The reference of “ciao” deriving from “sciavo” meaning “ slave” is like in some parts of Germany you may hear, “ Hallo, Servus” with that same mentality of I am your humble servant.
Inndeed, it's mostly a Southern German as well as an Austrian thing, Servus is a very common greeting and can be both used for hello and good bye and is literally a Latin word meaning the same thing.
Greetings! I'm Czech and we use „Ahoj“ (Ahoy) ALL the time. It's a paradox considering that we're landlocked. Also we use „Čau, Čaues , Čauky, Čus“ etc (Ciao) Both at the beginning and the end of a conversation. We also use „Haló“ for a distant call or a reassurance of someone's presence on a phone... Also the „salam“ greeting is quite funny to me as it means bacon in Czech.
"Ahoj" really sounds quite funny when you're hiking on the German side of the border around Elbe and then decide to try the Czech side :) (On the German side it's mostly "Hallo" and "Servus")
Ahoj (English Ahoy) is also said in parts of Slovenia, but not very much, more often “zdravo” or “živio” depending on context. Goodbye is almost always “se vidimo” or “se slišimo”, maybe “adijo” or “nasvidenje”. Very contextual.
@@MyPrettyPaperPassion sadly I don't know! My mum travelled around Mongolia by motorcycle, and told me when she got back, but I can't remember and sadly, I can't ask her anymore as she passed away 15 years ago.
Hello from Thailand. 🙏 About the word sawasdee. The second S is silent. I tend to write the word as sawadee. Which is also allowed because Thai doesn't have an official spelling in western alphabet. Thais don't pronounce an S at the end of a word or a syllable. I don't really speak Thai but Tenglish is a real thing here. It's a version of simplified English meaning less grammar and intertwined with Thai words. You can say thank you in a store but in Thailand you might expand that to thank you krub/kaa if you want to be more polite. Two answers you hear a lot here are no have and cannot. If you'd ask for a product in a store that's out of stock the standard reply is no have. Just these two words and nothing else. Like in many Asian languages there is no equivalent for the verb to be and depending on the context that's often replaced with to have. No have rain today. About gender fluidity. Indeed many Thais go through some kind of transition as an early adult and this is well accepted in Thai culture. There are many names for the different kinds of lady boys as well as full transsexuals. What doesn't happen in Thai is all these new pronouns that you see in English. The kaa/krup distinction doesn't reflect the genders at all. For men and women the choice is simple. Everybody else just picks one of the two forms they feel happy with. No need for a third, fourth, fifth invented word. Language doesn't need unnecessary complexities to make everybody feel included. If anything Thai culture has proven this. Soon Thailand will also legally recognize same sex marriage. This is long overdue. The difficult political landscape has put it off for a long time but the people already made up their minds about this topic a long time ago. Live and let live could be Thailand's mantra. It's an amazing place for everybody, straight people like myself included. Personal freedom here is enormous. People don't judge and anything goes really as long as you respect everybody else.
I'm an American, 51 years, who as a kid lived in Norfolk while my dad was stationed at Mildenhall. I was young enough to adpot an English (nah, scratch that -- Norfolk is a different beast) accent, including all the idioms. "Wotcher" was THE standard greeting in our town, at least for everyone under 25. I never had the slightest idea where it came from and was always a bit confused that it never showed up in any Brit TV or films. Was too old for the Harry Potter madness, but did eventually read them and was delighted to see a character using it! Now you two come along and tell me it's a contraction of "what cheer". I love this!!! Three months late for anyone to read, but you've made my day!
Not too late at all. I'm an American of about the same age and also a military brat. I can relate to your experience. We didn't live in England, but we went to an international school where all the English speaking teachers came from the UK...
This word is similar to the Brazilian "ei". I'm studying swedish and I found it very interesting to see this similar word. But, in Portuguese, at least in Brazil, it could be rude, as if you want to make someone pay attention to you. But not all the time. You can use it just to do that in an informal situation.
My favourite greeting comes from Ojibwe: aanii (pronouned Ah Nee or Ah NEE) and means "I see your light" Wonderful video! Thanks so much for making this!
I noticed most Mexican Spanish speakers generally answer the phone with, "Bueno." - meaning "Good." I assume it's short for "I'm good" or "It's all good," so as to communicate to the person on the other end of the line that the person answering is "good" to have a conversation. I could be wrong though.
Surprising, since hello/hullo/hollo were originally a way to _hail_ someone (as was noted), that it hasn't been linked to the very word 'hail'. To hail someone originally meant to say/yell the word 'Hail' to them - that being the shortened form of 'wasail', which was a greeting that meant Be Well, or Be Whole. No stretch to imagine a common greeting acquiring a tail: hail-o - similar to tallyho or right-oh. Any frequently used expression gets played around with, and evolves over time.
At 30:11, I always heard, "Hey is for horses, straw is cheaper, grass is for free" whenever someone said, "hey." So it got shortened to, "Hay is for horses" as we got older. The proper response was an eye roll.
Goodbye in Japanese - Sayonara (Formal); Bai Bai ( bye-bye), Jaa Ne (see you later), or Mata Ne ( see you later) (Friends or Family); Ittekimasu (I'm leaving now) (used when leaving home or office); Ojama Shimashita (I have disturbed you) (used when leaving someone's home).
Be careful, though. "Ittekimasu" literally means "I'm going and then coming back", so at the office you could use it if you were going out to lunch or for some errand, etc., and planning to return. But if you're leaving because you've finished work you would probably just say good-night, "O-yasumi nasai". And if you're leaving but other people are still working, especially people you work closely with, people might also say "O-saki ni shitsurei shimasu", or "O-saki ni" for short, which means "I'm sorry/excuse me for leaving before you"...
Sayonara is used in situations rather rare for non native Japanese speakers. For example at a preschool . e.g. "sensei sayonara". Ojama shimashita? That one feels unfamiliar, never heard that in the past form, but it well likely exists. Hard to say what I would use. Probably depending on whose home I am about to leave. If the person is close I would have likely had some food and say (gochisousama deshita, "it was a feast") and maybe "iroirona arigatou ne" (thanks for all different kinda things). In a more formal situation I'd use "shitsurei itashimasu" (I'm being rude). And if I really felt like almost overstaying my welcome, maybe living at someones place for a few days or even weeks, I'd say "taihen osewa ni narimashita." (You cared for me very much).
Fascinating, in South African Afrikaans we say "Ja nee"(yes no) when there's no immediately appropriate response. For instance: Statement: "My lewe is deurmekaar (My life is in a shambles)" Response: "Ja nee" - avoids a potentially inappropriate or insensitive response.
@@Vexorgthedestroyer Well in Japanese Jaa and Ne, have only indirect reference to yes/no. "Jaa" is used to change a topic or just to make your wish to speak being recognized (instead you can also use the "dewa"-sound (romaji - transcription "deha"). and "ne" is an attempt to get an agreement on what was said (like in: "isn't it"?, so here is some slight no/not feeling, this usage of "ne" also exists in some german regions in that context, so possibly in dutch/afrricaans too). So the phrase is probably translatable to ("Uhm, well...-it's time to say bye for now-...you know, right?")
When Rob clarifies that 'my dear' (from 'me duck') does not imply any particular intimacy, it reminded me of the Cornish 'my lover' / 'me lover' which again is affectionate but not romantic in anyway. To outsiders like myself being addressed as 'lover' is memorable and, well, lovely.
I am Canadian 🇨🇦(first generation ). Am I right that “duck” or “ducky” is an endearment for children?? Or maybe it’s because my dad was British, from the area that Rob hails from…
"Love" is used in West Yorkshire in place of "mate" or "pal" used elsewhere, between people of both opposite and the same gender. It seems odd to me, as a man from outside of West Yorkshire, to hear a male railway worker answer "platform 4, love" in response to my query as to where my train is departing from
When my contemporaries were sent to prep schools somewhere on the South Coast, I was shipped off to an international boarding school in Switzerland. While this was not all it was cracked up to be, there was no corporal punishment which suited me. The standard way of ending a conversation in the town was to use the German ‘Alf wiedersehen’ (literally ‘To the next time we see each other’). Occasionally you would hear the French ‘Adieu’ which always left the impression that they hoped never to see that person ever again. Later on back in England, I read, some would say too many, books written by PG Wodehouse. I quickly adopted ‘what Ho’ and ‘pip-pip’ for ‘hello’ and ‘good bye’. Today these are still my standard greetings. I could easily greet the King with a ‘what Ho’ if I were presented. Only in later life did I realise this is the challenge the sentry shouted in Macbeth.
When I lived in Brittany I was confounded by older people saying "Allez" when one would expect "au revoir", for goodbye. After several years it came to me that they were not being rude; they were not saying "Go!", they were saying a shortened version of "Allez à Dieu" which means what "good bye" really means: "Go with God".
I had hesrd that telephone operators were male until the world wars and women stepped in to do the work. (Ditto for the role of secretary -- originally able occupation.)
As I child, I noted that in "The Chronicles of Narnia," "hullo" is almost always used as an interjection indicating surprise, not as a greeting. "Hullo, what's this?"
