On Wednesday 17 July 2013 16:12:58 Wilko Fokken wrote: > On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 03:18:33AM +0200, Ralf Mardorf wrote: > > On Wed, 2013-07-17 at 03:13 +0200, Ralf Mardorf wrote: > > > PPS: "Guten Tag miteinander!" or "Hallo miteinander!" or "Hallo > > > zusammen!" > > > > > > Resp. "Moin" is independent of the daytime, so it's the German "Hallo", > > > > Aaaarghhh, my broken English sucks. > > > > Not "Hallo" is misinterpreted, but "Moin". > > > > > sometimes misinterpreted for "Guten Morgen" (Good morning!) only, but > > > it's for "Guten Tag" (Good day!) and "Guten Abend!" (Good evening!) > > > etc. too. > > > > Less often Moin is used for "Good bye!" in common speech. > > Thanks Ralf, for your help. > > As a Frisian, I like to add some specifics: > > In the today's Low German dialect, > > (since the 13th century spread out by the German "Hanse", > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanseatic_League) > > the term "moi" means "nice", "beautiful"; it can be ascribed e.g. > to a flower, a girl or a day. > > As a greeting, "moin" comes fairly close to the English "have a nice day": > ("ik wünsch joe een moien dag", means literally: "I wish you a nice day"). > > This longish kind of a greeting has, in the course of time, been shortened > via "een moien dag", "een moien", "moien" to "moin", first among the people > at the North Sea (where stronger winds tend to blow unnecessary words > away). > > > Since the last century, this kind of a shorty has spread over Germany north > of the "Weißwurscht-Äquator" (a "Bavarish" term meaning those northern > German regions, where the famous Bavarian "Weißwurscht" - White Saussage, > an indispensable addi(c)tion to a Bavarian beer - is almost unknown. This > kind of equator - roughly drawn by the course of the river "Main" - divides > today's Germany nicely into two halves). > > > With an almost indentical meaning, the term "have a nice day" is used at > parting, while "moin" is mainly used when meeting people. The doubled term: > "moin moin" at leavetaking is afaik only used in the North Sea's coastal > areas. > > The ordinary northern German term at the end of a meeting has become > "tschüß", presumably originated in Hamburg, derived from the French "adieu" > (= "go with God") under Napoleon; later possibly mixed with the Frisian > curse: "Harijasses!", shorter: "Jusses!" (= "Herr Jesus!"), used when there > is a big mess, and everything got filthy); both terms joining via "adjüß" > to "tschüß". (So, the thought of God was really lost - together with > Napoleon.)
Thanks. That is really interesting - I love linguistics and etymology. But this is an English language list. ;-) Lisi -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/201307171837.44588.lisi.re...@gmail.com
