6. Reckoning the Passage of Time

6. Reckoning the Passage of Time 

The word గంట means "bell." By extension, it can be used to indicate "hour" because wall clocks produce chimes every hour.           

1.         Times of Day

ఒంటి గంట 
oM-Ti-gaM-Ta
one O' clock
రెండు గంటలు 
reM-Du gaM-Ta-lu
two O' clock

ఒకటీ పది 
o-Ka-TI pa-di
one ten
రెండున్నర 
reM-Dunna-ra
two thirty
ముడుంపావు 
mU-DuM-pAvu
three fifteen
పావు తక్కువ నాలుగు 
pA-vu ta-kku-va nA-lu-gu
quarter to four

            (a) Notice the special adjective form of "one." Literally, ఒంటి means 'lone'. Other occasions where this usage occurs are: ఒంటి బ్రాహ్మడు  (lone Brahmin); ఒంటిమిట్ట (Lone Hill), the name of a village of historical importance. 

            (b) In the West a day is divided into two halves: AM and PM. In India, a day is visualized as comprising of more than two parts. Each of these parts  has a separate identifying name. Some of those names are listed below.

3 AM to 6 AM:            తెల్లవారుజాము 
6 AM to 9 AM:            ఉదయం, పొద్దుట 
12 N to 3 PM:              మధ్యాహ్నం 
3 PM to 6 PM:             సాయంత్రం,  సాయంకాలం 
6 PM to 3 AM:            రాత్రి 

            (c) With this convention, the following translations are acceptable:

10 AM:           ఉదయం 10 గంటలు 
6.30 PM:         సాయంత్రం ఆరున్నర 
3.15 PM:         మధ్యాహ్నం మూడుంపావు 
3.50:                పది నిముషాలు తక్కువ నాలుగు 
4.10 AM:        తెల్లవారుజామున నాలుగూ పది  

 Notice how the న is added at the end of the first Telugu word in the last line above, whereas such an addition is not required for the other  cases.

The word జాము  (jA-mu) is an anachronism from ancient times. A జాము is three hours in duration. The traditional day begins at sunrise (approximately 6 AM). So the end of the second జాము  is mid-day. Examples of using this term are:

Ex. 1: జాము పొద్దు ఎక్కింది  = It is mid-morning or 9 AM (literally, the Sun has climbed for a three hour duration).
Ex. 2: మూడో జాము నిద్రలో ఉన్నాను = My sleep has entered the third quarter of the night. In this last expression, the assumption is that the counting has begun at 6 PM.

2. Week Days

The word వారం (vA-raM) stands both for a week and the day of a week. Purists tend to use the Sanskrit word వాసరం (vA-sa-raM) for the day of the week and వారం for the seven-day period. The following are the names of the seven days of a week in Simplified Telugu. Read them aloud. Write the names in Telugu.

ఆదివారం (A-di-vA-raM) = Sunday
సోమవారం (sO-ma-vA-raM) = Monday
మంగళ వారం (maM-ga-La-vA-raM) = Tuesday
బుధవారం (bu-dha-vA-raM) = Wednesday
గురువారం (gu-ru-vA-raM) = Thursday
శుక్రవారం (Su-kra-vA-raM) = Friday
శనివారం (Sa-ni-vA-raM) = Saturday

Expressions of time involving days of the week show as a suffix నాడు  (nA--Du), those involving months have the suffix లో  (lO), or more explicitly మాసంలో  (mA-saM-lO). For example:
ఆదివారం నాడు  = on Sunday
మార్చి లో  = in March 
కార్తీకమాసం లో  = in the month of Karthikam 

3. Months

Both the English and Telugu months are equally popular. First, the English months:

జనవరి 
ja-na-va-ri
January
ఫిబ్రవరి 
fi-bra-va-ri
February
మార్చి 
mA-rci
March
ఏప్రిల్ 
E-pri-lu
April
మే 
mE
May
జూన్ 
jU-nu
June
జూలై 
jU-lai
July
ఆగస్టు 
A-ga-shTu
August
సెప్టెంబరు 
se-pteM-ba-ru
September
అక్టోబరు 
a-oTO-ba-ru
October
నవంబరు 
na-vaM-ba-ru
November
డిసెంబరు 
di-seM-ba-ru
December

The names of the Telugu months are shown below. Their occurence coincides approximately with the "English months" shown in the third column.
చైత్రం  
cai-traM
~March 
వైశాఖం 
vai-SA-khaM
~April 
జ్యేష్ఠం 
JyE-sh-TaM
~c May
ఆషాఢం 
A-shA-DaM
~c June
శ్రావణం 
SrA-va-NaM
~c July
భాద్రపదం 
bhA-dra-pa-daM
~c August
ఆశ్వీజం 
A-SvI-jaM
~c September
కార్తీకం 
kA-r-tI-kaM
~c October
మార్గశిరం 
mA-r-ga-Si-raM
~c November
పుష్యం 
pu-shyaM
~c December
మాఘం  
mA-ghaM
~c January
ఫాల్గుణం  
phA-lgu-NaM
~c February

4. Date

The words  తేదీ (tE-di) and తారీఖు  (tA-rI-khu) both mean 'date'. It is implied in expressions such as:

జనవరి ఒకటి  = January 1st
జనవరి ఒకటిన  = on January 1st

Notice how the suffix న is used to imply "on" a certain date.

Exercises


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