Day	Batua	Bizkaia	Meaning (of Batua word)
Monday	Astelehena	Astelehena	First of the week (aste=week, lehen=first)
Tuesday	Asteartea	Martitzena	Middle day of the week (artea=middle)
Wednesday	Asteazkena	Eguestena	Last day of the week
Thursday	Osteguna or Orzeguna	Eguena	Day after the week is over (egun=day, oste=after)
Friday	Ostirala or Ortzirala	Barikue
Saturday	Larunbata	Sapatue
Sunday	Igandea	Domeka

Month	Batua	Meaning	Nillson Meaning
January	Urtarrila	urtar=aqueous, ila=month	New Year month or black month
February	Otsaila	otsa=wolf	Bull or wolf month
March	Martxoa		Tepid month
April	Apirila		Weeding or fasting-bread month
May	Maiatza		Leaf month
June	Ekaina		Seed-time, bean or barley month
July	Uztaila	Month of the harvest (uzta=harvest)	Harvest or wheat month
August	Abuztua		Month of drought
September	Iraila	Month of the fern (ira=fern)	Fern or ear month
October	Urria		Gathering month
November	Azaroa	Time for growing seed (azi=to grow seed, aroa=time)	Sowing month or harvest month
December	Abendua		Binding up of vegetation

The above meanings for the months were based upon information collected by John Robertson from Igone Arteagoitia (Georgetown University) and Inigo San Gil (Second year graduate student: PhD candidate at the Mechanical Engineering Department, Yale University).

The Nillson meanings are from the following writings by Martin Nillson.

"The months refer throughout to vegetation and to agriculture" (pp. 283-284).

Based on information from: Primitive Time-Reckoning, A Study in the Origins and First Development of the Art of Counting Time among the Primitive and Early Culture Peoples by Martin P. Nilsson, professor of Classical Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Lund, Sweden, 1920.

Additionally, the separate section for a comparison of various languages which mean: "sun," "moon," "month," "week" and "seven".

Basque equivalents for "Sun" = eki, eguzki + variants (fem. [?]); "Moon" = ilargi, argizari, ilazki (ilaski), & goiko + variants of the first two (fem.[?]); "Month = ila; "Week" = aste; "Seven" = zazpi.

If anyone has any corrections, comments, or additions to the information above, please contact me, Blas Uberuaga, at blas@buber.net, or John Robertson at senior.scribe@wiesbaden.netsurf.de

This page is part of Buber's Basque Page and is maintained by Blas Uberuaga. Please report any problems or suggestions to Blas. Eskerrik asko!