Talk:Hello/Archive 1

Foreign language list

hi. Added a small bit about foreign languages using "hello" on the telephone. Is there already something about this on Wikipedia?Hello TR ! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.35.152.39 (talk) 07:56, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

I'd leave out the translation info, as I would argue that, for instance, 'Bonjour' doesn't translate as 'Hello', but as 'Good Day'; it is simply that one uses a different expression for what is essentialy the same sentiment; maybe if the wording were altered... Neo 13:58, May 23, 2005 (UTC)

There is already a separate page about greeting in general, and also pages for ciao and other expressions. So, if we are going to have translations in this page, we should limit the list to gmail (or possible cognates) of "hello", such as "alô" in Portuguese, "hola" in Spanish, ALLO in Russian, etc.. We could also make a List of telephone greetings in various languages, but that will be too long to fit here; it should be a separate article, of the "List of..." type.
Jorge Stolfi 10:44, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't know if this is worthy of inclusion, but just thought I'd mention it: in Swedish, it is considered very impolite to answer the telephone with "Hello".--130.238.66.69 12:20, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

As I know Hello comes from the Hungarian language, which, as the inventor of the telephone central was Tivadar Puskás (1844- 1893). Hallom means in Hungarian "I hear that". That was the first they said .Dumb Wikipedia has closed the article and is not mentioned there. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.182.97.180 (talk) 11:26, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Who invented "hello"?

-) ;-) ;-) ;-) Hello? The word itself is rather a unique invention, which is derviving as a varient spelling of Hullo, enlisted to be a word which one would use on the telephone. Apparently this was invented by 'Thomas Eddison', although I can't find a source for this. - Neo 13

58, May 23, 2005 (UTC) ;-)

I also remember reading that Thomas Edison "invented" the word hello, though I can't recall the source. I believe they also said that Alexander Graham Bell favored "ahoy" as a telephone salutation. Arrkhal 03:41, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

This Edison "invention" is wrong. Mark Twain used the word in his 1872 book "Roughing It", several years before the supposed Edison invention and before the invention of the telephone.. reedsj@dtc.umn.edu151.204.219.134 01:55, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

As I recall, the invention of the word "Hello", was not credited to Edison, but rather his useage of it to greet callers on the telephone. At the time, the usual thing to say upon being called was "Are you ready to speak?" or "You may speak.". Edison was credited with being far to impatient to submit to this nicety, among others.

I haven't got my original source material that supports this recollection (a kid's book that I got in Michgan in 1985), but this link seems to confirm the traditional greeting, as well as the too-late invention date for Edison: [1]. I find the division in speech patterns between common people and the more technically inclined, such as Edison or Bell, to be quite believable in light of some of the things people say about computers. "Are you ready to speak?" is to "Hello!" as "Turn on the computer" is to "Boot up". I'd support at least the mention of Edison being famous for saying "Hello" on the telephone when such a thing was not common. Lord Dust 08:33, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

Nobody is editing this any more, no doubt, but has anyone read the article? The dates are contradictory and generally, I still don't know anything about the invention of the word. I came to this page after watching an episode of QI and because I can't be arsed to llok up my britanica password. If Britainica proves more useful, I'll edit. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.177.150.197 (talk) 05:02, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Hello sounds like hell?

What about the religious people who want the word "hello" discouraged because it begins with, you know, Hell? I heard they suggest "heaveno" as a replacement. Is this for real, or an urban legend? — JIP | Talk 30 June 2005 06:20 (UTC)

• Well I found these sources, [2], [3], [4], [5] and I saw many others. That said however, it seems to be a one man thing and not very notable. Falphin 30 June 2005 14:15 (UTC)

That's just dumb. BirdValiant 05:18, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I'd write a petition overturning the change into "Heaveno", for the sake of common sense over zealousy. --58.105.220.118 03:22, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

Hello (cleanup)

Hey there! REKOP 20:58, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Howdy! I've marked this page for cleanup by the task force. This is a good topic that could use some organization. Unlike many entries, I definitely think it is appropriate here to cross list equivalent greetings in other languages. Superclear 12:28, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

Hello again! (cleanup)

This article is on my clean up-desk so I will be around! Banana04131 23:35, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

United States

It seems funny to me (A Canadian) to see hello translated into different languages, and then for english it says United States. Wouldn't English be a more reasonable heading there, then United States?

