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Hello is a salutation or greeting in the English language and its meaning is synonymous with other similar sounding salutations such as "Hi" or "Hey". Hello is thought to have been first recorded in 1588 . The earliest record of 'hollo', from which the word 'hello' derivates, is found in Andrew Boorde's 1542 book "A compendious regyment or a dyetary of helth". In the book, it is presented as 'holowynge'. Many different languages use an equivalent expression which sounds similar often either starting with an "h" or having a "l" sound. Examples would be Russian "алло" (pronounced as 'allo'), Spanish "hola", and Thai "haloo". It should be noted that if some of these languages imported the English word to use it as a greeting on attending the telephone, several others have their own specific origin for the word, as with Portuguese "olá" and Spanish "hola", both probably of Arabic origin, German "hallo" and Hungarian "hallom".

Etymology

There are many different theories to the origins of the word. It may be a contraction of archaic English "whole be thou". Another source may be the phrase "Hail, Thou", as in The Bible; Luke 1:28 and Matthew 27:14. Hello is alternatively thought to come from the word hollo (also holla, holloa). The definition of hollo is to shout or an exclamation originally shouted in a fox hunt when a fox was spotted.. Or it may be a loanword from hungarian (see below.)

Hullo

In British English."Hello" may also be derived from "Hullo". "Hullo" was in use before hello and was used as a greeting and also an expression of surprise. Though much less common than it used to be, the word "hullo" is still in use, mainly in British English.

Telephone

The word hello is also credited to Thomas Edison specifically as a way to greet someone when answering the telephone; allegedly when expressing his surprise with a misheard "Hullo". Because of hello's first beginning association with telephones, around 1889 central telephone exchange operators were known as hello-girls.

In Hungarian, 'Hallod?' (pron. roughly as British "hullo") means "Do you hear ?" and the answer is 'Hallom.' (pron. like "hullom") for "I hear .". One therefore inquires how this Hungarian sentence becaume part of international vocabulary.

The Hungarian inventor Tivadar Puskas was in America when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Soon Puskas began work on a telephone exchange. According to Thomas Edison, "Tivadar Puskas was the first person to suggest the idea of a telephone exchange". Puskas's idea finally became a reality in 1877 in Boston. It was then that the word "hallom", which later became "hallo/hello" was used for the first time in a telephone conversation when, on hearing the voice of the person at the other end of the line, an exultant Puskas shouted out in Hungarian "hallom" "I hear you".

Some equivalents in other languages

• American Sign Language: The signing hand is raised to one's forehead and then moved out diagonally away from the head.
• Arabic: !ﻣﺮﺣﺑﺎ (Marhaba)
• Bengali: Kemon Achen (how are you), for answering telephone: "haelo"!
• Bulgarian: Здравейте! (For answering telephone: ало)
• Cambodian: Tchum-reaup Suw (use formal)
• Catalan: Hola! (friendly) - Bon dia! (formal)
• Simplified Chinese: 您好! (however, when answering the phone in Chinese, use 喂)
• Croatian: Bok! (or: Bog!)
• Czech: Ahoj!
• Dutch: Hallo!
• Eritrean: ታዲያስ? download font
• Esperanto: Saluton!
• Finnish: Terve! (formal) - Moi!/Hei! (friendly) - Haloo? (when answering the telephone)
• French: Salut! (informal) or bonjour! (formal) (For answering telephone: Allô?)
• German: Hallo!
• Gujarati (India):Kem Chho! (For answering telephone: Hello!)
• Modern Greek: Γειά!
• Hawaiian: Aloha!
• Hebrew: שלום (shalom) (For answering telephone: Allo?)
• Hindi: नमस्ते (namaste), for telephone: hallo
• Irish: Dia duit! (Reply is: Dia is Muire duit!)
• Italian: Ciao! (friendly) - Buongiorno! (formal) - Pronto? (for answering telephone)
• Japanese: もしもし (moshi-moshi, for answering telephone only)
• Kannada (South Indian): namaskaara or namasthe , for telephone: halloa
• Korean: 안녕하세요! (Annyeong haseyo!) or 여보세요? (yeoboseyo; answering telephone only)
• Kurdish (Kurdistan): sillaw or ew kata bash, or em kata bash, for telephone: elu
• Latin: Salve!, Ave!
• Lithuanian: Labas (For answering telephone: Alio?)
• Macedonian: Здраво! (For answering telephone: ало)
• Marathi: नम्स्कार
• Malay: Hai!
• Mongolian: Сайн уу!
• Māori: Tēnā Koe (Speaking to one person). Tēnā Kōrua (Speaking to two people). Tēnā Koutou (Speaking to three or more people).
• Nepalese: नमस्ते (namaste)
• Norwegian: Hallo! - Hei! - Morn!
• Persian: درود (Doroud).
• Polish: Dzień dobry!, Cześć! (informal)
• Portuguese: Olá!, Oi! - Alô? (for answering telephone)
• Romanian: Salut! (friendly) - Bună ziua (formal) - "Alo" (for answering telephone)
• Russian: Привет! (however, when answering the phone, Russian speakers use "ало" or "алё", equivalent to English "Hello?")
• Serbian: Здраво!
• Sicilian: Sabbinirica!
• Slovakian: Ahoj!
• Slovenian: Zdravo!
• Spanish: ¡Hola! (friendly) - ¿Aló? or ¡Bueno! (for answering telephone in just in Mexico) - Buenos dias (formal)
• Swahili: Hujambo!
• Swedish: Hej!, Hallå!
• Tagalog: Hoy!, Helo! or Kumusta?
• Tamil Nadu (India), Sri Lanka: வணக்கம்!
• Thai: สวัสดีครับ/คะ!
• Turkish: Merhaba! (salutation), Alo! (for answering telephone)
• Welsh:Cael rhyw efo fi (salutation), sugno fy mhidyn (for answering telephone)
• Urdu: !السلام عليكم (assalāmu 'aleikum)
• Vietnamese: Xin chào!

External links

• Hello in more than 800 languages

References

1. Bryson, Bill. Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way.

• OED online entry for hollo
• Merriam-Webster Dictionary: hullo

• Greetings