Greeting

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Greetings are social customs or rituals to show attention or to confirm friendship or social status between individuals or groups of people meeting each other. Greeting habits are highly culture- and situation-specific and may change within a culture depending on social status. This topic excludes military and ceremonial salutes but includes rituals other than gestures.

Some epochs and cultures had very elaborate greeting rituals, e.g., greeting of a king.

Secret societies have clandestine greeting rituals that allow members to recognize common membership.

Contents 1 Spoken 2 Spoken (Other than English) 3 Gestures 4 See also

[edit] Spoken

Spoken greetings are customary or ritualised words or phrases used to introduce oneself or to greet someone. In English, some common verbal greetings are:

• "Hello", "hi", and "hey" — General verbal greetings. The latter two are less formal. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first citation of "hey" is found as early as 1225, and is defined as "a call to attract attention . . . an exclamation to express exultation . . . or surprise." The English language's other monosyllabic greeting, "Hi", is actually much newer, having become popular in the 1920s. Many languages use the word as a greeting, though a variety of spellings exist, including "hei" and "hej".
• "Good morning", "good afternoon", "good evening" — More formal verbal greetings used at the appropriate time of day. Note that the similar "good night" and "good day" are more commonly used as phrases of parting rather than greeting, although in Australian and New Zealand English "G'day" is a very common greeting.
• "What's up?", "Sup?", "How's it going?", "Yo", and "What's happening?" — informal greetings used frequently

• "Howdy" — Informal greeting. Derived from "how do you do," it is common in the rural regions of the United States. This is also the official greeting of the Texas A&M Aggies of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.
• "Howya?", "How'sa goin'?", "How's she cutting?", "How's tricks?", "What's the craic?" — Irish greetings.
• "Fit Like Jockie?", and "Aw'Right" are Scottish greetings that pops up from time to time in conversation.
• "Oioi" Derived from punk culture, now used as a generic greeting.

Verbal greetings in other languages may also be found at common phrases in different languages.

[edit] Spoken (Other than English)

• Afrikaans: "Hallo" (Hello), "Goeie dag" (Good day), "Goeie môre" (Good morning), "Goeie middag" (Good afternoon), ""Goeie naand" (Good evening) [1]

• Arabic: "Marhaba" (Marhaban in Classical Arabic) [2] (Hello - Greetings), "Sabah El-Kheir" (Good morning), "Massa'a El-Kheir" (Good evening)

• Armenian: "Barev" (Hello), "Bari louys" (Good morning), "Bari or" (Good afternoon), "Bari yereko" (Good evening)

• Czech: "Ahoj" (informal, Hello or Goodbye), "Čau" (mostly Goodbye; sometimes Hello - archaic, informal), "Dobrý den" (Good day) = universal formal greeting

Eventually: "Dobré ráno" (Good morning), "Dobré odpoledne" (Good afternoon) "Dobrý večer" (Good evening), "Dobrou noc" (Good night)

• Danish: "Hej" (informal), "Goddag" (very common - means good day), "God morgen", "God eftermiddag", "God aften" (Good morning, Good afternoon, Good evening)

• Dutch: "Hoi" (informal), "Hallo" (standard), gegroet (formal, literally "greetings")

• Fiji: "Bula" (literally "Life," or "Health"); heard constantly

• French: "Bonjour" (Hello and Good morning, Good afternoon), "Salut" (Hello and Goodbye, informal), "Bonsoir" (Good evening)

• German: "Hallo" (cognate with Hello), "Guten Morgen (Good, with a time of day appended to the phrase), "Wie geht's?"

• Greek: "Γεια" ("Gheia", pron. "ya", "hello" and "goodbye", literally "Health", quite informal), "Χαίρετε", ("Chairete", pron. "herete", same as "Gheia" but more formal, literally "May you be joyful"), "Καλημέρα" (pron. "kalimera", "Good morning" and "Good day"), "Καλησπέρα" (pron. "kalispera", "Good evening"), "Καληνύχτα" (pron. "kalinikhta", "good night").

• Gujarati : "Khem Cho" (How are you?)

