Saturday, April 11, 2009

Hello in 26 different languages

If you are observant you will see that I have a gadget in the left-hand panel of my blog called Neocounter, and it shows the number of visitors my blog has had from each country. Obviously it has the most from the US and the UK; no surprises there. But I have had just one visitor from each of 9 countries for EONS!!! I don't get it! My son, who started his blog later than I did and who has a fraction of the posts has twice the number of visitors from 45+ countries. What is the secret? I obviously do not have global appeal :-(

So in an effort to get more foreign visitors, here's how to say Hello in different languages, courtesy of http://www.wikihow.com/, with a few additions of my own.

Arabic - subbah-el-kheir (good morning), masaa-el-khair (good evening): note that Kh is pronounced from the back of the throat. mArHAbAn (Hello) pronounced Mar-ha-ban

Bengali — aas salamu alaay kum (In Botswana Dumeleng [formal]), wareng (Bangladesh [informal]), namaskar (In West Bengal, India)

Chinese - 你好, Cantonese nei ho or lei ho (pronounced nay ho or lay ho) Mandarin 你好 (pronounced ni hao), 早上好(pronounced zao shang hao; good morning!)

Dutch - hoi (very informal), hallo (informal), goedendag (formal)

English - hello (formal), hi (informal), hey (informal,)

French - salut (informal; silent 't'), bonjour (formal, for daytime use; 'n' as a nasal vowel), bonsoir (good evening; 'n' is a nasal vowel), bonne nuit (good night). There is also "ça va", but this is more often used to mean "how are you?"

German - hallo (informal), Guten Tag (formal; pronounced gootan taag), Tag (very informal; pronounced taack).

Hawaiian - aloha

Italian - ciào (pronounced chow; informal; also means "goodbye"), buon giorno (pronounced bwohn geeornoh; good morning; formal), buon pomeriggio (pronounced bwohn pohmehreejeeoh; good afternoon; formal), buona sera (pronounced bbwoonah sehrah; good evening; formal)

Japanese - おはよう ございます ohayoou gozaimasu (pronounced o-ha-yo (go-zai-mass); good morning), こんにちは konnichi wa (pronounced kong-nee-chee-wa; daytime or afternoon), こんばんは konbanwa (pronounced kong-ban-wa; evening); もし もし moshi moshi (pronounced moh-shee moh-shee; when calling/answering the phone); どうもう doumo (pronounced doh-moh; informal way of thanking/greeting, but means countless other things as well so only use when context makes sense)

Korean - ahn nyeong ha se yo (formal; pronouned ahn-yan-ha-say-yo), ahn nyeong (informal; can also be used to mean "goodbye")

Lithuanian - laba diena (formal), labas, sveikas (informal; when speaking to a male), sveika (informal; when speaking to a female), sveiki (informal; when speaking to more than one person).

Maltese - merħba (meaning "welcome"), bonġu (morning), bonswa or il-lejl it-tajjeb (evening)

Norwegian - hei ("hi"), hallo ("hello"), heisann ("hi there"), god morgen ("good morning"), god dag ("good day"), god kveld ("good evening").

Oshikwanyama - wa uhala po, meme? (to a female; response is ee), wa uhala po, tate? (to a male; response is ee) nawa tuu? (response is ee; formal), ongaipi? (meaning "how is it?"; informal) ; No, I don't know where this is either

Portuguese - oi, boas, olá or alô (informal); bom dia or bons dias (good morning, used before noon or before the noon meal); boa tarde or boas tardes (good afternoon, used after noon or after the noon meal, until twilight); boa noite or boas noites (good evening and good night, used after twilight).

Russian - Privet! pronounced as pree-vyet (informal), zdravstvuyte (formal; pronounced ZDRA-stvooy-tyeh)

Scottish- hi (informal) hello the noo (hello) :-)
Authentic Sco'ish,- Alrai', Whatcha dein, yer ijak!

Spanish - hola (pronounced with a silent 'h': o-la), alo, qué onda (South America;very informal, like "what's up"; pronounced keh ondah), qué hay, (South America; very informal), qué pasa (Spain, informal), buenos días ("good morning"), buenas tardes (afternoon and early evening), buenas noches (late evening and night). These three forms can be made informal by saying "buenas". Also Qué Transa (Mexico;very informal, like "what's up" pronounced keh trahansa). Qué tál, meaning "what's up", pronounced "kay tal".

Thai - sawa dee-ka (said by a female), sawa dee-krap (said by a male)

Urdu - adaab ir salam (waley-kum)

Vietnamese - xin chào

Welsh - shwmae (North Wales; pronounced shoe-my)OR Helo, Iya (Newport); OK, I added that bit myself

Yiddish - sholem aleikhem (literally "may peace be unto you"), borokhim aboyem or gut morgn (morning), gutn ovnt (evening), gutn tog (day), gut shabbos (only used on the Sabbath)

Zulu - sawubona

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