Observe that we can bisect a day into two ⚀clock periods (semi·days), each 6 ⚀dwells long (equivalent to 60_z ⚀breathers, or 600_z ⚀trices, or 10_z|12_d hours, or 500_z|720_d minutes). But where should we make the partition? The modern Western convention, of course, is to divide the day at noon and midnight, yielding the familiar Ante Meridiem (A.M.) and Post Meridiem (P.M.) ⚀clock periods. These are Latin for “Before Mid-Day” and “After Mid-Day”.

However, some cultures (notably the Abrahamic religions) have traditionally bisected the day at sunrise and sunset, yielding Daylight and Nighttime ⚀clock periods. In Latin, these might be called Lux and Nox. The traditional approach of these cultures is to observe the actual appearance and disappearance of the sun across the horizon, marking sunrise and sunset on a daily basis. This makes the division between Lux and Nox, and the lengths of both, a complex, varying function of latitude, longitude, season of the year, Daylight Savings Time, and the effects of twilight atmospheric refraction.

For that matter, the actual points of “mid-day”, when the Sun is at zenith, and “mid-night”, when the Sun is at nadir, are just as subject to daily and seasonal fluctuation. For simplicity however, Primel will assume “nominal” or “average” times for these events, with “mean sunrise” and “mean sunset" deemed to occur exactly half-way between “nominal midnight” and “nominal noon”.

But which way should we divide the day? Interesting question. Dozenal base provides easy divisibility by 4—so what if we bisected the day both ways? Then this would divide the day into quarters, analogous to the four seasons of the year or the four phases of the Moon. Primel proposes calling these quarters ⚀phases of the day. Each would be 3 ⚀dwells long (equivalent to 30_z ⚀breathers, or 300_z ⚀trices, or 6 hours, or 260_z=360_d minutes).

We can give each ⚀phase of the day a distinct name. One way to do this is simply to use the cross-product of the names of the two orthogonal bisections. But it turns out that English already has suitable names for these periods:

⚀Phases of the Day
Phase	Latin Phrase	English Translation	Period		⚀Trice Time		Sexagesimal Time
Phase	Latin Phrase	English Translation	From	To	From	To	From	To
Overnight	Nox Ante Meridiem	Nighttime Before Mid‑Day	Nominal Midnight	Mean Sunrise	000_z	2ƐƐ_z	12:00_d A.M.	05:59_d A.M.
Morning	Lux Ante Meridiem	Daylight Before Mid‑Day	Mean Sunrise	Nominal Noon	300_z	5ƐƐ_z	06:00_d A.M.	11:59_d A.M.
Afternoon	Lux Post Meridiem	Daylight After Mid‑Day	Nominal Noon	Mean Sunset	600_z	8ƐƐ_z	12:00_d P.M.	05:59_d P.M.
Evening	Nox Post Meridiem	Nighttime After Mid‑Day	Mean Sunset	Nominal Midnight	900_z	ƐƐƐ_z	06:00_d P.M.	11:59_d P.M.

Hence the ⚀clock periods are combinations of two adjacent ⚀phases each:

⚀Clocks of the Day
Latin Name	Abbr	Engish Translation	Constituents	Period		⚀Trice Time		Sexagesimal Time
Latin Name	Abbr	Engish Translation	Constituents	From	To	From	To	From	To
Lux		Daylight	Morning + Afternoon	Mean Sunrise	Mean Sunset	300_z	8ƐƐ_z	06:00_d A.M.	05:59_d P.M.
Nox		Nighttime	Evening + Overnight	Mean Sunset	Mean Sunrise	900_z	2ƐƐ_z	06:00_d P.M.	05:59_d A.M.
Ante Meridiem	A.M.	Before Mid‑Day	Overnight + Morning	Nominal Midnight	Nominal Noon	000	5ƐƐ_z	12:00_d A.M.	11:59_d A.M.
Post Meridiem	P.M.	After Mid‑Day	Afternoon + Evening	Nominal Noon	Nominal Midnight	600_z	ƐƐƐ_z	12:00_d P.M.	11:59_d P.M.

We can divide each ⚀phase into 3 ⚀dwells, and assign them names: Early, Mid, and Late:

⚀Dwells of the Day
⚀Clock (⚀Semi·day)		⚀Phase (⚀Quarter·day)	⚀Dwell (⚀Uncia·day)		⚀Trice Time		TGM Time		Hours:⚀Trices		Sexagesimal Time
⚀Clock (⚀Semi·day)		⚀Phase (⚀Quarter·day)	⚀Dwell (⚀Uncia·day)		From	To	From	To	From	To	From	To
N O X	A N T E M E R I D I E M	O V E R N I G H T	0	Early Overnight	000_z	05Ɛ_z	0000_z	00ƐƐ_z	00:00_z	00:5Ɛ_z	12:00_d A.M.	12:59_d A.M.
			0	Early Overnight	060_z	0ƐƐ_z	0100_z	01ƐƐ_z	01:00_z	01:5Ɛ_z	01:00_d A.M.	01:59_d A.M.
			1	Mid Overnight	100_z	15Ɛ_z	0200_z	02ƐƐ_z	02:00_z	02:5Ɛ_z	02:00_d A.M.	02:59_d A.M.
			1	Mid Overnight	160_z	1ƐƐ_z	0300_z	03ƐƐ_z	03:00_z	03:5Ɛ_z	03:00_d A.M.	03:59_d A.M.
			2	Late Overnight	200_z	25Ɛ_z	0400_z	04ƐƐ_z	04:00_z	04:5Ɛ_z	04:00_d A.M.	04:59_d A.M.
			2	Late Overnight	260_z	2ƐƐ_z	0500_z	05ƐƐ_z	05:00_z	05:5Ɛ_z	05:00_d A.M.	05:59_d A.M.
L U X		M O R N I N G	3	Early Morning	300_z	35Ɛ_z	0600_z	06ƐƐ_z	06:00_z	06:5Ɛ_z	06:00_d A.M.	06:59_d A.M.
			3	Early Morning	360_z	3ƐƐ_z	0700_z	07ƐƐ_z	07:00_z	07:5Ɛ_z	07:00_d A.M.	07:59_d A.M.
			4	Mid Morning	400_z	45Ɛ_z	0800_z	08ƐƐ_z	08:00_z	08:5Ɛ_z	08:00_d A.M.	08:59_d A.M.
			4	Mid Morning	460_z	4ƐƐ_z	0900_z	09ƐƐ_z	09:00_z	09:5Ɛ_z	09:00_d A.M.	09:59_d A.M.
			5	Late Morning	500_z	55Ɛ_z	0ᘔ00_z	0ᘔƐƐ_z	0ᘔ:00_z	0ᘔ:5Ɛ_z	10:00_d A.M.	10:59_d A.M.
			5	Late Morning	560_z	5ƐƐ_z	0Ɛ00_z	0ƐƐƐ_z	0Ɛ:00_z	0Ɛ:5Ɛ_z	11:00_d A.M.	11:59_d A.M.
	P O S T M E R I D I E M	A F T E R N O O N	6	Early Afternoon	600_z	65Ɛ_z	1000_z	10ƐƐ_z	10:00_z	10:5Ɛ_z	12:00_d P.M.	12:59_d P.M.
			6	Early Afternoon	660_z	6ƐƐ_z	1100_z	11ƐƐ_z	11:00_z	11:5Ɛ_z	01:00_d P.M.	01:59_d P.M.
			7	Mid Afternoon	700_z	75Ɛ_z	1200_z	12ƐƐ_z	12:00_z	12:5Ɛ_z	02:00_d P.M.	02:59_d P.M.
			7	Mid Afternoon	760_z	7ƐƐ_z	1300_z	13ƐƐ_z	13:00_z	13:5Ɛ_z	03:00_d P.M.	03:59_d P.M.
			8	Late Afternoon	800_z	85Ɛ_z	1400_z	14ƐƐ_z	14:00_z	14:5Ɛ_z	04:00_d P.M.	04:59_d P.M.
			8	Late Afternoon	860_z	8ƐƐ_z	1500_z	15ƐƐ_z	15:00_z	15:5Ɛ_z	05:00_d P.M.	05:59_d P.M.
N O X		E V E N I N G	9	Early Evening	900_z	95Ɛ_z	1600_z	16ƐƐ_z	16:00_z	16:5Ɛ_z	06:00_d P.M.	06:59_d P.M.
			9	Early Evening	960_z	9ƐƐ_z	1700_z	17ƐƐ_z	17:00_z	17:5Ɛ_z	07:00_d P.M.	07:59_d P.M.
			ᘔ	Mid Evening	ᘔ00_z	ᘔ5Ɛ_z	1800_z	18ƐƐ_z	18:00_z	18:5Ɛ_z	08:00_d P.M.	08:59_d P.M.
			ᘔ	Mid Evening	ᘔ60_z	ᘔƐƐ_z	1900_z	19ƐƐ_z	19:00_z	19:5Ɛ_z	09:00_d P.M.	09:59_d P.M.
			Ɛ	Late Evening	Ɛ00_z	Ɛ5Ɛ_z	1ᘔ00_z	1ᘔƐƐ_z	1ᘔ:00_z	1ᘔ:5Ɛ_z	10:00_d P.M.	10:59_d P.M.
			Ɛ	Late Evening	Ɛ60_z	ƐƐƐ_z	1Ɛ00_z	1ƐƐƐ_z	1Ɛ:00_z	1Ɛ:5Ɛ_z	11:00_d P.M.	11:59_d P.M.

In a Primel world, people would likely tell time in terms of the ⚀trice count. Since the ⚀trice is 5/6 of a minute, this gives accuracy to the minute and better, using only three dozenal digits. Conventional 12_d-hour clock time requires four digits plus an indicator of the current ⚀clock period, A.M. or P.M. TGM time in ⚀lapses does better in that the hour is encoded in a single digit and the top digit encodes the ⚀clock period (0=A.M., 1=P.M.). However, one more digit only gives accuracy down to the nearest 5-minute (6-⚀trice) ⚀block. To get at least minute accuracy in TGM requires 4 digits. But because the ⚀lapse is half the size of the ⚀trice, and only 25_d seconds long, this provides too much accuracy, at the expense of taking up an additional digit. Bottom line, the Primel scheme is the most compact.

The so-called “9-to-5” job would start at 460_z ⚀trices, half-way through Mid Morning ⚀dwell, and would end at 860_z ⚀trices, half-way through Late Afternoon ⚀dwell. This gives a total duration of 400_z ⚀trices or 4 ⚀dwells (8 hours). Then again, in a Primel world, businesses might opt to start and end the work day on round ⚀dwells, let's say 400_z to 800_z ⚀trices (8:00_d A.M. to 4:00_d P.M., or Mid Morning through Mid Afternoon), or perhaps even 500_z to 900_z ⚀trices (10:00_d A.M. to 6:00_d P.M., or Late Morning through Late Afternoon). In the latter case, this might be referred to as a “5-to-9” job, standing the conventional term on its head.

⚀Phases of the Day

⚀Clocks of the Day

⚀Dwells of the Day

Browser not supported