I Flemish Dutch were we say Hallo as a greeting (like German) it can also be used in a totally unrelated context. If you finish a sentence with "hallo zeg" which translates to "say hello" it is expressing a feeling of indignation. For example: Die man zat mij te beledigen, hallo zeg. --> That man was insulting me, say hello. In the same way you can also say "Hallo zeg, wat is dit?" -> Say Hello, what is this?" To express indignation as well.
@@flybeep1661 German and English can do that with just the word hallo/hello, or in German you can also use "aber hallo", all with the same sense as what you expressed in Flemish Dutch. The single-word version often dramatically lengthens the second(German)/first(English) syllable of hallo/hello, almost giving it an entirely new syllable.
In the UK Black Country (and also in parts of Gloucestershire) 'How bist' or 'Ow Bist thee' is still used . Very good link back to OE and Frisian/Low German. The answer is traditionally ''Bay too bah" -
@@RingsLoreMaster that depends on where you come from. Where I live in the middle of the southern UK, the Shire part is pronounced Shuh with no R at all. Further west they'd use probably Sure as you suggest. Other parts of the UK will vary
Nowadays in Italy, it is ciao for hello, and ciao ciao for goodbye. Pronto in Italy - comes from the times of the original operator-connected and arranged phone calls, meaning "I AM READY" to receive the call. (but some interchanging between - right now which is subito, or soon which is presto, or quickly which is svelto or quick which is rapido)
Pronto in American English comes from the Spanish word which does carry connotations of short time periods. Hasta pronto is roughly "see you soon." A Spanish speaker might try to hurry someone up using the word "pronto" (i.e. "I want this soon!") which wouldn't be a far stretch for an English speaker to take it as "do this quickly." There's also the cartoon character "Speedy" Gonzalez who uses a variety of pseudo-Spanish to talk about how fast he is.
@@rmdodsonbills Pronto in Spanish is SOON. If certain countries or folk want to change a domestic or foreign word's meaning, then so be it - such is life and "progress" but I may sometimes correct them.
In Liverpool for hello we say ‘Yer Alright’ or just ‘Alright’ For good bye we say ‘Tara’ if on the phone about four times alternating between each speaker Tara, Tara, Tara ,Tara 🙂
Brilliant podcast! Interestingly over my nearly 60 years of lower middle class Home Counties English I've witnessed the decline of 'How do you do?' as a common greeting. My grandfather (born 1903 in London) would always use this to steangers/associates/friends and even us his grandchildren, but with different intonation. I might embark on reviving 'how do you do?' as a greeting. In fact, now this podcast has made me think, I'm always at a bit of a loss of how to greet people. I'm not a "You alright" kinda chap, nor "Hello", unless using the person's name. I used to use 'wotcha' quite a bit and might start it using it again. Thank you for making me muse on these important matters!
If ciao means slave, it has the same meaning as the bavarian / austrian servus you can use instead of both hello and ciao. Servus is also understood in all other countries that once belonged to the austro-hungarian empire. Another greeting which is used in a frequently rather extended time frame around noon, I'd reckon practically in the whole of Germany, is Mahlzeit, which literally means meal time. Since it is used around lunchtime both when you meet someone and when you part, it may come from wishing "a good meal" either to come or to have had. In the company I worked in it was sometimes used the whole day over, even during night shift, and under all circumstances, even in workshops, where nobody was having a meal nor expecting to have one soon.
Back in the 60s my grandmother told me it was short for "god be with you" so it's something I've known all my life. Something she'd tell me off for is using "oi" to attract someone's attention. Apparently that is supposed to be quite rude but I don't know why. It sounds no more offensive than "hay"
Question. Rob you told in one of your videos, that "ye" is a "wrong-writing" or more a result of a bad handwriting of the "th". So might it be, that "goodbye" --> "god b(e) w(ith) ye (=you)", as you mentioned at aproximatly at 27:55 ... is maybe "god be with ..." ... I think of "go with god" ... Learning English many many years ago, I thought "goodbye" was once written "godby" --> "god next to you" ... still like the idea And now to something completly different. The German "Grüß Gott", had always something final for me. My instinct reaction is "no, I don't want to... not now..." Thx
31 minutes of such an interesting knowledge. In my language, swedish, the most common greeting word is "hej". In high school I was told that this word dated back to the viking era and was brought back in the begining of 1800, right after Sweden lost Finland to Russia.
We Hungarians know that the word hello (Hungarian: halló) comes from Hungarian "hallod?" , meaning "do you hear?". (Hungarian "hall" means to hear) Because at the building of first telephone centers were many Hungarians involved. like Tivadar Puskás. So they were asking over the line "hallod?", do you hear? can you hear?
@@teklahuszar6603 I'm doubting the Dutch origin of "Ahoj" as well, even though I'm Dutch. I think some more research on his part might be needed, though I could be wrong about Ahoj.
In the US, when we are hiking a popular trail, we often greet the strangers we pass with a simple nod, or a quick hi or hello. In Australia, G'day was very common, as was a friendly how ya goin'
I've always known the greeting to be 'gidday' being a shortened version of 'good day', at least that's what my school English teacher told me 60 years ago.
06:21 The way the Italian word PRONTO "Quickly/Fast" came into American was through classical music. Because in Italian it was originally applied to music having to be played 'quickly'. Like so many other Italian words that are still used in "the tempo" (speed) that certain musical parts need to be played at. Some of the more common Italian tempo indicators, from slowest to fastest, are: Grave - slow and solemn (20-40 BPM*) Lento - slowly (40-45 BPM) Largo - broadly (45-50 BPM) Adagio - slow and stately (literally, “at ease”) (55-65 BPM) Adagietto - rather slow (65-69 BPM) Andante - at a walking pace (73-77 BPM) Moderato - moderately (86-97 BPM) Allegretto - moderately fast (98-109 BPM) Allegro - fast, quickly and bright (109-132 BPM) Vivace - lively and fast (132-140 BPM) Presto - extremely fast (168-177 BPM) Prestissimo - even faster than Presto (178 BPM and over) (*BPM - beats per minute)
I love that when Mark Okrand created the Klingon language for the Star Trek movies (and onward) he made the standard Klingon greeting “nuqneH” which literally translates as “What do you want?!” Clearly an opening challenge that a person from a warrior race would use when meeting someone unknown to them.
My favourite hello-type greeting is in Arabic Syrian (Levantine) dialect - SHLONAK? - which is a contraction of “shou lawnak”: what is your colour? I.e., what's your mood? My next favourite is the way hello is said in Lebanon, where most people speak a mix of Arabic, English and French (very colonial): Hi, Kifak, ca va!
In Brabant, in the southern Netherlands, there is an expression that sounds a lot like Howdy. It's Houdoe, used as a farewell, meaning 'keep yourself' in other words, stay well. Catalan often uses a form that's close to French 'adieu': 'adeu', but there is the alternative 'Deu us quard' "may God keep you save". Or simply 'fins un altre' "until next time"
Thank you guys for an amazing podcast! A native Russian speaker here. In Russian your can say chao for goodbye, it sounds a bit playful and quirky but 95% of people will understand what you mean. And it is not used for greeting at all. And, by the way, we use "zdravstvuytye" for greeting (official hello) in Russian which literally means be in good health, be well, be healthy.
In Sheffield (South Yorkshire, England) the customary greeting is, "Y'alright?" To which the response is, "Yeah, you?" We also say Ey Oop in Yorkshire and "nah then". Or, "ow ast a bin". In Cornwall, someone might say, "Alright then, my loverrrr" or, "Alright my 'ansome". Loving this channel.
We still use "ey up" in Yorkshire as a warning as well as a greeting. It's also used, I guess in the warning sense, to ask people to move out of the way, often followed by, "Coming though!".
In Doric (spoken in the North East of Scotland) we commonly say 'Fit like?' as a greeting, meaning 'what like', or 'how's things'. A reply could be 'Nae bad. Foo's yersel?' meaning 'not bad. And how are you?'. An alternative is 'Aye, aye' which translates as 'Yes, yes' but just means hello. Really enjoyed the first episode of the new channel.
@@omniglotThat's one that you see on lists of Doric phrases, or reproduced on tea towels and mugs, but it's not one that I ever hear to be honest. It would be interesting to know if any other Doric speakers use it regularly in normal conversation.
Hi! Native Spanish speaker here. The American "pronto" is basically loaned from Spanish. In Spanish, pronto means soon. It shares the same etymology as the Italian word and the English "prompt"; all stem from the Latin word "promptus" (to be at hand, to have ready)
Always loved when I learned in German that the standard sign-off on the phone is "Auf Wiederhören", till I hear from you again (as opposed to auf Wiedersehen, till I see you again) . Since i learned this in school, and 30 years ago, i don't know if it's actuallly a common phrase today, but i like it
As marcom2248 wrote, both greetings are more formal, though not exactly old-fashioned. You can still use Auf Wiedersehen when leaving a restaurant or shop, but it will be bit too formal to use it when leaving a party or a casual meeting.
