Laceyiam/Calendar and time

Time expressions in the Laceyiami language need understanding of the timekeeping system of the Chlegdarims. The Chlegdarim calendar (Chlegdarimė ṣāthąjyðlīne) is a lunisolar calendar and is one of two timekeeping systems used officially on Calémere, the other one being the standard Western calendar used by the majority of nations. Despite being used only in five countries (Laltīmāhia, Brono, Fathan, iKalurilut, and Mǎng Tì pọk), it is the timekeeping system for roughly a quarter of the planet's population, the vast majority in Laltīmāhia.

In this article Laceyiami names will be used, but the languages of the other countries all follow the same system.

Solar months and seasons
The solar and sidereal year of Calémere (in Laceyiam ārita) is 418 days long, and this period is divided, in the Chlegdarim calendar, in fourteen mostly arbitrary months (ṭūlia, pl. ṭūliai) which are grouped by season (lāripańjńemė).

As Laltīmāhia, the nation for which the Chlegdarim calendar was developed (even though, at that time in the sixth century of the Third Era, it wasn't politically united), names of months and the seasons they are grouped in are those of the temperate areas in the North, which have four seasons; most of the plains actually have only two seasons and basically all of the Southern rain forests have no seasons at all.

The four seasons the Calendar is based on are autumn (koram), winter (jāmiṣar), spring (bihār) and summer (bølkarim), in the order they appear in the year, based on the northern hemisphere: all areas of Laltīmāhia in the southern hemisphere, including the cradle of Chlegdarim civilization and the Laltīmāhei capital, Kaylamārśikha, are in the equatorial area and have no seasons. The autumn equinox (koraṃdėhileliāyunė) is the first day of the year, and likewise the spring equinox (bihārdėhileliāyunė) is exactly halfway across the year, being the first day of the eighth month. The winter solstice (jāmiṣąlūðiteyūnūt) is on the fifteenth day of the fourth month, while the summer solstice (bølkarhlūðiteyūnūt) falls on the thirteenth day of the eleventh month. The solar months of the Chlegdarim calendar are: As a comparison with the Western calendar used in most of the planet, the first day of Koraṃheilenu is the eighth day of the eleventh Western month; the first day of the Western year is the 24th day of Lahīlechliäðńa.
 * 1) Koraṃheilenu (autumn wind) — 30 days long ; autumn begins on its first day
 * 2) Nāhieprāṇeya (monsoon period) — 29 days long
 * 3) Koramimaila (autumn water) — 30 days long
 * 4) Lahīlechliäðńa (first cold) — 29 days long ; winter begins on its fifteenth day
 * 5) Chliaðńunūt (coming from cold) — 31 days long
 * 6) Leliāþātia (night star) — 30 days long
 * 7) Lauraṭūlia (devotion month) — 30 days long
 * 8) Lahīlehälńah (first seed) — 30 days long ; spring begins on its first day
 * 9) Daśaṃhjøðam (hand of rain) — 30 days long
 * 10) Kaiḍasteyū (golden sun) — 29 days long
 * 11) Kāmilęe Lairė (blue sky) — 30 days long ; summer begins on its thirteenth day
 * 12) Halėhīlāmi (fields' heat) — 29 days long
 * 13) Jėliṇṭūlia (fruit month) — 31 days long
 * 14) Cāṃkrahälńah (last seed) — 30 days long

Lunar months and "weeks"
The lunar element of the Chlegdarim calendar is important in marking the closest equivalent to a week. It should be noted that this division, formerly purely astronomical, is now mostly bureaucratic and does not correspond to astronomical values; therefore solar days and lunar days, as far as the calendar is concerned, are both equal.

A lunar month (huldėvyāṣa) is a fixed 34-day division parallel to the fourteen solar months described above. Every lunar month is divided in jamblā (pl. jamblai), which is the "fixed" 24-hour bureaucratic lunar day (as opposed to ilėṃṣātheya, the astronomical lunar day of variable length), which is equivalent to the solar day, and jamblai are grouped in two periods called lulardulat (pl. lulardulatai), each one of 17 days, half of the lunar month. lulardulatai are the closest equivalent of a "week" in the Chlegdarim calendar; they are astronomically based on lunar phases, and are called respectively hjärlīltenia (from new to full moon) and khārhjärinia.

