WotD: Pentecost/Whitsun(day)

[muckefuck]

1. das Pfingsten
2. het Pinksteren
3. el Pentecostés
4. la Pentecosta
5. la Pentecôte
6. y Sulgwyn
7. An Chincís
8. 성령강림절 (聖靈降臨節)
9. 五旬節 wǔsǔnjié

Notes: 0. I've never been certain about the distribution of the English equivalents. Does anyone know whether it's primarily USA/UK, Catholic/Protestant, or something else entirely?
3. No idea where this anomalous form stems from.
6. lit. "Sun[day] white". Also y Pentecost, a recent borrowing.
7. Interesting example of the /p/ -> /k/ shift seen in early borrowings into Irish. The West Muskerry pronunciation is as if spelled Cingcís, i.e. [ci:ŋʲ'ci:ʃ].
9. lit. "five ten-day-period festival", a fairly direct calque on the Greek "fiftieth [day]". By contrast, the Sino-Korean is the far more explicit "Holy Spirit arrival/descent festival".

Comments

[pne.livejournal.com]

I was going to ask where you got "das" Pfingsten from, so I went to check my Duden.

Shiver me timbers, it does indeed say "das".

Though it does not that it's usually used without an article at all, and that treating it as plural is common in some regions as well as in fixed expressions. Which explains why I would have assigned it the plural article "die" if I had to give it one at all, from things such as "frohe Pfingsten". ...on the other hand, I'd probably say "Pfingsten fällt dieses Jahr auf den xx.yy." rather than ...fallen....

If I did have to use a singular article, I'd probably say "das Pfingstfest" instead.

[itchwoot.livejournal.com]

I second that. "das Pfingsten" may be correct, but it sounds weird. I'd drop the article whenever possible.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Remember, boys, the articles are only there to remind me of the grammatical gender. I was just as surprised as you, Philip, to find out what the "correct" gender of Pfingsten is.

[pne.livejournal.com]

But how is the grammatical gender relevant for a word that is essentially never used with an article or with adjectives that would have to agree with it?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

What does "essentially never" mean in this context? For starters, "Pfingsten" refers to two different observances, a Christian one and a Jewish one, so at the very least there are contexts where it is useful to specify "das christliche Pfingsten" or "das judische Pfingsten".

[pne.livejournal.com]

I'd probably use "Pfingstfest" in that context.

[tyrannio.livejournal.com]

We say "שבועות" in English. (Oddly enough, that really is the translation my Alcalay gives.)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

How does it distinguish yidish Shavuos from goyish Shavuos?

[tyrannio.livejournal.com]

It doesn't: that's the odd part. (For "Easter", it gives "Pesach", but at least mentions that it's a festival of the notzrim.)

[gorkabear.livejournal.com]

3) Ni idea tampoco. No obstante, no es algo que se celebre en donde se habla Castellano

4) Aquí se li diu "Segona Pasqua" i només és una festa local a Barcelona (i també a Viladecans, on visc).