Great vid. Regarding God be with you: in Irish the greeting is Dia dhuit which also means God be with you. The reply is often Dia agus Muire dhuit 'God and Mary be with you. A funny story I was once cycling on Inis Mór one of the Irish speaking islands off the coast of Galway and Clare and passed a group of Japanese tourists. I wished them Konnichi Wa as I whizzed by. Without missing a beat they greeted me back with 'Dia dhuit'.
Yep, it's hard to be an atheist in Irish! See also "Bail ó Dhia ar an obar" (a blessing from God on the work) if a person was working. Note that we were taught two forms of goodbye. The basic word is slán (safe/in good health), but you were supposed to say "slán leat" to a person who was leaving the meeting-place, but "slán agat" to the person staying put: may safety accompany you vs. may safety be with you!
Most common greeting where I'm from in Ireland is probably 'well boy?', or 'well girl?', or just 'well?' on its own. Just like how 'how're you?' as a greeting is not really a question, 'well?' isn't really a question either, but the response is the same, just well also.
'Hello' being spoken when picking up the telephone was a new type of word in a sense. It is the first word in the conversation, despite the other party being the initiator of the contact, in contrast to the mentioned earlier uses of 'hallo' or 'hollo'. 'Hello' announces to the caller that a successful connection to the called party has been established.
12:15 I am a New Zealander. It wasn't until I was in my Forties that I realised I used "Howdy" quite often, say, when passing strangers on a track in the bush. Probably too many cowboy films and comics in my youth in the Fifties.
I was speaking English with a Moroccan in a crowded hotel lobby bar in Heliopolis. We were discussing languages and I mentioned salaam & shalom, at which point several hundred people fell silent and stared angrily at me. Doesn’t evoke warm feelings in Egypt I assure you.
In Filipino, a common greeting we use equivalent to hello- most usually seen in the tourism industry- is "mabuhay", which literally means "to live". So when those people at the airport greet you like that, it's like an invitation to live in our country, amongst our people. Which sounds quite lovely imo. And one way to say "goodbye" is "paalam"- more literally, it means to ask permission or to let someone know something. In this case, you're letting them know you're going on and asking permission to leave. Which is rather polite lmao. It's a bit of a shame we don't really use these day to day tbh. Most Filipinos have some command of English so we tend to greet each other in English, like "Hi!" or "Good morning po!" ("po" being a generic term we add for respectful speech).
I refer to the discussion around 16:00 - about the original meaning of the word "to greet" - that it was actually "to make contact" or to "call out". Well, in Portuguese, the word for "to shout" is "gritar" - and I am sure that it has the same root as the original meaning of the word 'to greet'.
When someone sneezes here in England, the natives usually say "Bless you." 🇬🇧 In my country, we usually say "saúde" (salus), meaning to wish the person good health. 🇧🇷
One of the most common greetings in Finnish is "terve", which literally means "healthy". It's one of those words we use everyday, but almost never think about it's etymology; most times we don't even think about health when saying Terve.
Ha! I love languages!! I learned from friends that "Tja!" is a way of saying "Hi" in Swedish. Like the Italian "ciao", "Tja" also has its roots in the word for servant.
A little fun fact to add to »ciao«: In Bavarian the most common greeting is »Servus«, deriving from the identical Latin word meaning »slave«. Just like with »ciao« the speaker means to express »I am at your service« but it's become a relatively casual greeting or goodbye.
Speaking of single-word conversations, there's a comic strip called Zits and the main characters are a teenaged boy and his friends. I remember one strip where he and his friends have an entire conversation using only the word "Dude". They use it as a greeting, as a way to offer to share something, to say "Thank you", to express surprise, etc., and finally as a way to say "Good-bye"...
Salutations Rob and Jess. This is wonderful. I so look forward to more of these podcasts. I'm Irish and good morrow was used by my father's generation quite frequently. It was usually reduced to a simple 'morrow as in 'morrow boys. Before the Ulster Plantation there was an attempt to plant Munster with the English. This failed as a lot of the newly 'planted' English were quickly absorbed into the Irish language and culture. As a result we in Munster have retained a lot of archaic English in our speech such as Forenenst meaning in front of me or opposite me.
At school, we had to sing from Nelson's New National Songbook. One of the songs was 'Good morrow gossip Joan, Oh where have you been walking, I have for you at home, a budget full of talking'.
I have never seen the word " Forenenst" written down before. My Dad always used to tease Grandma about her Irish accent. She was from the Ottawa Valley in Canada. Was that word only used in Munster?
@@francespettigrew9646 I believe forenenst is used in Ulster Scots also. Though an archaic word I believe it to be used regularly by those of a certain generation. I still use the word 'ye' when referring to you in the plural. I feel contemporary English has jettisoned too many words which were both colourful and descriptive, alas.
Warwickian here! "Ey up, duck!" was my (late) grandmother's term for me. She implied it was a contraction of "Duchess", (although I'm a duke!). I did wonder that mesel' tho'...I still use it even today to my 'other half', even though she's Finnish.
6:00 - I was taught in Japanese to say "mushi mushi" for "I speak" when answering the phone. 7:20 - "Ciao" was also taught to me in German as an alternative to "tchuss" as a casual goodbye. 26:15 - Japanese parting phrases I was taught. "Sayonara" is more formal as Rob said and may imply not meeting again. Informal parting was "jaa ne" that is "well then" a very Midwest US style or "atto de" for "later then" and "matta ashita" for "see you tomorrow" Ocassionally, you'll still see "bye bye" used in Japanese media between close friends which is a English loanword.
The German term "Fernsprecher" is common among people that celebrated their 100th birthday recently. Honestly, almost everyone says "Telefon" today. ... Thinking a bit further about that, the younger ones would rather say "Handy" or "Smartphone", they just don't have that stationary device anymore.
Finnish has a greeting that supposedly has a rather surprising origin - "Moi!" It's a very casual greeting, basically like "Hi!" except even more casual. Apparently it travelled into Finnish from the Dutch! Not a super close neighbour. In Dutch they greet "Moin!" and it just means "beautiful!" An older greeting in Finnish is "terve!" which quite literally means "healthy". The word meaning "a greeting" even is "tervehdys". But what is _actually_ fascinating is that the word for health seems to be derived from the word for tar - "terva". It was heavily associated with health as were trees in general.
I learned 'Moi' in a visit to Finland, and 'Moi-moi!' when answering the phone. When I tried to use it on an old Finish woman here in Canada who had emigrated in 1940, she didn't believe me - as she had never heard Moi used.
Actually, beautiful in Dutch is mooie. The greeting Moin is popular in all of Northern Germany, but means "morning", a short form of "good morning". But it can be used at any time of the day in Northern Germany. Also to say good-bye.
Wotcha (or wotcher?) was pretty common when I was young, and I think it was common in cockney. It also features in that campfire song, “gin gan goolie”.
I'm originally from Bedfordshire and have lived a lot in SE England and Wotcha is still very common in working class circles. Wonderful to see how Shakespeare remains relevant 🙂
Talking about ‘morrow’ reminded me of Spanish in which ‘mañana’ meaning both the morning and/or tomorrow, which has been a pain in my time on Duolingo. Also ‘salut´ in French for saying hello and goodbye, I’m guessing must come from salutations, like you mentioned about salute.
In Hawai'i, "Aloha Oe" (yes like in the song) was what you said when you didn't expect to see someone again. If you're just separating for a short time, Aloha suffices. It adds a dimension of sadness to that song.
In Spain, it is common to ask "¿diga?" (formal imperative of "decir", but it is a question, so the imperative meaning is lost, of course; it's not a command). It is also fairly common to just use "¿sí?" (Yes?). Can't think of any other ways of answering the phone here in Spain other than those two. Of course, inmigrants and their descendants use other ones, like "aló" and such, but these are not native in Spain.
About « Comment allez-vous à la selle? » I could now somehow relate it to the phrase “ir aos pés” (literally “go to the feet”) that is used to say that someone is doing well, as in recovering from being sick. It’s also used as a question, similar to “how is he doing now?” It’s used in the south of Brazil in cities with strong influence from German immigrants. Also, about “hoy” it just reminded me as the preferred greeting all over Brazil, “oi”
How interesting that Ciao means "slave". In southern Germany, we often greet each other with "Servus" (both arriving and leaving) - which, I'm sure you can tell, is Latin for "servant". The legend is that when the Romans were here in southern Germany, the locals heard them call out "servus", without realizing that the Romans were calling a servant. The locals adopted "Servus" as a greeting, and it's still in use today. :)
In Mandinka, at least at the time I learned to speak it, greetings were generally long and formal, starting with “Kor’ tanante?” Which meant “Hope you have no problems!” Followed by detailed enquiries about the person’s family and where they are, etc. Some younger people would ask “I be nyaadi?” meaning “How you doing?” And there were different sequences of questions in different parts of the region (Senegal and Gambia, Mali…) But each question had a prescribed answer, and learning the right answers was a trip at first. The right answer to “Where’s your family?” was “They are here”, and the right answer to “Any problems?” Was “No problems”. I caused much hilarity when I answered the “Any problems?” question with “They’re here!” Things may have changed, because Mandinka wasn’t a written language at the time.
BTW, I'm the only person I know in Vermont who uses "Ciao", but everyone seems to understand what it means... Cultural diffusion through movies, I suspect.
Love the podcast. As a fellow East Midlander it's great to hear you say Ey up me duck. I understand the word duck actually doesn't derive from the feathered quacking creature but from the same roots as the word duke, so it is a form of respect.
13:07 I'm from Sri Lanka, and in the Sinhala/Sinhalese language we often use the greeting, "Kohomə də?", which just means "how?" You can also directly ask "how are you?" by saying, "Oyātə kohomə də?" (or using the formal "obə" in place of "oyā"; the plural you is oyāla/obəla) Another way to ask the same thing is "Ho'ndin innəwə də?" = Have [you] been well? To reply, you can say "Ho'ndai", meaning good/fine; or "Mamə ho'ndin innawā" = I've been well There's a plethora of other ways to ask (and answer) how someone's doing; like "How's life?" (Kohomədə jīwithē?) or "How's your day been?" (Kohomədə oyāge dawəsə?), etc.
Harry Potter was "a big part of [Jess's] childhood." Now I feel even older. The segment about "ce va?" reminds me of the common 'Murican expression "How's it hanging?" which is frequently interpreted to be a reference to male genitalia. The Japanese telephone greeting is a curt "hai!" (pronounced the way English speakers say "hi"), meaning "yes?"
The literal translation in English is obliged, which you hear often enough in Texas as 'much obliged' with an implied subject (I am). So it's an adjective, which in Portuguese must agree with the gender of the subject -- in this case the speaker.
Minor correction: "Namaste" doesn't mean "I bow to you." The translation is more like: "the divine essence in me recognizes the divine essence in you." It's reverential, but in no way self-belittling. Indeed, the connotation is that you are (at least in ideal) elevated/raised up/brightened by the presence of the one you are greeting. But that's just one small quibble in a thoroughly enjoyable half hour. I'm currently fighting off a bout of COVID-19, and you guys have aided greatly in making the bed-rest non-tedious. Namaste.
I live in Japan, so here are some common ways to say goodbye: matta ne (most common, something like "see you later") matta ashita (usually said like "ma ta shta" - "see you tomorrow") Both of the above are sometimes preceded by "ja", or "jaa", similar to saying "Well, ..." bai bai (said just like "bye bye" and mostly used by kids and young people) Good job with this! Was refreshing to just see two intellectually curious people sharing knowledge and being cheerful and likeable. Pleasant change to a lot of media these days!
@@WordsUnravelled yeah, it’s the go to! (And comes from the -ta form of matsu - to wait, so literally means something close to “please wait”!, but used like “see ya”!)
@@kevinmcqueenie7420 Sorry for being pedantic but you are a bit incorrect. The word you are looking for is "mata" which means "again". The -ta form of matsu (matta) would make no sense in this context as it would refer to a past action. It literally does not mean "please wait" but, rather, "(until we meet) again" or something like that. It's closer to German "auf wiedersehen" (mata=wieder) or to Italian "arrivederci" (a rivederci; mata= ri-). "ne" is an interjection asking the interlocutor for confirmation.
@@palofrasca1775 I stand corrected! I definitely meant to say something like “until next time” but my brain must have broke. “Please wait” would be better rendered as “chotto matte”, or more formally, “sho sho omachi kudasai”. My wife would shake her head at my failure (but possibly not be surprised, as despite 17 years here I still make basic errors!) Cheers!
In Portugal, we differ from other european languages when we "pick-up" the telephone. We say "Estou sim?" or "Está lá?" (yes, we open with a question), which roughly means "I am here, yes?" (a confirmation that we are being heard) or "Are you there?" (in Brazil they are more mainstream). But we also use "xau" (the portuguese version of the italian "ciao") only for farewell or "adeus" the portuguese version of the french "adieu" or spanish "adiós".
Szia! This one is in Hungarian and pronounced very similar like See you. It is abbreviation of the Servus already discussed. I am a Harry Potter fan and read all books in 3 different languages. I have learned a lot of new vocabulary, expect from Wotcher. I had no idea it was a real life greeting. Soo happy to learn yet again something new. In German Ciao is written Tchau. Cső!
It’s so refreshing to see you both. No shouting, respect, smiles, well researched stories and not uninformed opinions, loved it!
Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching.
😂😂😂
Now I’m trying to imagine what it would look like to see Rob loudly shouting down his interlocutor. 😂
Cool but when ever did you see intellectuals shouting in a conversation
@@theduece82 sadly, too many times.
The reference of “ciao” deriving from “sciavo” meaning “ slave” is like in some parts of Germany you may hear, “ Hallo, Servus” with that same mentality of I am your humble servant.
Inndeed, it's mostly a Southern German as well as an Austrian thing, Servus is a very common greeting and can be both used for hello and good bye and is literally a Latin word meaning the same thing.
Likewise in Swedish. A common colloquial greeting is "tjena", which is short for "tjänare", or servant (cognate with German Diener).
Coming originally from the austrian army as a greeting
I've once heard that comes from "Servus Christi" = "servant of Christ"
"Servus" doesn't mean anything like "humble servant". It's not servile. It's "friends, buddies, companions, comrades". That is, peers.
Greetings!
I'm Czech and we use „Ahoj“ (Ahoy)
ALL the time. It's a paradox considering that we're landlocked.
Also we use „Čau, Čaues , Čauky, Čus“ etc (Ciao)
Both at the beginning and the end of a conversation.
We also use „Haló“ for a distant call or a reassurance of someone's presence on a phone...
Also the „salam“ greeting is quite funny to me as it means bacon in Czech.
Glorious! Thanks for this.
R
Interesting. Though isn't Čus from German tschüss? I could be wrong!
"Ahoj" really sounds quite funny when you're hiking on the German side of the border around Elbe and then decide to try the Czech side :) (On the German side it's mostly "Hallo" and "Servus")
"Salam" for "bacon". Is that somehow related to the word salami?
Ahoj (English Ahoy) is also said in parts of Slovenia, but not very much, more often “zdravo” or “živio” depending on context. Goodbye is almost always “se vidimo” or “se slišimo”, maybe “adijo” or “nasvidenje”. Very contextual.
My favourite is easily Mongolian, where the greeting literally translates as "Hold the Dogs"
love it
How do you say it please? I LOVE my dogs and would love to be able to say it for fun. 😊
@@MyPrettyPaperPassion sadly I don't know! My mum travelled around Mongolia by motorcycle, and told me when she got back, but I can't remember and sadly, I can't ask her anymore as she passed away 15 years ago.
Hello from Thailand. 🙏 About the word sawasdee. The second S is silent. I tend to write the word as sawadee. Which is also allowed because Thai doesn't have an official spelling in western alphabet. Thais don't pronounce an S at the end of a word or a syllable.
I don't really speak Thai but Tenglish is a real thing here. It's a version of simplified English meaning less grammar and intertwined with Thai words. You can say thank you in a store but in Thailand you might expand that to thank you krub/kaa if you want to be more polite. Two answers you hear a lot here are no have and cannot. If you'd ask for a product in a store that's out of stock the standard reply is no have. Just these two words and nothing else. Like in many Asian languages there is no equivalent for the verb to be and depending on the context that's often replaced with to have. No have rain today.
About gender fluidity. Indeed many Thais go through some kind of transition as an early adult and this is well accepted in Thai culture. There are many names for the different kinds of lady boys as well as full transsexuals. What doesn't happen in Thai is all these new pronouns that you see in English. The kaa/krup distinction doesn't reflect the genders at all. For men and women the choice is simple. Everybody else just picks one of the two forms they feel happy with. No need for a third, fourth, fifth invented word. Language doesn't need unnecessary complexities to make everybody feel included. If anything Thai culture has proven this.
Soon Thailand will also legally recognize same sex marriage. This is long overdue. The difficult political landscape has put it off for a long time but the people already made up their minds about this topic a long time ago. Live and let live could be Thailand's mantra. It's an amazing place for everybody, straight people like myself included. Personal freedom here is enormous. People don't judge and anything goes really as long as you respect everybody else.
I'm an American, 51 years, who as a kid lived in Norfolk while my dad was stationed at Mildenhall. I was young enough to adpot an English (nah, scratch that -- Norfolk is a different beast) accent, including all the idioms. "Wotcher" was THE standard greeting in our town, at least for everyone under 25. I never had the slightest idea where it came from and was always a bit confused that it never showed up in any Brit TV or films. Was too old for the Harry Potter madness, but did eventually read them and was delighted to see a character using it! Now you two come along and tell me it's a contraction of "what cheer". I love this!!! Three months late for anyone to read, but you've made my day!
Not too late at all. I'm an American of about the same age and also a military brat. I can relate to your experience. We didn't live in England, but we went to an international school where all the English speaking teachers came from the UK...
I just read it, and it's 19 August 2024!
I grew up in London and we also said Wotcha.
I was surprised Hey / Hej didn’t make it into the conversation, given the Scandinavian influence on the English language.
My natural in person greeting is "ey" as in "hey" without the h.
though it's the entire point of the last 90 seconds of the video.
This word is similar to the Brazilian "ei". I'm studying swedish and I found it very interesting to see this similar word. But, in Portuguese, at least in Brazil, it could be rude, as if you want to make someone pay attention to you. But not all the time. You can use it just to do that in an informal situation.
@@joeldcanfield_spinheadNo, they are suggesting it’s an abbreviated greeting, not that it was borrowed from Old Norse.
My favourite greeting comes from Ojibwe: aanii (pronouned Ah Nee or Ah NEE) and means "I see your light"
Wonderful video! Thanks so much for making this!
I love that! I was told by a woman from India that Namaste translates to that which is holy in me honors that which is holy in you.
That is lovely.
When I lived in Madrid Spaniards answered the phone with "diga me" '- "speak to me".
That's emminently sensible!
Yup, it’s either: diga? (Say?) or dígame (tell me?). I prefer diga?
I noticed most Mexican Spanish speakers generally answer the phone with, "Bueno." - meaning "Good." I assume it's short for "I'm good" or "It's all good," so as to communicate to the person on the other end of the line that the person answering is "good" to have a conversation. I could be wrong though.
could be used, in Colombian spanish we just took the french term "aló" for answering the phone
Surprising, since hello/hullo/hollo were originally a way to _hail_ someone (as was noted), that it hasn't been linked to the very word 'hail'. To hail someone originally meant to say/yell the word 'Hail' to them - that being the shortened form of 'wasail', which was a greeting that meant Be Well, or Be Whole. No stretch to imagine a common greeting acquiring a tail: hail-o - similar to tallyho or right-oh. Any frequently used expression gets played around with, and evolves over time.
I'm so tempted to start ending my phone calls with "that is all" & see how many people ask me when it was that I lost my mind.
At 30:11, I always heard, "Hey is for horses, straw is cheaper, grass is for free" whenever someone said, "hey." So it got shortened to, "Hay is for horses" as we got older. The proper response was an eye roll.
We used to say:
"Hay makes a bull fat,
Bull makes a cow fat,
A cow makes butterfat"
"Ey up, me duck"
'Sup dude"
Stoke on Trent also use Duck as a greeting, funny when I first heard it from a Big Lad!
For a pair of word nerds, you both have wonderfully expressive faces. Ironically, this is a good lesson in non-verbal communication.
Goodbye in Japanese - Sayonara (Formal); Bai Bai ( bye-bye), Jaa Ne (see you later), or Mata Ne ( see you later) (Friends or Family); Ittekimasu (I'm leaving now) (used when leaving home or office); Ojama Shimashita (I have disturbed you) (used when leaving someone's home).
Be careful, though. "Ittekimasu" literally means "I'm going and then coming back", so at the office you could use it if you were going out to lunch or for some errand, etc., and planning to return. But if you're leaving because you've finished work you would probably just say good-night, "O-yasumi nasai". And if you're leaving but other people are still working, especially people you work closely with, people might also say "O-saki ni shitsurei shimasu", or "O-saki ni" for short, which means "I'm sorry/excuse me for leaving before you"...
Sayonara is used in situations rather rare for non native Japanese speakers. For example at a preschool . e.g. "sensei sayonara". Ojama shimashita? That one feels unfamiliar, never heard that in the past form, but it well likely exists. Hard to say what I would use. Probably depending on whose home I am about to leave. If the person is close I would have likely had some food and say (gochisousama deshita, "it was a feast") and maybe "iroirona arigatou ne" (thanks for all different kinda things). In a more formal situation I'd use "shitsurei itashimasu" (I'm being rude). And if I really felt like almost overstaying my welcome, maybe living at someones place for a few days or even weeks, I'd say "taihen osewa ni narimashita." (You cared for me very much).
Fascinating, in South African Afrikaans we say "Ja nee"(yes no) when there's no immediately appropriate response.
For instance:
Statement: "My lewe is deurmekaar (My life is in a shambles)"
Response: "Ja nee" - avoids a potentially inappropriate or insensitive response.
@@Vexorgthedestroyer Well in Japanese Jaa and Ne, have only indirect reference to yes/no. "Jaa" is used to change a topic or just to make your wish to speak being recognized (instead you can also use the "dewa"-sound (romaji - transcription "deha"). and "ne" is an attempt to get an agreement on what was said (like in: "isn't it"?, so here is some slight no/not feeling, this usage of "ne" also exists in some german regions in that context, so possibly in dutch/afrricaans too). So the phrase is probably translatable to ("Uhm, well...-it's time to say bye for now-...you know, right?")
I thought sayonara, was " goodbye, we may never meet again for a long time"
When Rob clarifies that 'my dear' (from 'me duck') does not imply any particular intimacy, it reminded me of the Cornish 'my lover' / 'me lover' which again is affectionate but not romantic in anyway. To outsiders like myself being addressed as 'lover' is memorable and, well, lovely.
I am Canadian 🇨🇦(first generation ). Am I right that “duck” or “ducky” is an endearment for children?? Or maybe it’s because my dad was British, from the area that Rob hails from…
@@erineross1671 I live in the same area as Rob was originally from and "duck" is used for children and adults alike.
Chao is quite common in Germany by Germans.
@@erineross1671 I use bird nicknames as endearment (flight, serenity, caring ideas). Someone is nicknamed Duck because they resemble one.
"Love" is used in West Yorkshire in place of "mate" or "pal" used elsewhere, between people of both opposite and the same gender. It seems odd to me, as a man from outside of West Yorkshire, to hear a male railway worker answer "platform 4, love" in response to my query as to where my train is departing from
Now it makes sense why Hobbits say "Hullo" in LOTR! Can't wait for more episodes!
When my contemporaries were sent to prep schools somewhere on the South Coast, I was shipped off to an international boarding school in Switzerland. While this was not all it was cracked up to be, there was no corporal punishment which suited me. The standard way of ending a conversation in the town was to use the German ‘Alf wiedersehen’ (literally ‘To the next time we see each other’). Occasionally you would hear the French ‘Adieu’ which always left the impression that they hoped never to see that person ever again.
Later on back in England, I read, some would say too many, books written by PG Wodehouse. I quickly adopted ‘what Ho’ and ‘pip-pip’ for ‘hello’ and ‘good bye’. Today these are still my standard greetings. I could easily greet the King with a ‘what Ho’ if I were presented. Only in later life did I realise this is the challenge the sentry shouted in Macbeth.
Tootle pip! ❤
*Auf* wiedersehen
I've always liked the way Dorothy Parker answered the phone: "What fresh hell is this?"
I always thought it was Garfield who said that.
@@willar1338 Well, he may have said it to, but he got it from Dorothy.
Kelsey Grammer’s Frasier would say that in frustration and exclamation.
@@bkark0935 Oh dear God, what fresh hell is this?
When I lived in Brittany I was confounded by older people saying "Allez" when one would expect "au revoir", for goodbye. After several years it came to me that they were not being rude; they were not saying "Go!", they were saying a shortened version of "Allez à Dieu" which means what "good bye" really means: "Go with God".
Ah - I lived in the north of France for a couple of years and similarly heard this a lot. Didn't know this is what it meant tho.
I had hesrd that telephone operators were male until the world wars and women stepped in to do the work. (Ditto for the role of secretary -- originally able occupation.)
As I child, I noted that in "The Chronicles of Narnia," "hullo" is almost always used as an interjection indicating surprise, not as a greeting. "Hullo, what's this?"
I Flemish Dutch were we say Hallo as a greeting (like German) it can also be used in a totally unrelated context. If you finish a sentence with "hallo zeg" which translates to "say hello" it is expressing a feeling of indignation. For example: Die man zat mij te beledigen, hallo zeg. --> That man was insulting me, say hello. In the same way you can also say "Hallo zeg, wat is dit?" -> Say Hello, what is this?" To express indignation as well.
Sherlock Holmes
Although it's spelled halloa in Holmes
And then there's the character in t h White's "The once and Future King" who constantly uses "hello" at the end of sentences
@@flybeep1661 German and English can do that with just the word hallo/hello, or in German you can also use "aber hallo", all with the same sense as what you expressed in Flemish Dutch. The single-word version often dramatically lengthens the second(German)/first(English) syllable of hallo/hello, almost giving it an entirely new syllable.
In the UK Black Country (and also in parts of Gloucestershire) 'How bist' or 'Ow Bist thee' is still used . Very good link back to OE and Frisian/Low German.
The answer is traditionally ''Bay too bah" -
Wow! I had no idea "bist" was still in our language. Marvellous.
R
I am most curious. Is the "Shire" , in "Gloustershire" - in the Black Country - pronounced "sure" or "shyre"?
@@RingsLoreMaster that depends on where you come from. Where I live in the middle of the southern UK, the Shire part is pronounced Shuh with no R at all. Further west they'd use probably Sure as you suggest. Other parts of the UK will vary
Any idea what the "bay too bah" might mean - or the origin of same ?
