But the question was "why was time/calendar standardized but no other units? Church just didnt care about other units, or they couldnt convince anyone for anything except the calendar?

I'm not sure what influence the Catholic Church would have had in Russia and other Orthodox nations anyway.

Being part French, part French Canadian (in Skyrim terms I guess I should have both 25% magic resistance and 50% frost resistance ...) I know what you mean about the paranoia but at the same time using a word like email in French is just plain lazy, so I understand the Academy. Why use an English word when there's a French word that says the same thing? But yeah, languages do evolve all the time and are influenced by other languages. There's a balance I guess between preserving traditional vocabulary/grammar and integrating new words. I think French purists are more concerned about bad French grammar than just using a single foreign word in a sentence. As long as the grammatical structure is French, techically it's still French

That's fair, I guess I just don't see the point of attempting to resist foreign influences regarding vocabulary; grammar is another thing entirely.

After all, the Japanese adopted our word for "baseball" and simply adopted a Japanses-style corruption of the word - basebaru as their common word for the thing. Somebody who was a Japansese-language purist would insist on an entirely domestic-Japanese word being created to use instead, while a Japansese person who wanted to flaunt their fluency in English would always pronounce the word "baseball", even in a Japanese sentence. I occasionally run into Americans who try and do this with Spanish words, especially names; they'll be speaking English, but when they say a name in Spanish, they'll say it in a noticable Mexican/Spanish accent. I always attribute it to a desire to flaunt a fluency in Spanish.

The way I figure it, when people start adopting foreign-language words and stop worrying that they're "Americanizing" (or Deutschifiying, or Anglicizing, or Gallicizing, or Latinizing or whatever) the pronounciation, they're actually adding to their language. Striving to maintain a foreign pronounciation for foreign words (like sushi, or queso, or what have you) is counterproductive to me.

Like what?

But the question was "why was time/calendar standardized but no other units? Church just didnt care about other units, or they couldnt convince anyone for anything except the calendar?

weight units, distance and area units, temperature units, coinage units, etc.

don't be killed by this.

It's certainly a reasonable idea. The Dutch language, according to a friend of mine who is actually dutch and knows the language, has become heavily diluted by English to the point where he heard some folks talking one time and thought they were speaking English. Turned out they were speaking Dutch.

Well, it happens. Nobody's forcing this on the Dutch, it's just a result of their willing behavior, their willing choice to accept foreign words. Also, if Dutch is like most other Germanic languages, the word order can be significantly different than English. Frankly I would expect them to have a heavier influence from German, given that it's closer to Dutch than English is. The English language's links to other Germanic languages are far in the past, our sentence structure and word order are largely different, and of course our vocabulary has had a much different mix of influences.

None of which is to say that Dutch doesn't have any modern English influences, but they're likely largely restricted to some modern word additions, which happens with any language. We have quite a number of Spanish words people use in America, even people who don't really speak Spanish. While I think it's perfectly legitimate for a country to have an official language - I think it would make sense for the U.S. to declare English as the official language - but I am firmly against any attempt to legally prevent the assimilation of foreign words into the mother tongue. I may not want American English displaced by Spanish, but I certainly expect Mexican Spanish words to make their way into American English. Similarly, while I certainly understand and agree with any Dutch or French who don't want their languages pushed aside by English, I find it silly for them to attempt to use the force of law to go further and attempt to prevent English from influencing Dutch and French.

This is just how languages work.

Well, if you believe the books in TES and can think outside the reality of our own world, then it isn't an issue. You aren't looking at a "sun". It doesn't exist in TES. You are looking at a hole left by Magnus as he fled from Mundus and are seeing the light that shines in from Aetherius. There is no "space", but are actually looking at the realms of Oblivion as best that mortals can comprehend it from a distance.

If there is no distance from a celestial body, there there is no concept of a year persay. Could explain why there are no longer any seasons in TES as well I guess.