Even more funny is the fact that this is an English WP article, and the list is of other languages. Does that mean that “United States” is different from “English”?

Well there is no shortage of people who claim US English is different from 'regularr' (or 'original') English. Robrecht 22:37, 31 August 2006 (UTC

Only word with three variant spellings?

I'd have thought quite a few words have three or even four variant spellings. Take Colourise, Colorise, Colourize, Colorize for example. Can some sort of source be given? smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 21:50, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

There are lots of other examples, although the above isn't a very good one. There are words relatively new to English or viewed as a transcription of another language, like yoghurt, djinni, and Hanukkah; there are words like encyclopedia, which may be spelled with E, AE, or an AE ligature; there are words like bylaw, which may or may not be hyphenated and also have another point of variation. Similarly, cooperation may be spelled with a hyphen or a dieresis or neither. I note that the article cites Bill Bryson as a source; I bet this came from his book. I think Bryson does a fine job of writing humor, but what he says about about language is not to be relied on. I'm deleting the claim. (06:17 UTC, February 2.)

french, german.....

instead of having lots and lots of greetings why dont they just have one -hello- -bonjour- or -guten tag- it is confusing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Goblin1 (talk • contribs) 07:59, February 6, 2006

Well, Hello or some form of it is used in almost all languages. French, for instance, has Allô. And I know for a fact that other languages, too, use similar forms (I just don't know any off the top of my head). → J@red ^talk+ _ubx  23:47, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Something we must not forget - usage. In German one does not say "Hallo" as a greeting the way we might in English. "Hallo!" is more an exclamation and means something like "Hey, you!" We've got to be really careful about words that may have a common origin but have evolved to mean different things. Rklawton 16:58, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

Wrong. In German one does use "Hallo" as a greeting. One can use it in the same way as in English to answer a phone call, or to call the attention of someone or even to call someone stupid in an ironic way ("Hallo?!"). ricardoingles 14:33, 23 Oct 2006 (CET)

No, I'd go with Rklawton. I came here to make this point, not realizing that it had already been made. One does not normally greet another in German With "Hallo," which does indeed mean "Hey!" though not in the sense of hello, but as an exclamation, a "Look here!" Of course, in some places "Hello" can mean that, too... Xenophon777 01:25, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

I am German. Of course we greet each other with "hallo." Artur Buchhorn 02:28, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Hullo

Some one removed "hullo" from this article with the rationale that it is unsourced. I have added a link to a Websters page for hullo.--Ezeu 09:14, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes, that was me. The reference you have provided only covers the 'Britih English' bit but not the prior part... -Localzuk ^(talk) 18:27, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Acknowledged. That is why I tagged it as "citation needed". --Ezeu 19:45, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

I have never in my life heard Hullo. It is bad to put things onto a page that are only occasionally used. If anything, it should be put later in the page because it is very detracting to people who view the page. "Hullo" almost seems like internet slang. I will change it myself unless I get someone else's opinion. → J@red ^talk+ _ubx  23:44, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

You mightnt have heard "hullo" because it is pronounced "hello". Internet slang? I dont reckon Charles Dickens and Thomas Hughes read it in a blog. But yes, perhaps it neednt be in the lead paragraph, as it is not widely used. --Ezeu 23:56, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

"Hullo" is common usage in British English, though less so now than it was thirty years ago. Certainly worth keeping. DJ Clayworth 14:28, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

I'll just say that I've definitely seen "Hullo" in use before. It was used in some of Roald Dahl's books, I believe, and by a few other British authors I've read as well. SnowFire 19:13, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

I've added quotes from Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857) for the use of hullo, but it was apparently used by Dickens in 1850. It's not in David Copperfield but may be in one of the short stories or in correspondence. Yomangani 12:07, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Found it in Oliver Twist in 1838 Yomangani 15:19, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Hullo is still in use, but to a lesser extent. It can be found in William goldings bokks to. --Chickenfeed9 12:51, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Help!

