• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.50
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• pp.225-259
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• 2018

In this study, according to the Institut d'Estudis Catalan, it is noted that the traditional Catalan time telling system is essentially based on delineating time by the use of the 'quarts (=quarters)' of an hour. In this fasion, to tell the time 8:15, 8:30 and 8:45 they use '${\acute{E}}s$ un quart de nou.,' '$S{\acute{o}}n$ dos quarts de nou.,' and '$S{\acute{o}}n$ tres quarts de nou.,' but do not use constructions such as '$S{\acute{o}}n$ les vuit i quinze.,' '$S{\acute{o}}n$ les vuit i trenta/mitja.,' '$S{\acute{o}}n$ les vuit i quaranta-cinc.,' because these expressions are considered to be as dialectal variants or international notation-based variants. Moreover, the traditional Catalan time telling system does not use cardinal numbers, except in the case of 'cinc (five)' and 'deu (ten).' These linguistic phenomenon cause the invention of a unique Catalan digital watch, and has noted special designs for the creation of a Catalan analogue watch. For this reason, the quarter system in colloquial Catalan provokes an enormous interpretative ambiguity in daily routine expressions with 'quarts' like '$S{\acute{o}}n$ quarts of nou.' or 'entre dos i tres quarts' whose meaning is not delineated between sixteen and forty-four minutes. We will argue that the traditional Catalan time telling expressions do not have the use of the subtractive system, and the fraction word 'quart' lacks a specific meaning of fifteen minutes because the Catalan word 'quart' is etymologically related to the classical public bell system, not definitively to the traditional clock system.