[OT] Terminology for Ternary Measures?

[Alexandre Enkerli]

Sorry for this off-topic question. It has to do with Beldon Dominello's 
"rhythmic oddity" and ternary measures. My formal music theory is far 
behind and it's not something I use regularly
It's not very important but I just want to check.

I thought that, at least in French, beats in ternary measures are named 
after the longer note values instead of their subdivisions, e.g. the 
four dotted quarter notes in a 12 8 are the four beats and the twelve 
eighth notes are subdivisions. So, we would supposedly say "quatre 
temps de noire pointée" instead of "douze temps de croches"...
Is this a language difference or am I just plain wrong?

Again, sorry for the OT-ness of this question.