• Hebrew: "Shalom" (Peace) or "Shalom Aleichem" (Peace unto you; the response is Aleichem Shalom "unto you, peace")

• Hindu Nations: "Namaste" (lit., salutations)

• Hungarian: "Szia" (Very informal, used between friends and family), "Jó napot" (Good day), Jó napot kivánok (I wish you good day, a bit more complete than jó napot), "Csókolom" (only used by the young when addressing elders. Signifies a sign of respect, but is becoming less popular), "Kezét csókolom" (I kiss your hand, a polite greeting used by men when addressing women), "Szevasz" or "Szervusz" (a form of Servus, it is a casual greeting and a good-bye) "Hallo" (Hello!, this greeting is becoming more popular but most often it is actually used to say good-bye)

• Japanese: "Ohayō gozaimasu" (お早うございます, Good morning^?) (often abbreviated to just "Ohayō" (お早う/御早う, "Ohayō"^?)), "Konban wa" (今晩は, Good evening^?), "Konnichi wa" (今日は, Hello/Good day^?)

• Korean: "Annyeong hasaeyo" (Are you in peace?)

• Mandarin: "Ni hao ma?" (How are you?) or simply "Ni hao"

• Lao: "Sa Bai Dee?" (How are you?)

• Māori: "Kia ora" (Good health)

• Norwegian: "Hallo" (Hello), "Hei" (Hi/Bye; the latter particularly in telephone conversations), "God morgen" (Good morning, "Mor'n" is more informal abbreviation), "God dag" (literally Good day, but is used as greeting), "God kveld" (Good evening)

• Polish: "Cześć" (help·info) (Hi / Bye), "Dzień dobry" (help·info) (Good morning / Good day), "Jak się masz?" (help·info) (How are you? / How are things? / What's up?)

• Portuguese: "Oi" (Hi) or "Olá" (Hello)

• Punjabi greeting of Sikhism: "Sat Sri Akal" (He/She Be Blessed Who says Truth is God)

• Icelandic: "Hæ" (Hi), "Bæ" (Bye), "Bless" (Goodbye), "Góðan dag" (Good day), "Góða nótt" (Good Night)

• Indonesian: "Apa Kabar" (How are you?), "Selamat Pagi" (Good Morning), "Selamat Siang" (Good day), "Selamat Malam" (Good Night)

• Irish Gaelic: "Dia dhuit" (God to you / God be with you), "Dia is Muire dhuit" (God and Mary to you / God and Mary be with you this the usual response to 'Dia dhuit'.)

• Islamic: "Assalamu alaikum" or "Salamu Alaikum" (Peace be upon you)

• Italian: "Ciao" (Hi and Goodbye) or "Salve" (Hello)

• Romanian language: "Salut" (Hello), "Ce mai faci ?" (How are you?)

• Russian: "Zdravstvujtje" (Be healthy, formal), "Privjet" (Hi, informal), "Dobroje utro", "Dobrij djen", "Dobrij vjecher" (Good morning, Good afternoon, Good night, westernisms).

• Scottish Gaelic: "Slainte Mhath" (Good health)

• Spanish: "Hola" (cognate with Hello), "Buenos Días" but "Buenas Tardes" in the late afternoon or later.

• Sinhala: "Ayubowan" (formal greeting - May you live long), or "Kohomadha" (very informal - How are you?)

• Swedish: "Hej" (Hello), "God morgon" (Good morning), "Goddag" (Good day) or "Godkväll" (Good evening)

• Tagalog: "Hoy" (Hey), "Ay" (Oh!) pronounced like "I", "'Musta" or "Kamusta" (How are you?)

• Tamil: Language of the state of Tamil Nadu in India: "Vanakkum" (Syllables: Va-nak-kum).

• Malayalam: "Namaskaram" (Syllables: Na-mas-ka-ram), 'Enthundu Vishesham"("How are you?"), "Apa khabar" ("What is the news")

• Tibetan: "Tashi Delek" (May everything be well)

• Thai: Sawasdee Krup/Ka (male/female)

• Turkish: "Merhaba" (Hi), "Günaydın" (Good morning), "İyi günler" (Good day), "İyi akşamlar" (Good evening)

• Chinese(Mandarin): "Ni Hao"(你好) (Ni is you, Hao is good),"Zao An"（早安）or "Zao Shang Hao"(早上好)("Good Morning"),"Wan An"(晚安)("Good night")

[edit] Gestures

See also: Gesture

• Bowing
• Cheek kissing
• High-five
• Pressing noses
• Handshake
• Hand-kissing
• Hat-raising
• Hat-tipping
• Hug
• Kowtow
• Namaste
• Vanakkum (Syllables: Va-nak-kum) - From the Tamil language of South India:
• Pound, in which two individuals touch fists
• Roman salute
• Waving, the gesture of moving one's hand back and forth

[edit] See also

• Pascha greeting
• Salute
• Salutation
• welcome
• Parting phrase