Can we get some attention for this page from the counter vandalism unit? --Banana04131 03:14, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

Someone removed the Nepalese version of hello which is:

नमस्ते (Namaste)

Don't be dumb next time, have some facts when you get rid off it, By the way I am from Nepal.

Translations

Does this section really belong on [i]Wikipedia[/i] - I thought that translations of words should be on [i]Wiktionary[/i]? Wiktionary deals with the word, Wikipedia deals with what the word means. Thryduulf 10:21, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

See WP:IAR. Simply put, Hello is a special case. It's a basic word that everyone learns that is often used as the example of other languages. In a sense, it is the "base" word of all human communication. Heck, there are children's posters up in preschools with "Hello" in other languages; it's not uncommon that the only word of a foreign language someone knows is "Hello" in that language. It's interesting from an encyclopedic perspective to see what these versions are, and perhaps go deeper into that issue. That said, the topic of "Hello" and its translations may not be appropriate for this article after all, but only because it might be worthy of splitting off from the main article and having a list/article all to itself. SnowFire 19:13, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes, Hello is a basic special word BUT the so-called translations have nothing to do with the word Hello. They are merely greetings not related to Hello at all and I think they should be removed. But if they are to stay, they would belong under List of greetings in other languages AND Ways to answer the telephone in other languages or whatever. It just so happens that in English you greet people and answer the phone with the same word, but as you can see in other languages this is NOT the case. 203.218.141.70 08:47, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

By the way, if you look at the interwiki links I think the French is wrong as it goes to (in English) Good day. The Chinese is correct as it goes to (in English) Hello (linguistics), and describes the English word and how it is being used in Chinese. 203.218.141.70 08:52, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

I removed the Welsh "Translations", since they meant "Have sex with me" and "Suck my penis", respectively.--88.105.250.126 19:53, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Encarta

To quote the article:

According to Microsoft Encarta Dictionary (2004), the origin of hello is uncertain, but probably it ultimately comes from French holá (literally ‘stop there!’, used to attract attention).

Problem is, Encarta is, by definition, a secondary source. Do we have a good primary source for this? -Harmil 01:16, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Actually I'm thoroughly skeptical regarding the validity of such a claim, mainly because 'ho' does not literally translate into 'stop' and is in fact more of an outcry than an actual word. It is comparable to 'oy' in english or 'hé' in dutch in usage (though not in it's actually meaning) as a means of drawing someone's attention and (in the case of 'ho') in order to get people to stop. The fact that 'holá' is spanish and the french use 'allo' only strengthens my skepcis. Robrecht 22:48, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

I've moved this claim to the Hallo section and cited it from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language which claims it is Old French and a forerunner of Hallo (hence the move). Yomangani^talk 00:53, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Translations, again

Not to be annoying or anything but I think as this is the English Wikipedia, we do not need a list of hundreds of foreign equivalents. It is pointless to say the least as, even though hello is a special word, every word has translations in other languages. I move to have it reduced to a list of a maximum of 5 equivalants consisting of the largest used languages, so Chinese, Spanish, Bengali, Hindi/Urdu and Arabic (list from here). Otherwise we are going to have problems with an ever increasing list length and people inserting vulgarities such as those removed by the above user.-Localzuk ^(talk) 14:05, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

I have reduced the list to combination of the most common and most influential languages instead. -Localzuk ^(talk) 17:43, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

The page that is being claimed to provide a source for portugese being the fith most common spoken language does not provide any sources. I have provided a good source to a educational institute which claims a different thing. Please, if you wish to include portugese in the list, provide a verifiable and rebiable source.-Localzuk^(talk) 15:30, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

My friend, I do not desire to go into a revert war and I do agree that the number of langauges should not be without criteria. However, in what relates to Portuguese, either using List of languages by number of native speakers, your source, this one or the Unesco estimate, it is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world (ranking in most cases as 7th or 8th) and it has definetly more speakers than German. For these reasons I'm readding Portuguese. The Ogre 16:07, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

