Re: [tied] Re: cardinal points

On Fri, 02 May 2003 10:53:15 +0000, m_iacomi <m_iacomi@...>
wrote:

> In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "alex_lycos" <altamix@...> scrise:
>
>> In Rom. there is an another way to tell about the cardinal points
>> they being connected with the sun and with the belief that in
>> North is born the night in south is born the day.
>> North: miazã-noapte ( middle of the night)
>> South miazã-zi ( middle of the day)
>
> You should link that with southern position of sun at noon. By
>inversion, at midnight the sun should be in the opposite sense,
>hence North (actually it is so, it's just one can't see it, the
>Earth is far from being transparent).

The Germanic names for the cardinal points were not borrowed into
Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian from French until ca. the
15th c. The old Catalan terms were: migjorn (S, cf. Fr. midi, Spa.
mediodía, It. mezzogiorno), ponent (W), tramuntana (N) and llevant /
solixent (E), besides learnèd occident (W), septentrió (N) and orient
(E).


=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...