You've been kidnapped and spirited out of your home country by night
across a dozen time zones. Next thing you know, you're crouching inside
a bamboo cage on the outskirts of a thatch-roofed village, murmuring
with activity, tucked somewhere into the darkest primeval recesses of
some tropical island. There's incense. As you nurse your zip tie
bruises, your first thought might be, "Hey, what month is it right now
in whatever native language they speak here?" Or maybe your ten
thousandth, after wondering what ever did happen to Amelia Earhart or
Michael Rockefeller.
In either case, you'll be ready now. Here are the sets of calendar
months for 850 languages and dialects, complete with profiles of each.
This is the database feeding "Today's date in 850 languages" at my
website. There, you only get to see one month at a time. Here, all
twelve. Most of these languages are still living, some just barely,
while several dozen are certifiably extinct. It's a pretty safe bet a
compilation like this exists nowhere else.
I'm favoring languages that lie at least a bit off the beaten track,
offer Gregorian calendar terms departing substantially from our modern
neo-Latin, or both. Italian, German, French? You're not here for those.
Instead, let's shoot for the Monégasque Ligurian, the Luxembourgish, and
maybe the Vivaro-Alpine flavor of Occitan also heard in those respective
regions. Of course, you'll likely spot languages far more familiar to
you. Many of these entries will feature archaic or less-known terms or
scripts, though, so you might find yourself looking at them in a new way.