Happy Winter Solstice Day!

I was told this by my college German professor, so I cannot vouch for its
accuracy as I don't speak all the languages.

Winter solstice (Dec 21 or 22) is the shortest day of the year. At least it
is in English, German, and Russian.

In French, Spanish, and Italian it is the longest night of the year.



Jim

"RST Engineering" wrote in message
...
I was told this by my college German professor, so I cannot vouch for its
accuracy as I don't speak all the languages.

Can you at least vouch for its making any sense semantically?

Winter solstice (Dec 21 or 22) is the shortest day of the year. At least
it is in English, German, and Russian.

In French, Spanish, and Italian it is the longest night of the year.

What does that mean? "in English, German, and Russian". In what
English-language-specific way is the Winter solstice the shortest day of the
year and at the same time *not* also the longest night of the year?

(Ignoring, of course, that the solstice is not a date, but a particular
moment in time...I'll take as granted that people often talk of the specific
date as the solstice even though technically that's not what it is).

Pete

In article ,
"Peter Duniho" wrote:

Winter solstice (Dec 21 or 22) is the shortest day of the year. At least
it is in English, German, and Russian.

In French, Spanish, and Italian it is the longest night of the year.

What does that mean? "in English, German, and Russian". In what
English-language-specific way is the Winter solstice the shortest day of the
year and at the same time *not* also the longest night of the year?

Glass half-full, glass half-empty?

At least that's how I looked at it.

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate

From an engineer's point of view, the glass is WAY over-designed.

{;-)

Jim



"Bob Noel" wrote in message
...


Glass half-full, glass half-empty?

At least that's how I looked at it.

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate

From an engineer's point of view, the glass is WAY over-designed.

{;-)

Jim

Or simply too large; but either way, a waste of resources.

;-)

Peter

"Bob Noel" wrote in message
...
Winter solstice (Dec 21 or 22) is the shortest day of the year. At
least
it is in English, German, and Russian.

In French, Spanish, and Italian it is the longest night of the year.

What does that mean? "in English, German, and Russian". In what
English-language-specific way is the Winter solstice the shortest day of
the
year and at the same time *not* also the longest night of the year?

Glass half-full, glass half-empty?

At least that's how I looked at it.

That's not the question I'm asking. I understand the difference between
looking at the solstice as the longest day or night versus the shortest
night or day, respectively.

The question is, what is it that Jim claims causes the Winter solstice to be
"the shortest day of the year" in English? It's just as much the longest
night of the year in English as it is the shortest day.

His post implies there's some optimism in English, German, and Russian and
some pessimism in French, Spanish, and Italian, but completely fails to
explain where or how this optimism or pessimism is represented. Personally,
I doubt there's any basis to his claim at all, but since his post isn't even
clear about what his claim is it's kind of hard to say.

Pete

"Peter Duniho" wrote in message
...
"Bob Noel" wrote in message
...
Winter solstice (Dec 21 or 22) is the shortest day of the year. At
least
it is in English, German, and Russian.

In French, Spanish, and Italian it is the longest night of the year.

What does that mean? "in English, German, and Russian". In what
English-language-specific way is the Winter solstice the shortest day
of
the
year and at the same time *not* also the longest night of the year?

Glass half-full, glass half-empty?

At least that's how I looked at it.

That's not the question I'm asking. I understand the difference between
looking at the solstice as the longest day or night versus the shortest
night or day, respectively.

The question is, what is it that Jim claims causes the Winter solstice to
be
"the shortest day of the year" in English? It's just as much the longest
night of the year in English as it is the shortest day.

His post implies there's some optimism in English, German, and Russian and
some pessimism in French, Spanish, and Italian, but completely fails to
explain where or how this optimism or pessimism is represented.
Personally,
I doubt there's any basis to his claim at all, but since his post isn't
even
clear about what his claim is it's kind of hard to say.

Pete


For many of us, it's interesting trivia; while for others, just trivia.
For a very few, it could be very usefull; or not.
YMMV

Peter

"Peter Dohm" wrote in message
...
For many of us, it's interesting trivia; while for others, just trivia.
For a very few, it could be very usefull; or not.
YMMV

WHAT TRIVIA?

The statement Jim made is meaningless. It's not trivia at all. It's
semantically empty words.

It means NOTHING to say that "in English, the Winter solstice is the
shortest day of the year but in some other language the Winter solstice is
the longest night of the year". In English it is both, and in any other
language it is also both.

There is nothing about the English language that forces one to consider the
Winter solstice as the shortest day of the year rather than the longest
night.

If you think it's trivia, useful or not, then how about explaining WHAT THE
FRIGGIN' STATEMENT MEANS.

Thank you.

You must be the stupidest asshole on the face of the earth. Or perhaps
asexual.

In the first place, I stated that it was my college German professor's
assertion, not mine, but that I found it interesting.

In the second place, you will note that the three languages mentioned
(English, German, and Russian) are somewhat north and would be most
interested in how much daylight was available during winter for heat.

In the third place, you will note that the three languages mentioned
(French, Spanish, and Italian) are both somewhat south AND probably more
interested in what goes on at night than you, you dork.

Jim





The statement Jim made is meaningless. It's not trivia at all. It's
semantically empty words.

In article ,
"Peter Duniho" wrote:

The question is, what is it that Jim claims causes the Winter solstice to be
"the shortest day of the year" in English? It's just as much the longest
night of the year in English as it is the shortest day.

so what? it's redundant to say it's the longest night after saying it's the
shortest day.


His post implies there's some optimism in English, German, and Russian and
some pessimism in French, Spanish, and Italian, but completely fails to
explain where or how this optimism or pessimism is represented. Personally,
I doubt there's any basis to his claim at all, but since his post isn't even
clear about what his claim is it's kind of hard to say.

Shortest day, longest night, doesn't imply anything wrt optimism to me.

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate