Actually, I'm feeling pretty good
but we're not intimate and you don't
want to hear about my current stage
of joyful solitude in old age –
so I ignore your question.
I much prefer
Hello (Hail-oh! from 1830) or Wotcher (What cheer!).
Informal French has a good solution: Salut!
which means Good health! with overtones
of simple salutation, like Hi! in English
which comes from Nordic Hej!
which also produced the slightly butch
abrasive Hey!
Dutch Hoi gave us the maritime Ahoy!
and Hallo! comes from Frisian as well as Dutch.
If there is to be no actual conversation
(God save us from that in the middle of a street!)
I think that the best greeting
is an elegant, friendly wave,
though prissy people don't think that it's
a proper way to behave.
If you're Irish, beannachtaí! (blessings)
is elegant, respectful, unintrusive and discreet,
unlike [How's) about ye ? from Belfast.
God be with you was once common in believers' English,
like Ireland's ancient Dia duit.
How's the crack ?
was a phrase borrowed by Ulster folk from Northern English.
Crack (the word for a good bout of conversation rather than passive-aggressive 'banter') was 'culturally appropriated'
and had its spelling Oirishised,
rather as the English Julie-the-Jig
dressed in her birthday rig,
showing her thingumajig
was mumbled into sheela-na-gig.
No comments:
Post a Comment