The fifth, sixth, eleventh, twelfth, and seventeenth days of each lulardulat are the rest days, though it is commonplace to work at least in the mornings of the fifth, eleventh, and seventeenth days; many schools also have lessons (though often a limited amount only) on the fifth and eleventh days. In the first, fifth, and ninth lunar months, the first day of the lulardulat is a rest day too.

Every four lunar years, the last lunar month of the year gets a special jamblā (called khārejamblā "new jamblā") after the last day of hjärlīltenia; in addition, every 42 lunar years, the last lulardulat loses the twelfth and thirteenth jamblai, in order to make the last day of that lulardulat the last day of both the solar and the lunar year, as the difference between them is 9.7142 days, amounting to a 408-day difference every 42 years. The last time both years ended on the same day was in 4E 118, fifteen years ago.

[names of lunar months and days to be added hopefully soon]

Days, hours, and shorter times
The (solar) day (ṣātheya) is the base measure of time, which, like Earth, is made up of 24 hours (pārga, pl. pārgai). These hours are divided in four groups called pārgalīne, each one made of six hours and corresponding to different times of the day. They are leliā (night), mėngerten (morning), dähimmėngerten (afternoon), and sāṣṭra (evening) — they may be referred to either with these simple names or genitive + pārgai (lelei pārgai, mėngerteni pargai, ...).

The first hour of leliā is the first one of the whole day; every last hour of each pārgalīne has a specific name, respectively maimė (dawn), ṣāthedaniūmita (half of the day), lėlið (sunset), and ṣāthecāṃkraya (end of the day).

Every hour is then divided in 120 timeframes called gaṃsstā (pl. gaṃsstai), each one of about 30 Earthly seconds; they are grouped in fifteen pańcaṃteyū (pl. -teyui), each one of 8 gaṃsstai. Every pańcaṃteyū marks the time difference of the caṃteyū (zenith) between a degree of longitude and its following one.

Every gaṃsstā is then divided into 16 irumba (pl. irumbai, about 1.875 seconds), divided in 16 jūnnirumbi (pl. jūnnirymbar, about 117.2 milliseconds), divided in 16 kāliṭirumbi (pl. kāliṭirymbar, about 7.324 milliseconds).

Expressing time in Laceyiam
Time expressions in Laceyiam are divided in continuous time and punctual time; continuous expressions are expressed with accusative case, while punctual time with either locative, or ablative plus particles.

Continuous time is expressed with accusative singular in most cases, as there usually is a cardinal number, e.g. ęhię gaṃsstau lehaṃtų — I ate for sixty gaṃsstai. The main exception is where there's no specific time quantity, e.g. pārgarau lehaṃtų — I ate for hours.

Punctual time uses the locative case where the intended meaning is "in a given moment", e.g. 4V 132-ie Galiākie hiṣṭi — he/she/it was in Galiāk in 4E 132. The locative form is thus used for: Seasons are a partial exception, because if the meaning is "throughout the season", then the accusative is used, e.g. bølkarimau "throughout the summer", "all summer long".
 * years — 4V 133-ie (in 4E 133)
 * solar and lunar months — Koraṃhøylenie, Cājunkūbie...
 * lulardulatai — Hjärlīlteniaye / Khārhjäriniaye
 * days — Indukriyälie (on Indukriyāli), 9-ie Kāmilęe Lairi (on the 9th of Kāmilęe Lairė)
 * hours — 3-ie dähiṃmėngerteni (at 3 in the afternoon)
 * seasons — bølkarimie (in summer)

The following particles are also time expressions:
 * maið + ablative "... ago" — chīka āritų maið "three years ago"
 * maið + accusative "... from/for/since" — chīka āritau maið "for three years (now)"
 * tana + ablative "in" — chīka āritų tana "in three years", "three years from now"
 * tana + accusative "until" — chīka āritau tana "for the coming three years"
 * ūlbhė + ablative "after" — chīka āritų ūlbhė "after three years"
 * luhemį + ablative "before" — chīka āritų luhemį "three years before"

