1. Icelandic - góðan dag (formal; pronounced gothan dahg), hæ (informal; pronounced "hai")
2. 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).
3. Punjabi - sat sri akal
4. Swahili - jambo, Habari (hello), Habari gani (How are you?)
5. Thai - sawa dee-ka (said by a female), sawa dee-krap (said by a male)
6. Welsh - shwmae (South Wales; pronounced shoe-my), "Sut Mae" North Wales( pron "sit my") or "S'mae" ( Pron "S' my") or simply "Hylo"
7. 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)
8. Turkish - merhaba selam (formal), selam (Informal)
9. Greek - γεια σου (pronounced yah-soo; informal), γεια σας (formal)
10. Bengali — namaskar (In West Bengal, India)
Just for fun:
Ung Tongue - Hello (This is a made-up language, like Pig latin. This is pronounced Hung-ee-lung-lung-oh.)
Klingon - nuqneH? [nook-neck] (literally: "what do you want?")
(http://www.wikihow.com/Say-Hello-in-Different-Languages)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengali_language)
Now, I just need to start memorizing them. I will only memorize one or two general greetings per language, instead of focusing on morning, afternoon, and evening greetings. Grad school is taking up a huge portion of my memory space.
The Welsh "Shwmae" is actually pronounced more or less exactly like it's spelled... not so much "shoe-my" as "shwuh-my". According to a few Welsh-speaking acquaintances and my own study, anyway.
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm a geek. I tried to teach myself Welsh in highschool.
In Ung Tongue - does each letter have its own sound/word pronounced separately? That's what it looks like. Pretty cool!