つき and がつ have the same kanji 月。Moon and Month have the same origin. Are these connected?

6 comments

1. Beyond the fact that a month on Earth is measured by the cycle of the Moon?

   There are cultural reasons for why the moon is so important, but that is the practical reason relating back to when the use of the lunisolar calendar was more prevalent

2. The Japanese used to have a lunar calendar.

3. It’s also interesting that Monday, is the same in Japanese like the day of the moon.

   (No Japanese keyboard on ipad yet)

4. It’s the other way round – **月** ( like most kanji ) has more than one reading (pronunciation). In this case the kun (Japanese) – **つき** and on (Chinese) **がつ or げつ**　readings. For many kanji there can be variations according to the use in conjunction with other kanji.

   As has been said, month & moon are closely related.

5. this is a great question concerning etymology. here’s a [brief explanation](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/month) of the etymology of the english word “month”, and from the page it’s evident there’s some connection to “moon”, but it’s not because of cultural influence or exchange.

   it’s mainly because before the industrial revolution, most calendars and timekeeping in general was tracked using the moon and it’s cycles. they would observe the position of the moon and track it’s movement, phases etc because that was the most practical: you can’t stare into the sun! solar observations have to be indirect for safety reasons, so tracking the moon, which can observed much more safely, became the norm across the world independent of culture.

   Japan didn’t drop their lunar calendar until the Meiji restoration, and china didn’t drop their lunar calendar until after the chinese revolution in 1912, but they still use it for culturally important dates (think celebrations like the mid-autumn festival) much like how muslim countries still use the islamic lunar calendar for religiously important dates.

6. **月** thats kinda sus ngl