I do not want to get into a revert war either. My initial thoughts on the section were to have the top 5 languages. However that grew slightly to 6. Then someone else added German (which I have removed now). I am willing to let Portuguese stay so long as others aren't added again - else it will just get silly.-Localzuk^(talk) 16:24, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

This section is really unbalanced, since the Bengali part is only the Hindu greeting, and omits the one more common in Bangladesh. And do we even need this section? I'd say a list of synonym for hello that are common in English or have a corresponding English Wikipedia article should be given instead, like bonjour, ciao, assalamu aleikum, shalom, etc. Just a suggestion though. Mar de Sin ^{Talk to me!} 16:28, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

In fact I agree with both of you! The Ogre 11:54, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

This was my original plan - to get rid of the section - but I thought I'd meet a lot of opposition. I will remove it and see what happens. -Localzuk^(talk) 16:47, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

Hullo

Please, what was used in the early nineteenth century, eighteenth century,...??

hopiakuta 18:10, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Arabic Origin?

Sorry but how's the Spanish hola of Arabic origin? There's an Arabic word pronounced "Hæːlæh" which means "state of being", but it's not used in greetings except when combined with other words. So back to the original question: how's hola of Arabic origin?

It's possible it is of Arabic origin, but since there is no reliable source and it doesn't really add a lot to the article, I've removed that claim. Yomangani^talk 16:12, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

It's easy to imagine how hola could originally have come from an Arabic loanword...there was a very large Muslim presence in Spain several centuries ago (just look at buildings like the Alhambra), and it's common for words to be borrowed from a language and then take an a totally different meaning from what they originally had. Of course, if we don't have a source for it then it shouldn't be in this article...but that doesn't mean it's impossible. --Politizer (talk) 14:14, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Help!

someone is vandalizing this page by deleting the whole page and replacing it with his own message. i'm pretty sure his username is 'im gunna change stuff on this account'. please help. - 99kelvin 16:23, 2 November 2006 (UTC)99calvin

• User:Im gunna change stuff on this acount has been blocked indefinitely. [6] --Metropolitan90 18:07, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

I put a bad word69.152.174.203 01:33, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

Clean up

Hi, Ive added a cleaup tag, because this page is a bit of a mess, and dosent realy make sence. E.G. Discusions about the use of Hello, Hullo and Hallo, which are diffrent spellings of the same word, being discussed asif they are totaly diffrent word's, when it would be more appropriat to note that diffrent spellings are used, and the most commen spelling has changed through time.

Also othere problems with this page. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 62.232.65.170 (talk • contribs) .

I removed the clean up tag because the uses of Hello, Hullo, and Hallo were and are different and deserve their own sections. Please specify what other problems this page has. Cheers! --Banana04131 00:36, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

HEALTH

This I find desperately interesting since if "Hello" etc is related to health from antiquity in any way, the act of verbally asking "how are you" as you approach someone seems similar in some ways to other mammels sniffing each other on approach. OBVIOUSLY this is far-fetched, and I have no idea if, well for a start if other mammels even sniff each other for health purposes, but all ideas are worth entertaining to some degree... If anyone ever DOES feel like studying this drop me a line with your findings!: ) 82.21.78.209 01:56, 6 December 2006 (UTC)Bekki82.21.78.209 01:56, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Hallom in Hungarian

It is a mistake in the article. The hungarian word 'hallom' means 'I hear' thus cannot come from the English 'Hello'. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.182.208.224 (talk) 22:19, 3 January 2007 (UTC).

The hypothesis is the other way around, "Hello" comes from "Hallod?"/"Hallom", anyway, it still strikes me as far-fetched. The hypothesis that it's a variation of many similar Germanic (possibly from French "ho la", "ahoy there") interjections seems much more probable to me. 惑乱 分からん * \)/ (\ (< \) (2 /) /)/ * 10:30, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Puskas Tivadar a Hungarian inventor (telephone centers and telephone news) worked with Edison on the telephone interchange centers. Puskas always answered to the phone calls during the elaboration of the system, as "hallom". This means: "I can hear you". This is not far-fetched, but rather makes sense.

