Information about Greeting

Greeting is a way for humans^[1] to intentionally communicate awareness of each other's presence, to show attention to, and/or to affirm or suggest a type of relationship or social status between individuals or groups of people coming in contact with each other. As with many forms of communication, greeting habits are highly culture- and situation-specific and may change within a culture depending on social status and relationship. Greetings can be expressed both audibly and physically, and often involve a combination of the two. 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.

Spoken (English)

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" — the most common verbal greeting in English-speaking countries.
• "Hi", and "hey" — less formal greetings. 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.
• "How do you do?", along with variations such as "Howrya" (Ireland) and "Hiya"
• "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.
• "How'sa goin'?", "How's she cutting?", "How's tricks?", "What's the craic?" — Ireland.
• "What's up?", "Whassup", "Sup?", "How's it going?", "Yo", and "What's happening?" — United States.
• "Alright?" — England.
• "Ayup" — Northern England.
• "Fit Like Jockie?", and "Aw'Right" — Scotland.
• "Oioi" Derived from punk culture, now used as a generic greeting.

Written (English)

By convention, letters in English commence with the salutation "Dear" followed by the name or title of the recipient. If the name or title of the recipent is unknown, then it is conventional to write "Dear Sir," or "Dear Madam," or where the gender of the recipient is also unknown, "Dear Sir/Madam," is acceptable. In other forms of written communication (such as fax or email), or in informal messages the salutation is often absent or replaced with a personal variant.

Spoken (Other than English)

• Afrikaans: "Hallo" (Hello), "Goeie dag" (Good day), "Goeie môre" (Good morning), "Goeie middag" (Good afternoon), ""Goeie naand" (Good evening) http://web.sois.uwm.edu/AFR101/Document/index.asp?Parent=5219
• Arabic: "Alsalam Alaikum" (Peace unto you),

"Marhaba" (Marhaban in Classical Arabic) (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)
• Bulgarian: "Здравей" (Hello, pron. Zdravèi), "Здрасти" (Hi, pron. Zdràsti), "Добро утро" (Good Morning, pron. Dobrò ùtro), "Добър ден" (Good Afternoon, pron. Dòbar den), "Добър вечер" (Good Evening, pron. Dòbar Vècher), "Довиждане" (Goodbye, pron. Dovìzhdane), "Лека нощ" (Good night, pron. Lèka nòsht)
• Chinese (Cantonese): "Jo San" (早晨)("Good morning"), "Sik Jo Fan Mei" (食咗飯未) (literally, have you eaten yet ? ), "Ha Lo" (哈佬) ("Hello")
• 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")
• Czech: "Ahoj" or "Čau" (informal, Hello or Goodbye), "Dobrı den" (Good day) = universal formal greeting

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

• Croatian: "Bok" or "Bog" (informal, Hello or Goodbye), "Dobar dan" (Good day) = universal formal greeting

:Eventually: "Dobro jutro" (Good morning), "Dobro večer" (Good evening), "Laku noc" (Good night)

