Date:  Fri, 3 Dec 1993 04:27:51 -0500

From:  "E.W. Schneider" <EWSCHNEI[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ALF4.NGATE.UNI-REGENSBURG.D400.DE>

Subject: (Fwd) Re: quarter of



------- Forwarded Message Follows -------

From:     Self <ALF4/EWSCHNEI>

To:      debaron[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uiuc.edu

Subject:    Re: quarter of

Date:     Thu, 2 Dec 1993 09:38:37



Any typologists out there? I cannot join the discussion on English

quarter of`s and half past`s, but it might be interesting to popint out we

have exactly the same variation in German: 6.15 is "viertel nach

6/quarter past 6" to some but "viertel 7 / quarter seven" to others, and

6.45 is "viertel vor 7" to my wife but "3/4 7/three quarters seven" to me

- it is clearly regionally distributed, but don`t ask me how (we grew up

some 50 miles apart).

However, 6.30 is always "halb 7", if I see that correctly, never

something like "halb nach 6".

Incidentally, there is a conventional way of avoiding an overly exact

time reference or temporal commtiment by leaving out the hour -

something like "When will you be back?" - "Half past". Does this sound

familiar?

Having written this at half past, while you folks in the western

hemisphere are proably sleeping, or whatever,

Edgar

Edgar W. Schneider

ewschnei[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]alf4.ngate.uni-regensburg.de

University of Regensburg, 93040 Regensburg, Germany

phone (int. line)-49-941-9433470

fax  (int. line)-49-941-9434992