What shall we call the decade that is ending?

[StrangerInAStrangeLand]

Hence 2000-2009 will be the "Naughties".

-
2000 was the last year of its decade not the 1st of this 1. The last year of this decade is 2010. The decade being discussed is 2001 - 2010.

What are we going to call 2010-2019? Tens? Doesn't sound right..

-
2010 - 2019???
THAT doesn't sound right!

 

[StrangerInAStrangeLand]

I suppose that means it's an Americanism, which will therefore not be popular in the rest of the anglophone world. But seven days into the decade I'd say it's well on its way to being established over here.It's cute and apparently, unlike "aughts," all anglophones understand it. It's just a little bit too cute.

-
7 days into the decade! Is there a bead missing from your abacus?

2010 is the last year of the decade!!!

 

[TBodillia]

I'll go with James R on this, although I think I heard it from Stephen Colbert first: the noughties (naughties). Maybe Jon Stewart said it before him.

Now, some basic math: What are your 10s (tens digits)? 10 - 19 or 11 - 20?
What are your 20s? 20 - 29 or 21 - 30?

The year is arbitrary anyway. Years were displaced when calendars were switched, days lost switching from Julian to Gregorian. It doesn't matter that there is no year 0. The first decade was 9 years long and the first century 99.

 

[Dywyddyr]

-
2000 was the last year of its decade not the 1st of this 1. The last year of this decade is 2010.

So what?
2000-2009 still constitutes a decade, as does 2015-2024.

The decade being discussed is 2001 - 2010.

Hardly, for the simple reason that the next decade but one, for example, you would have as 2021-2030 and end up calling that decades the twenties. That's hardly right, the twenties including 2030.

 

[StrangerInAStrangeLand]

=
The year is not arbitrary. The initial setup or acceptance of this calendar may have been yet now we must work with(in) it. The 1st decade of our calendar consists of 10 years as does any other decade. The 1st century, of course, consists of 100 years. 2000 years is 2 millenia.

This is 1 of the simplest things in the world!
Why all the compulsion to subtract a year???
The 20s are 21 thru 30, of course.


The discussion was specific to calendar decades. If someone asks what is the last month of the year & I say December then you say a year can end in July, it would be ridiculous.
The 20s including 2030 is right.

 

[2cm]

To whom are you referring as we? tfic ;{] aigf &c.

I thought most well read or at least "research-savvy," people got their decades, centuries and millennia sussed out back when the merry non-mentis were gushing about Y2K or 01/01/2000 starting the "new millennium." They were quickly corrected in the millions by those who pointed out the fact that any new era must start with a year ending in a one. It should be an easy concept.
At least easy for those who celebrated their first birthday a year after birth, instead of their "Breath Day," or the day they took their first breath. Yet I still feel that some folks still just don't get it.
For those, let us start at the beginning. The Big Bang!
Yes, I do know there is no media for transference of sound in the vacuum of space and it would take billions of years before enough hydrogen and helium concentrated densely enough to ignite the first nuclear reaction, so for those physicists that want to debate or nitpick this point let's say the "Big Whoosh."
Call it what you want, I am just glad it is nearly over so we can get on with discussing why we are still using 150-year-old technology to push vehicles weighing several tons to carry one or two human beings from point A to point B. Sorry if I digressed and went off-piste, but I really thought this was all settled by the Mayans quite a while ago.
Peace, 2cm

 

[StrangerInAStrangeLand]

Hardly, for the simple reason that the next decade but one, for example, you would have as 2021-2030 and end up calling that decades the twenties. That's hardly right, the twenties including 2030.

=
By that "reasoning", it could hardly be right to refer to the 1700s as the 18th century.
Or this 1 as the 21st century.

 

[Dywyddyr]

=
By that "reasoning", it could hardly be right to refer to the 1700s as the 18th century.
Or this 1 as the 21st century.

Nope, you're not looking at it correctly.
The 18th century was the 18 century because it was the eighteenth century in the sequence of centuries.
When we refer to the twenties it's the decade of the twenties (i.e. the decade of all those years that are numbered XX2X).

 

[StrangerInAStrangeLand]

=
Just as The 18th century was the 18 century because it was the eighteenth century in the sequence of centuries, 21 thru 30 is the 3rd decade in the sequence of decades.
When people refer to the 20s, they are referring to the 3rd decade.

 

[Dywyddyr]

When people refer to the 20s, they are referring to the 3rd decade.

Nope: as I said it's the decade of all years XX2X.