• Danish: "Hej" (informal), "Goddag" (very common - means good day), "God morgen", "God eftermiddag", "God aften" (Good morning, Good afternoon, Good evening), "Hallo" (mostly used on the telephone)
• Dutch: "Hoi" (informal), "Hallo" (standard), gegroet (formal, literally "greetings"), "Yo" (informal)
• Fiji: "Bula" (literally "Life," or "Health"); heard constantly'
• Finnish: "Hei" (Hello), "Huomenta" (Good morning), "Päivää" (Good day), "Iltaa" (Good evening), "Hyvää yötä" (Good night)
• 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?" (cognate with How is it going?), "Was geht?" (cognate with What's up), Yo (Jo) Alter (Yo, with the name or description of the person).
• 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?)
• Hawaiian: "Aloha" (affection, love, peace, compassion, mercy, goodbye, and hello)
• Hebrew: "Shalom" (Peace) or "Shalom Aleichem" (Peace unto you; the response is Aleichem Shalom "unto you, peace"); less formal: "Ma Nishma" or "Ma Inyanim" (What's new or How are you?)
• Hindu Nations: "Namaste" (lit., salutations) "Namaskaram" (lit., "salutations") Vannakam Tamil-salutations "Pranaam" (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), "Üdvözlünk" (A commonly used way of saying 'welcome')"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) "Hello" (Hello!, this greeting is becoming more popular but most often it is actually used to say good-bye)
• Icelandic: "Hæ" (Hi), "Bæ" (Bye), "Góğan dag" (Good day), "Gott kvöld" (good ewening), "Góğa nótt" (Good Night) (a not very common greeting unless people are going to go to sleep). "Bless" (Goodbye) a shortening of Blessağur (which standing alone is used as a welcome greeting or a goodbye), which means Blessed, often used with the word "vertu" (Be) first (though only when the blessing is used as a goodbye), "Vertu sæll" (Be happy) is used as a goodbye, but standing alone "sæll" and in the combination "komdu sæll" (come happy ) it is used as a greeting. Sometimes these two are combined into "komdu sæll og blessağur" (Come happy and blessed) and "vertu sæll og blessağur" (Be happy and blessed) as a greeting and a goodbye respectedly. When the words are interchanged "Blessağur og sæll" (blessed and happy) they are used as a greeting. Most of the greetings are often followed with the question, "hvağ segir şú?" (what do you say) or "hvernig hefurğu şağ?" (how do you have it? or how are you?) (the mostly expected answer is "fínt" or "bara fínt" which means fine or just fine although it is also common to start telling something of yourself) or the more litteral question "hvağ er ağ frétta?" (what is new? or what is in news of you?). The adjective "jæja" (well) comes into the greeting and goodbye process frequently.
• 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'.), "Conas ata tu" (How are you?)
• Islamic: "Assalamu alaikum" or "Salamu Alaikum" (Peace be upon you); the response is "Wa'laikum As'salaam"
• Italian: "Ciao" (Hi and Goodbye) or "Salve" (Hello)
• Japanese: "Ohayō gozaimasu" (おはようございます, Good morning) (often abbreviated to just "Ohayō" (おはよう/おはよう|, "Ohayō")), "Konban wa" (こんばんは, Good evening), "Konnichi wa" (こんにちは, Hello/Good day)
• Korean: "An-nyeong haseyo" (안녕하세요? Are you in peace?)
• Lao: "Sa Bai Dee?" (How are you?)
• Latvian: "Sveiks" (Hello), "Labdien" (Good day, Good afternoon), "Labrīt" (Good morning), "Labvakar" (Good evening)
• Lithuanian: "Labas", "Sveikas" (Hello), "Laba diena" (Good day, Good afternoon), "Labas rytas" (Good morning), "Labas vakaras" (Good evening)
• Lojban: "coi" (Hello), "coi rodo" (hello everybody)
• Malayalam: "Namaskaram" (Syllables: Na-mas-ka-ram), 'Enthundu Vishesham"("How are you?")
• Malaysian: "Apa khabar" ("How are you?")
• Maltese: Formal greetings - "L-għodwa t-tajba" (Good morning); "Merħba" (Welcome); "Is-serata t-tajba" (Good evening); "Il-lejl it-tajjeb" (Good night); "Saħħa" (Goodbye - literally, Good health). Informal greetings - "Bonġu!" (Good day); "Ċaw" or "Ħello" (Hello); "Hawn [name], kif int?" (Hey [name], how are you? - used among friends, colleagues and relatives); "Ċaw" or "Ċaw-ċaw" ('Bye). Less frequently used/archaic - "Sliem għalik", or "is-sliem" (Peace be with you or Peace, and its response: "lilhek ukoll" And with you); "Benedizzjoni, [mamà/papà/zi]" - literally, Bless me, [mother/father/aunt/uncle], and its response: "Kun imbierek" / "Kun imbierka" (Blessings - usually said by an elderly person to his or her child, nephew or niece, or by a priest to a parishioner.
• Mandarin: "Ni hao ma?" (How are you?) or simply "Ni hao"
• Marathi: "Namaskar" (Hello!)
• Māori: "Kia ora" (Good health)
• Norwegian: "Hallo" (Hello), "Hei" (Hi/Bye; the latter particularly in telephone conversations), "God morgen" (Good morning, "Morn" is more informal abbreviation), "God dag" (literally Good day, but is used as greeting), "God kveld" (Good evening)
• Persian: "درود" (Hello); "سلام" (Hello);

