass (uncountable) noun in other contexts. The question about "supposed to be" is meaningless. --
174.89.12.187 (
talk)
06:13, 5 May 2023 (UTC)reply
It's just one of the many inconsistencies of the English language that you can either get divorced or get a divorce but you can only get married and not *get a marriage. —
Mahāgaja ·
talk07:38, 5 May 2023 (UTC)reply
"a marriage" is perfectly cromulent. The sentence "I have had three marriages and two divorces" is perfectly reasonable. And yes, "divorce" is a countable noun, as I just demonstrated. --
Jayron3212:43, 5 May 2023 (UTC)reply
I never denied that marriage is a countable noun, I'm just asserting that no one says "I'm getting a marriage" to mean "I'm getting married" the way people say "I'm getting a divorce" to mean "I'm getting divorced". —
Mahāgaja ·
talk07:39, 6 May 2023 (UTC)reply
I'm reading the
list of member fraternities of the Cartellverband. Apparently their names are in Latin and somehow refer to their respective territory/city. Some of them are transparent, such as: Badenia, Bavaria, Carinthia, Guestfalia, Palatia, Rhenania or Saxonia, but a few of them are quite mysterious, in particular: Aenania, Alcimonia, Algovia, Ascania, Tuisconia/Tuiskonia, Makaria, Moenania, Novesia. Do you have any idea about their meaning?
79.26.53.210 (
talk)
07:16, 5 May 2023 (UTC)reply
The situation seems similar to the developments in Icelandic, Portuguese and Modern Greek, where the older system was (mostly) replaced. In the European cases, it would largely have been due to Christian views on paganism. In Chinese, it seems that the modern system basically originated with the founding of the
Republic of China in 1911. The founders mostly seem to have been revolutionaries and nationalists, but not strictly communists, so I guess the older system might have been seen as convoluted and superstitious. The old name for Sunday might have been kept, as it was exceptional as a resting day.
惑乱 Wakuran (
talk)
14:50, 5 May 2023 (UTC)reply
Before they adopted the Western-style week, the Chinese used a ten-day cycle known as a 旬 xún in ordering their daily lives and activities. Although the Christian week was not unknown (it was known, for instance, from contact with the Jesuits in the 16th-18th centuries), the seven-day week as we know it first became widely familiar in the 19th century with the coming of traders and missionaries from Western powers.
Well, actually the seven-day week arrived in China quite a while ago.
From the Cihai: 中国在4世纪时有此法。("This reckoning [the seven-day week] existed in China in the 4th century", i.e. Jin dynasty). Buddhists and Manichaeans from the
Western Regions probably brought it in again in the 8th century, i.e. Tang dynasty. The site you link to describes all of this when
discussing the weekdays in Japanese. The recent innovation was actually adopting the 7-day week for the daily schedule. When China and Japan did this, Japan put the traditional planetary names in daily use, whereas Chinese replaced them with numerical names.
For completeness, Korean uses the same Chinese-character names as Japanese (but read in Korean and mostly today written in Hangul), whereas Vietnamese
rather follows the Portuguese pattern (numbered days with special Sunday, and Monday as the second day), as do the traditional names used by Chinese Catholics.
Double sharp (
talk)
22:49, 5 May 2023 (UTC)reply
It has nothing to do with the traditional ten-day week. Sunday is a special day in the Christian religion, which was the introduction vector of the seven-day week. It might be worth considering that the second syllable of the word "week" (xingqi) is homophonous with the word for "seven". I could see the pronunciation being misparsed, especially as time terms tend to come at the beginning of the sentence in Chinese and thus are easily miscontextualised. No references.
Folly Mox (
talk)
12:26, 6 May 2023 (UTC)reply
Looking at the table
here I've only encountered the informal 禮拜 in Cantonese, in Hong Kong in particular where it is the usual form. Interestingly in Cantonese 一 and 日 are a
minimal pair, both pronounced "yat" but with different tones. So 禮拜一 and 禮拜日 are both "laibaiyat", only distinguished by their tones, a particular problem for anyone trying to get by without tones.
92.40.5.34 (
talk)
09:09, 7 May 2023 (UTC)reply