Days of the week in Native Japanese

The names of the days of the week in Native Japanese are rather new started to use only after the western calendar system was officially introduced as the lunar calender does not have the use of 7 day week system.

Sunday        -  nichi-you-bi (にちようび、日曜日)
Monday       -  getsu-you-bi (げつようび、つき曜日)
Tuesday      -  ka-you-bi (かようび、火曜日)
Wednesday  -  sui-you-bi (すいようび、水曜日)
Thursday    -  moku-you-bi (もくようび、木曜日)
Friday         -  kin-you-bi (金ようび、金曜日)
Saturday     -  do-you-bi (どようび、土曜日)

The final syllable "bi" is Native Japanese meaning "day" or originally "sun" (pronounced as "hi" ).
The first two syllables are Chinese origin. The first syllable was taken from the old traditional Chinese system describing the compositions of the universe except Sunday. "bi" can be omitted as the fist two syllables can represent which day of the week.

Sunday        -  nichi-you-bi  -   "nichi" - sun "nichi" is Chinese origin meaning "sun" or "day"
This was probably the direct translation of "Sun"-day.

Monday       -  getsu-you-bi -  "getsu" - moon (Native Japanese is "tsuki" - つき、月) (*)
Tuesday      -  ka-you-bi      - "ka" - fire (Native Japanese is "hi" - ひ、火）(**)
Wednesday  -  sui-you-bi     - "sui" - water　(Native Japanese is ”mizu" - みず、水 ）
Thursday    -  moku-you-bi  - "moku" - wood　(Native Japanese is "ki" - き、木）
Friday         -  kin-you-bi     - "kin" - metal or gold　(Native Japanese is "kane" - かね、金 ）
Saturday     -  do-you-bi      - "do" - earth　(Native Japanese is "tsuchi" - つち、土）

"tsuki" ( つき、月 (*) - we already encountered this word in the post "Months in Native Japanese".
"hi" (ひ、火）(**) - "hi" also means "sun", "sum light" and "sum beam" and these  are related. The Native Japanese for Light is "hi-ka-ri" (ひかり、光), which comes from the verb "hi-ka-ru" (ひかる、光る).

The meaning of the Chinese origin "you" (よう、曜)　will be checked later.

The interesting thing is that China had a similar problem how to introduce the western 7 day week system which they did not have in the lunar calender system. They did not take the name of the the basic compositional materials of the universe. They instead took simple number system starting Monday with 1st followed by 2nd for Tuesday ....... 6th for Saturday. Sunday is "Sun" day of the week. The Chinese system is not elaborated here.


sptt