@@sdrtcacgnrjrc "I be not too bad".
Nowadays in Italy, it is ciao for hello, and ciao ciao for goodbye.
Pronto in Italy - comes from the times of the original operator-connected and arranged phone calls, meaning "I AM READY" to receive the call. (but some interchanging between - right now which is subito, or soon which is presto, or quickly which is svelto or quick which is rapido)
Pronto in American English comes from the Spanish word which does carry connotations of short time periods. Hasta pronto is roughly "see you soon." A Spanish speaker might try to hurry someone up using the word "pronto" (i.e. "I want this soon!") which wouldn't be a far stretch for an English speaker to take it as "do this quickly." There's also the cartoon character "Speedy" Gonzalez who uses a variety of pseudo-Spanish to talk about how fast he is.
The series 'Inspector Montalbano' comes tomind.
@@rmdodsonbills Pronto in Spanish is SOON. If certain countries or folk want to change a domestic or foreign word's meaning, then so be it - such is life and "progress" but I may sometimes correct them.
@@palemale2501 As I said.
Tchau in Portuguese similar to ciao
In Liverpool for hello we say ‘Yer Alright’ or just ‘Alright’
For good bye we say ‘Tara’ if on the phone about four times alternating between each speaker Tara, Tara, Tara ,Tara 🙂
Brilliant podcast! Interestingly over my nearly 60 years of lower middle class Home Counties English I've witnessed the decline of 'How do you do?' as a common greeting. My grandfather (born 1903 in London) would always use this to steangers/associates/friends and even us his grandchildren, but with different intonation. I might embark on reviving 'how do you do?' as a greeting. In fact, now this podcast has made me think, I'm always at a bit of a loss of how to greet people. I'm not a "You alright" kinda chap, nor "Hello", unless using the person's name. I used to use 'wotcha' quite a bit and might start it using it again.
Thank you for making me muse on these important matters!
If ciao means slave, it has the same meaning as the bavarian / austrian servus you can use instead of both hello and ciao. Servus is also understood in all other countries that once belonged to the austro-hungarian empire.
Another greeting which is used in a frequently rather extended time frame around noon, I'd reckon practically in the whole of Germany, is Mahlzeit, which literally means meal time. Since it is used around lunchtime both when you meet someone and when you part, it may come from wishing "a good meal" either to come or to have had. In the company I worked in it was sometimes used the whole day over, even during night shift, and under all circumstances, even in workshops, where nobody was having a meal nor expecting to have one soon.
Malzheit, just like Buon appetito 😂
That origin of "goodbye" from the contracted phrase "God be with you" ("godbwye") blew my mind. For some reason I had never looked it up.
It's so natural to assume "bye" was already a word by that point. Quite surprising finding out "bye" came from "be with you"!
Back in the 60s my grandmother told me it was short for "god be with you" so it's something I've known all my life. Something she'd tell me off for is using "oi" to attract someone's attention. Apparently that is supposed to be quite rude but I don't know why. It sounds no more offensive than "hay"
Question.
Rob you told in one of your videos, that "ye" is a "wrong-writing" or more a result of a bad handwriting of the "th". So might it be, that "goodbye" --> "god b(e) w(ith) ye (=you)", as you mentioned at aproximatly at 27:55 ... is maybe "god be with ..." ... I think of "go with god" ...
Learning English many many years ago, I thought "goodbye" was once written "godby" --> "god next to you" ... still like the idea
And now to something completly different.
The German "Grüß Gott", had always something final for me. My instinct reaction is "no, I don't want to... not now..."
Thx
Does that make goodbye an egghorn?
Same in Spanish: adios= to G-d.
31 minutes of such an interesting knowledge. In my language, swedish, the most common greeting word is "hej". In high school I was told that this word dated back to the viking era and was brought back in the begining of 1800, right after Sweden lost Finland to Russia.
We Hungarians know that the word hello (Hungarian: halló) comes from Hungarian "hallod?" , meaning "do you hear?". (Hungarian "hall" means to hear) Because at the building of first telephone centers were many Hungarians involved. like Tivadar Puskás. So they were asking over the line "hallod?", do you hear? can you hear?
Yes. I expected in vain that Rob would also find the Hungarian origin of "Hello" during his research... 😔
Wow! Never knew that .
cool
@@teklahuszar6603 I'm doubting the Dutch origin of "Ahoj" as well, even though I'm Dutch. I think some more research on his part might be needed, though I could be wrong about Ahoj.
Australians almost universally greet each other with “g’day”
In the US, when we are hiking a popular trail, we often greet the strangers we pass with a simple nod, or a quick hi or hello. In Australia, G'day was very common, as was a friendly how ya goin'
Never use it 😂
Or...
How's it hanging?
Lol
G'day, how, ya go'en? We know how to abbreviate. And ooroo, for goodbye.
I've always known the greeting to be 'gidday' being a shortened version of 'good day', at least that's what my school English teacher told me 60 years ago.
I love etymology, and the two of you make it even more enjoyable. Looking forward to more episodes!
More to come! Thanks for watching
R
06:21 The way the Italian word PRONTO "Quickly/Fast" came into American was through classical music. Because in Italian it was originally applied to music having to be played 'quickly'. Like so many other Italian words that are still used in "the tempo" (speed) that certain musical parts need to be played at.
Some of the more common Italian tempo indicators, from slowest to fastest, are:
Grave - slow and solemn (20-40 BPM*)
Lento - slowly (40-45 BPM)
Largo - broadly (45-50 BPM)
Adagio - slow and stately (literally, “at ease”) (55-65 BPM)
Adagietto - rather slow (65-69 BPM)
Andante - at a walking pace (73-77 BPM)
Moderato - moderately (86-97 BPM)
Allegretto - moderately fast (98-109 BPM)
Allegro - fast, quickly and bright (109-132 BPM)
Vivace - lively and fast (132-140 BPM)
Presto - extremely fast (168-177 BPM)
Prestissimo - even faster than Presto (178 BPM and over)
(*BPM - beats per minute)
I love that when Mark Okrand created the Klingon language for the Star Trek movies (and onward) he made the standard Klingon greeting “nuqneH” which literally translates as “What do you want?!” Clearly an opening challenge that a person from a warrior race would use when meeting someone unknown to them.
My favourite hello-type greeting is in Arabic Syrian (Levantine) dialect - SHLONAK? - which is a contraction of “shou lawnak”: what is your colour? I.e., what's your mood? My next favourite is the way hello is said in Lebanon, where most people speak a mix of Arabic, English and French (very colonial): Hi,
Kifak, ca va!
Pronto meaning doing something quickly in English more likely comes from the Spanish "pronto" meaning "soon". Great discussion. Love it.
Yes exactly! I was gonna say that too 😅
16:31 In Italy when a person sneezes, we say “salute!,” just to wish him good health
16:53 In Latin one common greeting was “salve”. With the v pronounced as an English w, so it sounded like salway.
I love the Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaimen book Good Omens:
Crowley: Ciao!
Ligur: What's that mean?
Hastur: "Ciao", it's Italian, it means "food".
What a nerd fest. I love it!
Laughed out loud .. so expressed what I was feeling
In Brabant, in the southern Netherlands, there is an expression that sounds a lot like Howdy. It's Houdoe, used as a farewell, meaning 'keep yourself' in other words, stay well.
Catalan often uses a form that's close to French 'adieu': 'adeu', but there is the alternative 'Deu us quard' "may God keep you save". Or simply 'fins un altre' "until next time"
Thank you guys for an amazing podcast! A native Russian speaker here. In Russian your can say chao for goodbye, it sounds a bit playful and quirky but 95% of people will understand what you mean. And it is not used for greeting at all. And, by the way, we use "zdravstvuytye" for greeting (official hello) in Russian which literally means be in good health, be well, be healthy.
Privit is hello in Ukrainian.
@@susanwestern6434 and privjet in Russian.. I now wonder what it is in other languages from the region, I think it's different in Polish.
In Sheffield (South Yorkshire, England) the customary greeting is, "Y'alright?" To which the response is, "Yeah, you?" We also say Ey Oop in Yorkshire and "nah then". Or, "ow ast a bin". In Cornwall, someone might say, "Alright then, my loverrrr" or, "Alright my 'ansome". Loving this channel.
Best way to answer the phone in years gone by:
'It's your dime!'
I thought Wotcha was short for what are you doing/what are you up to? But the idea that it is short for what cheer is lovely.
We still use "ey up" in Yorkshire as a warning as well as a greeting. It's also used, I guess in the warning sense, to ask people to move out of the way, often followed by, "Coming though!".
In Doric (spoken in the North East of Scotland) we commonly say 'Fit like?' as a greeting, meaning 'what like', or 'how's things'. A reply could be 'Nae bad. Foo's yersel?' meaning 'not bad. And how are you?'.
An alternative is 'Aye, aye' which translates as 'Yes, yes' but just means hello.
Really enjoyed the first episode of the new channel.
Love "fit like?"