Yeah, it is a popular legend among Hungarians that the English "hello" came from Puskas. But you know, it is not sure, I have heard even that Bell invented it, and that Edison invented it. In fact, there is no real proof in etymology, so there are some Hungarian linguistics who suggest that it is not a Hungarian word.

I cite from the Hungarian Wikipedia ([7]):

Testing the telephone Puskas Tivadar used the term halló (which came from the Hungarian term hallom, which means "I hear") first. It spread all over the world.

A lot of scientists examined the history of the Hungarian "halló" in the past decades. The 3 volumes of Hungarian vocabulary for History and Etymology (edited by Benkő Loránd, 1967-1976) says much about it, cites even German and English etymology examinations.

The usage of the term is demonstrable from 1884. This meaning of the term spread from the American English and became international.

So you see, even the Hungarians do not say that the term is from a Hungarian word. It is sure, that Puskas used the term halló, and it is demonstratable, that the word spread after that he worked with Edison. But then again: there is no proof on this side. And there are some problems with the Hungarian theory. For example, the term "halló" is not a real word in Hungarian, we only use it for answer to the phone. For greetings, we use the "helló", which is sure English. I think it is even suggestable that Edison and the others picked up the term just because it was very similar to the English greeting "hullo", but with the letters A or E it was easier to pronounce.

So sorry, my folks, but there is no proof that the word is Hungarian. The article should contain the Hungarian theory as a popular legend only. But then again, there are a bunch of lexicons.

Hello :D 81.183.124.80 (talk) (DJS) —Preceding comment was added at 02:40, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

huh?

hello? what a wierd subject

yeah, we all know what it meansWikizilla ^(Talk) 21:09, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I agree, what an odd article to have >_> FiringRange 20:57, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Radio

Shouldn't there be a section or at least a link to radio in here? It was the first word uttered wirelessly in the world and holds a lot of symbology in the radio communication community. - Bennyboyz3000 02:49, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

need for this article?

Not that I don't love language (I am a linguist), but do we really need an encyclopedia article on the definition and usage of a word? This sounds like a dictionary entry (albeit a long one) - more like something the Oxford English Dictionary might have in its entry on the word. We really don't need an article on this. --SameerKhan 04:17, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Haldo

Can we make a little reference to fow this was spelled in Peasant's Quest, the popular Homestar Runner game? Bobafett424242 18:05, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

It's probably not notable enough. --LuigiManiac 18:11, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

First Use

Both of the references to uses dating to the year 1826 appear suspect. Probably a hoax edit that somehow got through. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.167.204.11 (talk) 00:20, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Hi, me again. It's pretty shameful that this page is protected, and that whoever has protected it hasn't looked into and corrected these bogus references. Well, let me make it easy. Whoever can edit this page needs to delete the following:

The word was extensively used in literature by the 1860s.[6] Two early uses of hello can be found as far back as 1826.[7]

Examples:

On this occasion she switched it on to a patient who was awake and who merely said 'Hello Sister, what's the matter with you...'

—Report on the trade in foreign corn, and on the agriculture of the north of Europe. by William Jacob, 1826. page 213

Then hello boys! Hello boys! Shout and huzz....

—The Every-day Book: Or Everlasting Calendar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastime, Ceremonies,...By William Hone, 1826 Page 1370

Have a nice day. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.167.204.11 (talk) 21:10, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

Etymology again

According to the OED, as well as my etymological Webster's and Etymonline, hello (in one of its alternative spellings hallo, hullo, hollo and holla) was first recorded in English in 1588, and probably derives from Old French holà, which at the time meant "stop!", but ultimately derives from the interjection ho and the word là, meaning "there". All other popular etymologies are baseless and should therefore be left out. Aviad2001 (talk) 21:45, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Pittsburgh

I just noticed that Pittsburgh is misspelled in this article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.165.39.17 (talk) 21:02, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page, such as the current discussion page. No further edits should be made to this page.