[LEAPSECS] 2-hour leap smear in Japan

[Kevin Birth]

The reason Google and Jisho translate うるう秒  as “leap second” and Bing as “leap seconds” is that both translations are technically correct.  Nouns in Japanese are not normally marked as singular or plural.  That said, since leap seconds occur one at a time, the more appropriate translation would be the singular, since the contexts in which one discusses multiple leap seconds are rare, and largely limited to discussions of the history of the leap second.

Cheers,

Kevin


From: Rob Seaman <seaman at noao.edu<mailto:seaman at noao.edu>>
Reply-To: Leap Second Discussion List <leapsecs at leapsecond.com<mailto:leapsecs at leapsecond.com>>
Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2015 at 9:26 AM
To: Leap Second Discussion List <leapsecs at leapsecond.com<mailto:leapsecs at leapsecond.com>>
Subject: Re: [LEAPSECS] 2-hour leap smear in Japan

On Jun 23, 2015, at 6:00 AM, Kevin Birth <Kevin.Birth at qc.cuny.edu<mailto:Kevin.Birth at qc.cuny.edu>> wrote:

For anyone curious enough to search for information online about the leap second in Japan, the Japanese term for leap second is:
うるう秒

And indeed Google and Jisho translate that as leap second.  For some reason Bing says leap seconds (plural).

Rob


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