The 1920s was the decade that started on January 1, 1920 and ended on December 31, 1929.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920s

The Twenties 1920-1929

http://www.historycentral.com/TheTwenties/Index.html
And similarly for the '30s.

The 1930s, pronounced "The Thirties", was the decade that started on January 1, 1930 and ended on December 31, 1939.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930s

 

[StrangerInAStrangeLand]

=
What all that adds up to is you can't add.

 

[Dywyddyr]

=
What all that adds up to is you can't add.

Nah, what it means is that I understand the nuances of language.
Or do you deny, for example, that 1915-1924 was a decade? Or 2032-2041 will be one?

 

[StrangerInAStrangeLand]

Obviously, you don't understand language, math or logic. So you blindly stubbornly persist in absurdity.

 

[Dywyddyr]

Obviously, you don't understand language, math or logic. So you blindly stubbornly persist in absurdity.

Wrong, throughout.
Once more:
Or do you deny, for example, that 1915-1924 was a decade? Or 2032-2041 will be one?

 

[StrangerInAStrangeLand]

I'm done with your proud arrogant willful ignorance.

 

[Randwolf]

I'm done with your proud arrogant willful ignorance.

Ummm... Not to get involved in this personal flame-fest, but stranger, a "decade" = ten years, right? How hard is it to see that any ten year period serves as a decade?

 

[StrangerInAStrangeLand]

Ummm
How hard is it to see it in the context of this thread???

 

[Dywyddyr]

I'm done with your proud arrogant willful ignorance.

So you've realised that whatever answer you give you'll end up looking ridiculous.
If you say "yes" you're denying the obvious and if you say "no" you're proving me right.

How hard is it to see it in the context of the thread???

Straight from the OP:

One thousand nine hundred thirty-four and one thousand nine hundred thirty-five both contain the component "thirty-", so we can call the whole decade "the Thirties."

E.g. as per my explanation...

So, in the context of the thread, what's your answer?

 

[Doreen]

The nulls.

 

[Fraggle Rocker]

2000 was the last year of its decade not the 1st of this 1. The last year of this decade is 2010. The decade being discussed is 2001 - 2010.

This battle was fought a long time ago and the decision has been made by popular consensus. The 21st century started on January 1, 2000. Nobody wrote a song titled, "Tonight We're Gonna Party Like It's Two Thousand." December 31, 1999 was New Century's Eve.

I understand that there was no "Year Zero," but that's only important to a historian who has to calculate the number of days between May 1, 462 BCE and July 15, 639 CE. Besides, if you're looking for arithmetic consistency, how can you possibly tolerate the fact that, in the domain of calendars, -1 is followed directly by +1, with no 0 in between??? This is clearly not a nomenclature designed to please mathematicians so we just have to shut up and leave it alone.

Furthermore, every decade that has a name is named after its tens digit: the Gay Nineties, the Roaring Twenties, the Thirties, the Fifties, the Sixties. People talk casually about the Seventies, and they do NOT mean 1971-1980! The first decade of the new millennium will surely be named after the zero in its tens digit. The Washington Post, one of America's most influential newspapers, routinely calls it "the Aughts."

I'm happy enough that we no longer have to say "two thousand." Everybody said "two thousand nine," but they seem to have made the transition, finally, to "twenty ten."

There is no English Academy or Her Majesty's Office of Proper English. Unlike French and German, English is a democratic language whose vocabulary is defined by a consensus of its speakers. The consensus of its speakers is that a decade runs from the years 0 through 9.

Furthermore, if you'll feel better with a precedent, look at the way we tell time. Midnight tonight is 12:00 am Thursday, not 12:00pm Wednesday. The obvious reason is that we seem to believe that the first minute after 12:00pm Wednesday should logically be 12:01pm Wednesday, not 12:01am Thursday. By this same reasoning, 2000 and 2001 must be in the same millennium, and therefore the same decade. The fact that we call it "the twenty-first century" apparently doesn't bother us, and even if it did, pushing one year out of a hundred into the appropriately named century isn't going to make us any happier.

Obviously, you don't understand language, math or logic. So you blindly stubbornly persist in absurdity.

I'm done with your proud arrogant willful ignorance.

What all that adds up to is you can't add.

* * * * NOTE FROM THE MODERATOR * * * *

Personal insults are a violation of the rules of SciForums. For three in a row against the same member I'm supposed to ban you for one day. I'm going to let it go because I'm in a good mood and besides, I've never banned anybody on the Linguistics board. I never expected it to come up.

But if you do it again, I will have no choice. Dial it back please! If someone disagrees with you that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with him. Reasonable people disagree every day.