Adverbs of time
The main adverbs of time in Laceyiam are the following: A sub-category of adverbs of time are the adverbs of frequency: There are also the four adverbial locutions of frequency nānim śadhā "almost never", heili ṣūbhäślym "very rarely", ṣūbha nāmiślym "a few times", "occasionally", and heili ylenaljah "very often".
 * dølgujah "just"
 * keljaśe "soon"
 * tėlkṣāthie "for many days"
 * mūgdūvaiṣa "recently"
 * thiān "now"
 * ijāma "now" (more formal than thiān)
 * vāljāma "at that time" (not so distant; in the last year)
 * tėjāma "at that time" (long ago; more than a year)
 * itmātan "yesterday"
 * nitūvaiṣa "today"
 * mėngirvyāṣe "tomorrow"
 * nitūveṣṇęn "as it is today" (mainly used when talking about things of the past, somewhat formal)
 * all adverbial numerals (thiśøk, danijøk, chīkyjøk...)
 * śadhā "never"
 * ṣūbhäślym "rarely"
 * nāmiślym "sometimes" (also naṃdā)
 * ylenaljah "often"
 * kaily jųlym "usually", "most often"
 * yavindā "always" (also tāmiayie)

Telling the time
Telling the time in Laceyiam needs knowledge of the hour system described above. A hour is expressed as either e.g. M 3:59 or M 3.07:3, where: The question for asking the time is either ''ekthāt pārga jar thah? (*how many hour is it?) or pārga cā enanūt jar thah? ''(talking about the hour, which [one] is it?).
 * M stands for mėngerten (morning);
 * 3:59 stands for 3 hours and 59 gaṃsstai (p:gg format);
 * 3.07:3 stands for 3 hours, 7 pańcaṃteyui (56 gaṃsstai), and 3 gaṃsstai (p.cc:g format).

When using the p:gg format, numbers are commonly read as they are written, except for 40 and 80. Examples: In the latter two cases, the readings "lass kuriām lelei jar" and "lass gembiljūnna lelei jar" are possible, but very rare (usually in formal communications only).
 * L 1:10 — lass nariām lelei jar (it's one and ten of the night)
 * L 1:90 — lass katuriām lelei jar (it's one and ninety of the night)
 * L 1:40 — gembliė lassi lelei jar (it's five [pańcaṃteyui] of one of the night)
 * L 1:80 — gembliė danieð lelei jar (it's five [pańcaṃteyui] to two of the night)

However, the p:gg format is rarely colloquially used, as the spoken form always tells pańcaṃteyui and always tells how much time remains until the next hour (or pańcaṃteyū): If pańcaṃteyui are not complete, then there are two possible forms: a more widespread one that uses "it's X gaṃsstai to the Yth pańcaṃteyū", and a regional one used all throughout Northern and Northwestern Laltīmāhia and some areas in the northwestern Plains, which uses "it's the Xth pańcaṃteyū with Y gaṃsstai": When hours are inside a punctual time expression, they are read in the locative case, e.g. D 2.09:6-ie yeihāmįtų "at 2.09:6 (2:74) of the afternoon, he was reading" — it can be read in two ways:
 * L 1.01:0 (L 1:08) — gūṃdhia danieð lelei jar (it's fourteen [pańcaṃteyui] to two of the night)
 * L 1.14:0 (L 1:112) — lass danieð lelei jar (it's one to two of the night)
 * L 1.05:4 (L 1:44) — bälie tulūʔendeð lassi lelei jar (it's four [gaṃsstai] to the sixth [pańcaṃteyū] of one of the night)
 * L 1.05:4 (L 1:44) — gembliende bälienam lassi lelei jar (it's the fifth [pańc.] with four [gaṃsstai] of one of the night)
 * danieye nariāmindeð danei dähiṃmėngerteni yeihāmįtų "at two [gaṃsstai] to the tenth [pańc.] of two of the afternoon, he was reading"
 * kissendie tulūʔanam danei dähiṃmėngerteni yeihāmįtų "at the ninth [pańc.] with six [gaṃsstai] of two of the afternoon, he was reading".