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Page:The Burmese & Arakanese calendars (IA burmesearakanese00irwiiala).pdf/19

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Definitions.
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17. For ordinary use the English divisions of a day have practically ousted the Burmese ones, at least in the towns, and the word "nayi" has come to mean "hour." The words "minute" and "second" have been engrafted into the Burmese language.

18. La (moon) is a mean lunation, i.e. the average period from new moon to new moon. Sandra Matha also means a lunation; Thuriya Matha means a solar month = 1/12 of a year.

19. Labyi is full moon. Lagwè is new moon.

20. Ata Yet or Ata Ne is the solar New Year's Day, or the day on which the mean sun enters the sign Meiktha (Aries).

21. Haragon (Hind. Ahargana) or Thawana is the total number of days elapsed from the beginning of the era, or from any other fixed point which may be taken as a starting point for calculations, to a given day.

22. Kyammat is an aggregate of units, each of which is the 800th part of a day (= 108 seconds = 270 kaya). This arbitrary unit is obviously a rude and imperfect substitute for decimal fractions.

23. Didi (Hind. Tithi) is the 30th part of a mean lunation, or the average time in which the mean moon increases her longitudinal distance from the mean sun by 12 degrees.

24. Kaya is the difference between total days and total didi in any given period. It must not be confounded with kaya, the measure of time, .4 of a second (paragraph 16).

25. Awaman is the remainder in the arithmetical operation of reduction of days to didi or vice versa. In other words awaman is the numerator of a fraction of kaya.

26. Yet lun is the epact or moon's age at midnight of solar new year's day, expressed in whole didi.

27. Adimath (Hind. adhika masa) means both an intercalated month and the total intercalated months from the beginning of the era or any other fixed point to a given point of time. Adimtath thetha means the epact of the total intercalated months, or fraction of a month, which accumulates year by year up to one month.

28. La lun is the number of whole months by which the total solar years expired during the era exceed the total luni-solar years expired during the era. When solar new year's day falls in Tagu the la lun is 0; when it falls in Kason the la lun is 1; and so on. If the solar and luni-solar years were perfectly adjusted there would never be any la lun.