I've also heard 'Foos yer doos?' ("How are your doves?") in Doric.
@@omniglotThat's one that you see on lists of Doric phrases, or reproduced on tea towels and mugs, but it's not one that I ever hear to be honest.
It would be interesting to know if any other Doric speakers use it regularly in normal conversation.
Literally the same as Spanish "¿Que tal?"
I find it intriguing that neither of you brought up "aloha" from Hawaii.
I expected it to come up when they talked about "Ciao" since both that and "aloha" are used on greeting and on departure.
Hi! Native Spanish speaker here. The American "pronto" is basically loaned from Spanish. In Spanish, pronto means soon. It shares the same etymology as the Italian word and the English "prompt"; all stem from the Latin word "promptus" (to be at hand, to have ready)
Always loved when I learned in German that the standard sign-off on the phone is "Auf Wiederhören", till I hear from you again (as opposed to auf Wiedersehen, till I see you again) . Since i learned this in school, and 30 years ago, i don't know if it's actuallly a common phrase today, but i like it
The prases "Auf Wiedersehen" and "Auf Wiederhören" is very formal and only used by the old people. We use the word "ciao" or "tschüss".
As marcom2248 wrote, both greetings are more formal, though not exactly old-fashioned. You can still use Auf Wiedersehen when leaving a restaurant or shop, but it will be bit too formal to use it when leaving a party or a casual meeting.
Great vid. Regarding God be with you: in Irish the greeting is Dia dhuit which also means God be with you. The reply is often Dia agus Muire dhuit 'God and Mary be with you. A funny story I was once cycling on Inis Mór one of the Irish speaking islands off the coast of Galway and Clare and passed a group of Japanese tourists. I wished them Konnichi Wa as I whizzed by. Without missing a beat they greeted me back with 'Dia dhuit'.
Yep, it's hard to be an atheist in Irish! See also "Bail ó Dhia ar an obar" (a blessing from God on the work) if a person was working.
Note that we were taught two forms of goodbye. The basic word is slán (safe/in good health), but you were supposed to say "slán leat" to a person who was leaving the meeting-place, but "slán agat" to the person staying put: may safety accompany you vs. may safety be with you!
Most common greeting where I'm from in Ireland is probably 'well boy?', or 'well girl?', or just 'well?' on its own.
Just like how 'how're you?' as a greeting is not really a question, 'well?' isn't really a question either, but the response is the same, just well also.
That really confused me when I moved to Portumna in 1989.
'Hello' being spoken when picking up the telephone was a new type of word in a sense. It is the first word in the conversation, despite the other party being the initiator of the contact, in contrast to the mentioned earlier uses of 'hallo' or 'hollo'. 'Hello' announces to the caller that a successful connection to the called party has been established.
12:15 I am a New Zealander. It wasn't until I was in my Forties that I realised I used "Howdy" quite often, say, when passing strangers on a track in the bush. Probably too many cowboy films and comics in my youth in the Fifties.
Historically, there were also hunting cries such as 'view halloo!' which also fits in with the idea of a shout across a certain distance.
"Hallo, how's ya poo?" is now canon. 😁
That greeting is the shit! 💩
Ça va?
I was speaking English with a Moroccan in a crowded hotel lobby bar in Heliopolis.
We were discussing languages and I mentioned salaam & shalom, at which point several hundred people fell silent and stared angrily at me.
Doesn’t evoke warm feelings in Egypt I assure you.
you were not wrong.
both words mean the same - peace.
eeek......both mean the same and have the same root. But don't mention the war........
Came for Rob, stayed for Jess.
👀
In the southern Italian countryside, elder people greet you saying: "Servo vostro (I am your servant)'.
In Filipino, a common greeting we use equivalent to hello- most usually seen in the tourism industry- is "mabuhay", which literally means "to live". So when those people at the airport greet you like that, it's like an invitation to live in our country, amongst our people. Which sounds quite lovely imo.
And one way to say "goodbye" is "paalam"- more literally, it means to ask permission or to let someone know something. In this case, you're letting them know you're going on and asking permission to leave. Which is rather polite lmao.
It's a bit of a shame we don't really use these day to day tbh. Most Filipinos have some command of English so we tend to greet each other in English, like "Hi!" or "Good morning po!" ("po" being a generic term we add for respectful speech).
I refer to the discussion around 16:00 - about the original meaning of the word "to greet" - that it was actually "to make contact" or to "call out". Well, in Portuguese, the word for "to shout" is "gritar" - and I am sure that it has the same root as the original meaning of the word 'to greet'.
I am your obedient servant, Rob and Jess. Thanks for the presentation.
When someone sneezes here in England, the natives usually say "Bless you." 🇬🇧
In my country, we usually say "saúde" (salus), meaning to wish the person good health. 🇧🇷
Overmorrow should come back. It's a great word
One of the most common greetings in Finnish is "terve", which literally means "healthy". It's one of those words we use everyday, but almost never think about it's etymology; most times we don't even think about health when saying Terve.
One of my all time favorite lines from literature (Dumas) is when D’artagnan is dying, he says “Athos - Porthos, au revoir! Aramis, adieu!"
Ha! I love languages!! I learned from friends that "Tja!" is a way of saying "Hi" in Swedish. Like the Italian "ciao", "Tja" also has its roots in the word for servant.
A little fun fact to add to »ciao«:
In Bavarian the most common greeting is »Servus«, deriving from the identical Latin word meaning »slave«. Just like with »ciao« the speaker means to express »I am at your service« but it's become a relatively casual greeting or goodbye.
I heard "Servus!" in Nuremberg a few months back. Charmed the heck out of me.
R
Great discussion …Thanks 👍👍👍
Speaking of single-word conversations, there's a comic strip called Zits and the main characters are a teenaged boy and his friends. I remember one strip where he and his friends have an entire conversation using only the word "Dude". They use it as a greeting, as a way to offer to share something, to say "Thank you", to express surprise, etc., and finally as a way to say "Good-bye"...
Sweet
@@JohnFlower-NZ ruclips.net/video/77v_Q0mhbZU/видео.html
I take it that all the terns are male. If not, the women have been left out. Otherwise, why the word"dudette"?
I am glad this was recommended. Looking forward to more.
I like this podcast idea. Please keep it here on RUclips
Salutations Rob and Jess. This is wonderful. I so look forward to more of these podcasts.
I'm Irish and good morrow was used by my father's generation quite frequently. It was usually reduced to a simple 'morrow as in 'morrow boys. Before the Ulster Plantation there was an attempt to plant Munster with the English. This failed as a lot of the newly 'planted' English were quickly absorbed into the Irish language and culture. As a result we in Munster have retained a lot of archaic English in our speech such as Forenenst meaning in front of me or opposite me.
Fascinating stuff, thank you!
At school, we had to sing from Nelson's New National Songbook. One of the songs was 'Good morrow gossip Joan, Oh where have you been walking, I have for you at home, a budget full of talking'.
I have never seen the word " Forenenst" written down before. My Dad always used to tease Grandma about her Irish accent. She was from the Ottawa Valley in Canada. Was that word only used in Munster?
@@francespettigrew9646 I believe forenenst is used in Ulster Scots also. Though an archaic word I believe it to be used regularly by those of a certain generation. I still use the word 'ye' when referring to you in the plural. I feel contemporary English has jettisoned too many words which were both colourful and descriptive, alas.
Forenest and Good morrow are also used in Wexford in the southeast. 'What way are ye?' is a common greeting here also
Warwickian here! "Ey up, duck!" was my (late) grandmother's term for me. She implied it was a contraction of "Duchess", (although I'm a duke!). I did wonder that mesel' tho'...I still use it even today to my 'other half', even though she's Finnish.
My new favorite podcast? I think so!
Hooray! Thanks for listening.
R
6:00 - I was taught in Japanese to say "mushi mushi" for "I speak" when answering the phone.
7:20 - "Ciao" was also taught to me in German as an alternative to "tchuss" as a casual goodbye.
26:15 - Japanese parting phrases I was taught. "Sayonara" is more formal as Rob said and may imply not meeting again. Informal parting was "jaa ne" that is "well then" a very Midwest US style
or "atto de" for "later then" and "matta ashita" for "see you tomorrow"
Ocassionally, you'll still see "bye bye" used in Japanese media between close friends which is a English loanword.
The German term "Fernsprecher" is common among people that celebrated their 100th birthday recently. Honestly, almost everyone says "Telefon" today. ... Thinking a bit further about that, the younger ones would rather say "Handy" or "Smartphone", they just don't have that stationary device anymore.
The term Fernsprecher is outdated, right, but we still use Fernseher (Farseer) for television very commonly.
🤣
Finnish has a greeting that supposedly has a rather surprising origin - "Moi!" It's a very casual greeting, basically like "Hi!" except even more casual. Apparently it travelled into Finnish from the Dutch! Not a super close neighbour. In Dutch they greet "Moin!" and it just means "beautiful!"
An older greeting in Finnish is "terve!" which quite literally means "healthy". The word meaning "a greeting" even is "tervehdys". But what is _actually_ fascinating is that the word for health seems to be derived from the word for tar - "terva". It was heavily associated with health as were trees in general.