You are taking things too literally. You can't assume that a book you read in-game is the literal, factual truth. Too many of the books simply contradict themselves.

and neither can you dismiss it as non-truth simply because it goes against the status quo of OUR real world mechanics.

yes, one would think that Dutch would be more influenced by German, but:

1) The Netherlands is a significant seafaring nation

2) the single most important river in Europe, the Rhine, meets the global sea in the Netherlands,

3) The Netherlands lies only a ferry's ride away from Britain.

all of these factors make it a major international trading hub in europe, if not the most significant, and since English seems to have become the dominating trade language of the world, it only makes sense that it would heavily influence the Dutch language over german.

and to clarify, I don't think the Dutch do have a ban on english words, only that english has had a huge effect on the dutch language.

The problem is with this lenient intermingling of languages is that the more common external use of one language can and has destroyed the home language.

for example, the number of Gaelic speakers worldwide is at 120,000 I believe. Gaelic used to be the dialects of Scotland and Ireland for centuries. The number of speakers is now less than a small city.

Sooo...my birthday is exactly on Mad Pelagius Holiday (2nd of Sun's Dawn, or February)...Guess I'll have 2 things to celebrate for instead of one

I was born on Tiber's Day

Not exactly.

The fact that every week has 7 days isn't directly related to the lunar cycle. Each lunar cycle is about 29.5 days long. Meaning that a division into 5-day or 6-day weeks would have approximated the cycle much closer. The origin of the 7-day week is much more likely to be found in the fact that there are 5 planets visible to the naked eye in the night sky, add the moon and the sun to that and you get 7. Ancient lunar and lunisolar calendars like for instance the Babylonian calendar adopted this number, probably for religious reasons. The number 7 has been an important number in religion throughout human history as far we can verify. Related to that the denominations for the days in a week have to this day and age usually retained their relation to astronomical objects and ancient deities.

Niiiice, looks like you're supposed to have an even greater party!!! May I come??

I'm just treating it as something to be determined. In the absence of firm evidence to the contrary, I assume everything in Skyrim works like it does on Earth. Babies are made the same way, water flows downhill and freezes at 32 Fahrenheit or 0 Celcius. The sun is a glowing ball of gas undergoing nuclear fusion in its core. Bears are hostile and dangerous to approach - seriously, the first time you saw a bear in Skyrim, did you not simply assume that it was something you don't wanna screw with?

So just because some books says "When Magnus left Mundus and returned to Aetherius, he tore a hole in Mundus which is the sun" you cannot deduce from that "therefore the sun is not a glowing ball of gas which Nirn orbits". The source of the first isn't firm enough, and even if it's correct it doesn't lead to the conclusion you're drawing.


Ah, granted, but from what I can tell that had more to do with conquest than anything, at least in Ireland. Did the English pass laws (in Ireland, at least) restricting the use of Irish Gaelic, or was it simply a natural process, where people simply adopted the language of the larger nation?

It's also feasible for these languages to be reinvigorated, of course. Hebrew was nobody's first language, almost, for centuries, but the Zionist movement in the nineteenth century promoted the teaching of Hebrew, and now it's the national language of Israel, and both Hebrew and Arabic are official languages.

Of course. Tiber is a friend to all, not just to the Nords as some would make you think.

Well I happen to be a Nord so I don't think he would mind anyway hehehe But it'll be a great celebration regardless!! And I just noticed that my birthday comes with a "silly tradition" for Breton culture. Ah well, he lived in a Skyrim palace so that'll do for me. We celebrate for all, not just Nords!

Well, Wikipedia is telling me that the seven day week was used in ancient Israel as early as the 6th century BC, Hindus might have used it since the 11th century BC, and so forth. The Romans apparently replaced some eight-day week with a seven-day week from the first to third centuries AD. Not sure exactly where other cultures derived their seven-day weeks, but the Israelites based it off the Genesis account of creation. I'm sure the origins of the week varied quite a bit from culture to culture, but months and years are of course astronomically-based.

Religion aside:

The Hebrews at the time probably adopted it from existing calendars in the region like the Babylonian calendar. Same as they adopted the Babylonian month names into their calendar during the 6th century BC. The Babylonians themselves seem to have adopted much from Sanskrit/Vedic tradition.

For me the Genesis account is likely based on the more ancient specialty of the number seven in Mesopotamian and Indian civilizations, due to their early knack for astronomy.

Well, I wasn't referring to whether the Genesis account was literally handed down by God or something, I was just saying that the Israelites based their definition of a week off the creation story, regardless of whether the story's literal fact, a total fabrication, or something in between.