There's something I've been wondering about for a long time. Why is the word for Time and Weather the same in all these (but not excluding all other) langues:



French (temps)

Spanish (tiempo)

Italian (tempo)

Croatian (vrijeme)

Serbian, Russian and many other slavic languages (vreme)



Actually my question consists of two parts:



1. Why are these two totally different conceptions using the same word?

2. Why is this the case in two different language groups (Romanic and Slavic) and not in a third, like Germanic, where there is a clear difference and also a basic unity around the words time/tijd/Zeit/tid and weather/we(d)er/Wetter/vær/väder/vejr?



I hope someone can clear up this riddle for me :).



Edited by Eduard on 01 June 2008 at 6:02am

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I think there is no rule to why certain language groups exhibit this behavior or not. Hungarian, as a non-Indo-European language also uses the same word "idő" for time and weather, though you can specifically refer to the weather with "időjárás" ( "weather-going")



As for the association of time with weather I think it is reflective of an ancient and intimate corelation of the two. Weather was all impotant in deciding on how to spent the workday for most people: peasants, fishermen, hunters, etc. And weather changed as time went by... so the two are intertwined to form an intrinsic unity.



Hope that makes some sense...:)



Edited by LanguageGeek on 01 June 2008 at 6:50am

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farrioth

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Message 3 of 9 01 June 2008 at 7:03am | IP Logged

Interesting point you raise, Eduard.



This is pure conjecture, but is probably a reasonable guess at things;



The relationship may come from seasons; the general weather changed in relationship to the time of year.



Presumably PIE lacked the distinction between the two senses, but this developed in the Germanic branch before it was split further.



The etymology of temperature (generally related to weather) may be of note:



temperature <- lat. temperatura "a tempering, moderation" <- lat. temperare "to mix correctly, moderate, regulate, blend" <- lat. tempus "time, season" with the sense of "proper time or season". (Source: http://www.etymonline.com/).

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Interesting, especially the Hungarian bit.



I had a faint idea of your latter explanation, but I'm still eager to find out more about it. And I also wonder whether there are more languages or language groups that reflect this particular association. Also, a reason for the Germanic languages of using different words may also root in the fact that the weather there is fairly unstable with sometimes 'having 4 seasons on a single day'.

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For russian language: not weather season only! The "weather" don't corresponds with "время"(vremia) at all!



Edited by I'm Russian on 01 June 2008 at 1:06pm

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Then I might have been wrong about that last point (oops!). However it does in several other slavic languages. What does время mean in Russian?

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Eduard wrote:

... What does время mean in Russian?

The "time" in the main, but weather is "погода"(pogoda)

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