In parts of Germany they say Moin too!
@@charleighblue Yep - I've heard Germans say it...but never Dutch LOL.
I learned 'Moi' in a visit to Finland, and 'Moi-moi!' when answering the phone. When I tried to use it on an old Finish woman here in Canada who had emigrated in 1940, she didn't believe me - as she had never heard Moi used.
Actually, beautiful in Dutch is mooie.
The greeting Moin is popular in all of Northern Germany, but means "morning", a short form of "good morning". But it can be used at any time of the day in Northern Germany. Also to say good-bye.
In the northern Dutch province of Groningen they use Moi a lot as greeting. Used to also trade a lot in the baltic area
Wotcha (or wotcher?) was pretty common when I was young, and I think it was common in cockney. It also features in that campfire song, “gin gan goolie”.
I'm originally from Bedfordshire and have lived a lot in SE England and Wotcha is still very common in working class circles. Wonderful to see how Shakespeare remains relevant 🙂
I thought it was 'watch out"
I wondered if they were going to tie it to “cheerio”…. Guess I’ll still have to wonder
Talking about ‘morrow’ reminded me of Spanish in which ‘mañana’ meaning both the morning and/or tomorrow, which has been a pain in my time on Duolingo.
Also ‘salut´ in French for saying hello and goodbye, I’m guessing must come from salutations, like you mentioned about salute.
„Hie thee hither“ (Macberh I, 5). I should definitely use this more often!
In Hawai'i, "Aloha Oe" (yes like in the song) was what you said when you didn't expect to see someone again. If you're just separating for a short time, Aloha suffices. It adds a dimension of sadness to that song.
Spanish speakers here in Arizona say "bueno" when answering the phone.
Yes, and in Mexico. It translates to "well" in the sense of all right.
In Spain, it is common to ask "¿diga?" (formal imperative of "decir", but it is a question, so the imperative meaning is lost, of course; it's not a command). It is also fairly common to just use "¿sí?" (Yes?). Can't think of any other ways of answering the phone here in Spain other than those two. Of course, inmigrants and their descendants use other ones, like "aló" and such, but these are not native in Spain.
About « Comment allez-vous à la selle? » I could now somehow relate it to the phrase “ir aos pés” (literally “go to the feet”) that is used to say that someone is doing well, as in recovering from being sick. It’s also used as a question, similar to “how is he doing now?” It’s used in the south of Brazil in cities with strong influence from German immigrants.
Also, about “hoy” it just reminded me as the preferred greeting all over Brazil, “oi”
How interesting that Ciao means "slave".
In southern Germany, we often greet each other with "Servus" (both arriving and leaving) - which, I'm sure you can tell, is Latin for "servant". The legend is that when the Romans were here in southern Germany, the locals heard them call out "servus", without realizing that the Romans were calling a servant. The locals adopted "Servus" as a greeting, and it's still in use today. :)
In a small town in Ireland (between Galway and Tipperary) the greeting was "Well", no one seemed to know why though.
In Mandinka, at least at the time I learned to speak it, greetings were generally long and formal, starting with “Kor’ tanante?” Which meant “Hope you have no problems!” Followed by detailed enquiries about the person’s family and where they are, etc. Some younger people would ask “I be nyaadi?” meaning “How you doing?” And there were different sequences of questions in different parts of the region (Senegal and Gambia, Mali…) But each question had a prescribed answer, and learning the right answers was a trip at first. The right answer to “Where’s your family?” was “They are here”, and the right answer to “Any problems?” Was “No problems”. I caused much hilarity when I answered the “Any problems?” question with “They’re here!” Things may have changed, because Mandinka wasn’t a written language at the time.
I picked up "Ciao" when I was studying in Nice, France, and traveling in Italy. Forty years later, I still use "Ciao!" in casual situations.
BTW, I'm the only person I know in Vermont who uses "Ciao", but everyone seems to understand what it means... Cultural diffusion through movies, I suspect.
Love the podcast.
As a fellow East Midlander it's great to hear you say Ey up me duck. I understand the word duck actually doesn't derive from the feathered quacking creature but from the same roots as the word duke, so it is a form of respect.
Yes, I believe you're right! Rather more flattering.
R
Hi, I'm a Canadian Gen-Xer. Do you think my Boomer friend from Wolverhampton would know the term "Ey up me duck"?
I love this - two professionals who love their profession going on gleefully.
In South Africa a very common greeting is "howzit".
I would guess the origins of “howzit” is the Afrikaans “Hoe gaan dit?” (How goes it)
It's not uncommon to say "How's it going?" as well, but "howzit" is what everyone says.
All is now good in the world… the excitement of these two is palpable…. Well done…
13:07 I'm from Sri Lanka, and in the Sinhala/Sinhalese language we often use the greeting, "Kohomə də?", which just means "how?"
You can also directly ask "how are you?" by saying, "Oyātə kohomə də?" (or using the formal "obə" in place of "oyā"; the plural you is oyāla/obəla)
Another way to ask the same thing is "Ho'ndin innəwə də?" = Have [you] been well?
To reply, you can say "Ho'ndai", meaning good/fine; or "Mamə ho'ndin innawā" = I've been well
There's a plethora of other ways to ask (and answer) how someone's doing; like "How's life?" (Kohomədə jīwithē?) or "How's your day been?" (Kohomədə oyāge dawəsə?), etc.
Interesting how 'How' and variations on it are so commonly used for greetings.
Fascinating!
In Mid-Wales, the greeting “How Bist ti” is used, which has striking similarity to German.
Harry Potter was "a big part of [Jess's] childhood." Now I feel even older.
The segment about "ce va?" reminds me of the common 'Murican expression "How's it hanging?" which is frequently interpreted to be a reference to male genitalia.
The Japanese telephone greeting is a curt "hai!" (pronounced the way English speakers say "hi"), meaning "yes?"
19:40 Interesting. In Portuguese the word "thank you" changes depending on the gender of the speaker: obrigadO for men and obrigadA for women.
The literal translation in English is obliged, which you hear often enough in Texas as 'much obliged' with an implied subject (I am). So it's an adjective, which in Portuguese must agree with the gender of the subject -- in this case the speaker.
Amazing
Minor correction: "Namaste" doesn't mean "I bow to you." The translation is more like: "the divine essence in me recognizes the divine essence in you." It's reverential, but in no way self-belittling. Indeed, the connotation is that you are (at least in ideal) elevated/raised up/brightened by the presence of the one you are greeting.
But that's just one small quibble in a thoroughly enjoyable half hour. I'm currently fighting off a bout of COVID-19, and you guys have aided greatly in making the bed-rest non-tedious. Namaste.
I live in Japan, so here are some common ways to say goodbye:
matta ne (most common, something like "see you later")
matta ashita (usually said like "ma ta shta" - "see you tomorrow")
Both of the above are sometimes preceded by "ja", or "jaa", similar to saying "Well, ..."
bai bai (said just like "bye bye" and mostly used by kids and young people)
Good job with this! Was refreshing to just see two intellectually curious people sharing knowledge and being cheerful and likeable. Pleasant change to a lot of media these days!
Matta ne was the one the barman told me to use! Thanks for the reminder.
R
@@WordsUnravelled yeah, it’s the go to! (And comes from the -ta form of matsu - to wait, so literally means something close to “please wait”!, but used like “see ya”!)
@@kevinmcqueenie7420 Sorry for being pedantic but you are a bit incorrect. The word you are looking for is "mata" which means "again". The -ta form of matsu (matta) would make no sense in this context as it would refer to a past action. It literally does not mean "please wait" but, rather, "(until we meet) again" or something like that. It's closer to German "auf wiedersehen" (mata=wieder) or to Italian "arrivederci" (a rivederci; mata= ri-). "ne" is an interjection asking the interlocutor for confirmation.
@@palofrasca1775 I stand corrected! I definitely meant to say something like “until next time” but my brain must have broke. “Please wait” would be better rendered as “chotto matte”, or more formally, “sho sho omachi kudasai”. My wife would shake her head at my failure (but possibly not be surprised, as despite 17 years here I still make basic errors!) Cheers!
In Portugal, we differ from other european languages when we "pick-up" the telephone. We say "Estou sim?" or "Está lá?" (yes, we open with a question), which roughly means "I am here, yes?" (a confirmation that we are being heard) or "Are you there?" (in Brazil they are more mainstream). But we also use "xau" (the portuguese version of the italian "ciao") only for farewell or "adeus" the portuguese version of the french "adieu" or spanish "adiós".
I love learning about etymology and the quirks of language, so this podcast is right up my street (and Harry potter is an amazing bonus!)
Szia! This one is in Hungarian and pronounced very similar like See you. It is abbreviation of the Servus already discussed. I am a Harry Potter fan and read all books in 3 different languages. I have learned a lot of new vocabulary, expect from Wotcher. I had no idea it was a real life greeting. Soo happy to learn yet again something new. In German Ciao is written Tchau. Cső!