"بدرود" (bye);

• Polish: "Cześć" (helpinfo) (Hi / Bye), "Dzień dobry" (helpinfo) (Good morning / Good day), "Jak się masz?" (helpinfo) (How are you? / How are things? / What's up?)
• Portuguese: "Olá" (Hello), "Oi" (Hi), "Bom dia" (Good Morning), "Boa tarde" (Good Afternoon), "Boa noite" (Good night)
• Pakistan: Assalam-o-Alaikum (Peace be upon you), this can be used at any time of day - there are no special greetings depending upon the time of the day.
• Punjabi greeting of Sikhism: "Sat Sri Akal" (He/She Be Blessed Who says Truth is God)
• Romani language: "Sar san?" (How are you?), "Sar dživen?" (How do you live?), "So keren?" (What are you doing?)
• Romanian language: "Salut" (Hello), "Ce mai faci ?" (How are you?), "Alo" (Hello when talking on the phone), "Bună ziua" (Good day), "Noapte bună" (Good night), "Bună seara" (Good evening), "Bună dimineaṭa" (Good morning), "La revedere" (Good bye)
• Russian: "Здравствуйте", "Здравствуй" (Hello, pron. Zdràstvuite, Zdràstvui), "Привет" (Hi, pron. Privèt), "Доброе утро" (Good Morning, pron. Dòbrае ùtro), "Добрый день" (Good Afternoon, pron. Dоbrài den), "Добрый вечер" (Good Evening, pron. Dоbrài Vècher), "До свидания" (Goodbye, pron. Do svidàniya), "Спокойной ночи" (Good night, pron. Spakòinai nòchi)
• Scottish Gaelic: "Ciamar a tha thu?" (How are you?) "Dè do chor?" (informal How're you doing?)
• Spanish: "Hola" (cognate with Hello), "Buenos Días" or "Buen Día" but "Buenas Tardes" in the late afternoon or later. Also said as "Buenas".
• Sinhala: "Ayubowan" (formal greeting - May you live long), or "Kohomadha" (very informal - How are you?)
• Swedish: "Hej" (Hello), "God morgon" (Good morning), "God middag" (Good afternoon), "God dag" (Good day), "God kväll"/"God afton" (Good evening).
• Tagalog: "Hoy" (Hey), "Ay" (Oh!) pronounced like "I", "'Musta" or "Kamusta" (How are you?), "Mabuhay" (Salutations)
• Tamil: Language of the state of Tamil Nadu in India: "Vanakkum" (Syllables: Va-nak-kum).
• Telugu: "Namaskaramu" / "Namaste", "Ela unnavu?"("How are you?"), "Enti Sangatulu" ("What's up?")
• Thai: "สวัสดีครับ/สวัสดีค่ะ" (Sawasdee Krup/Sawasdee Ka) (male/female)
• Tibetan: "Tashi Delek" (May everything be well)
• Turkish: "Merhaba" (Hi), "Günaydın" (Good morning), "İyi günler" (Good day), "İyi akşamlar" (Good evening)
• Ukrainian language: "Привіт!" (Hi), "Здоров!" (Hello), "Як справи?" (How are you doing?), "Добрий ранок"/"Доброго ранку"(Good morning), "Добрий день"/"День добрий"/"Доброго дня" (Good day), "Добрий вечір"/"Доброго вечора"/"Вечір добрий" (Good evening)
• Vietnam: "Xin chào" (Hello), "Anh|Chị có khỏe không" (How are you; male/female)

Gestures

• 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:
• Fist pound, in which two individuals touch fists
• Roman salute
• Waving, the gesture of moving one's hand back and forth

See also

• Paschal greeting
• Salute
• Salutation
• Parting phrase

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