When you call on the phone, how do you say in your country? In Japan, we say “もしもし(Moshi Moshi)” at the beginning like “Hello” in English.
At the very beginning of phone development in Japan, people used to say “おいおい(Oi Oi)” instead of Moshi Moshi. In 1890, telephone switching was stated in Japan. Since then, telephone operators started to use Moshi Moshi which is written as 申し申し in Kanji and it means “I’m going to say.”
Here is another tip. In business scene, it is better not to say Moshi Moshi. You start the conversation without Moshi Moshi. Only when you cannot hear well, you can use Moshi Moshi.
Do you have any special word for the beginning of phone conversation in your country?
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33 comments:
Hi,
First of all, just wanted to say thank you - your blog is very interesting and useful for me.
Well, I'm from Israel and trying to think about any special word for the beginning of phone conversation... hmm, I think we use "Allo" ("hello" in english), or just saying "Shalom" ("Hello", "Good morning/evening" in english)... Something like this:)
In France, we also use "Allo", but it don't have a specific meaning. It is also normally not used in business, but can be used in middle of conversation when (cell) phone connection become bad.
jenny>
Thank you for your comment. Interesting. Which language is spoken in Israel?
pby>
Is "Allo" French? Interesting people in France and Israel use the same word for telephone.
Hmmm... let me see... Hebrew!:))
About "Allo" - Russian speaking people use this word too for the beginning of phone conversation... So I think it's a international word...
jenny>
So, Hebrew is official language in Israel?
Now, "Allow" sounds very international. Quite similar to the sound of "Hello".
Indeed. Hebrew is the one of two official languages in Israel. The second is Arabic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Israel
I searched a bit, "Allo" is just a french revision of the "Hello", only used after telephone invention.
That's quite funny, because, Wikipedia say that Hello come from the french "Ho là"!
hello
Origin: 1885
Alexander Graham Bell's much-talked-about invention gave us not only the new word telephone (1876) but also the greeting hello. To be sure, something like hello had been with us for a long time as a shout that the English had learned from the French in the Middle Ages. Ho là! they would say. It meant both "stop" and "pay attention," or in the words of an early translator, "hoe there, enough, soft soft, no more of that; also, heare you me, or come hither." In various English shouts and reshouts over the centuries, this became holla (1523), hollo, hollow (1542), and hillo, hilloa (1602). For long-distance shouts the ending was lengthened to -oo, leading to halloo (1568) and hulloo (1707). By the nineteenth century the variants included hallo, halloa (1840) and hullo, hulloa (1857).
Sorry, it's not from Wikipedia but from answers.com
to PBY...
Thank you, interesting.
BTW, answers.com - this is israely company:)
I always say "hello" when it's someone I don't know, but usually, with caller id on the phone, I know who is calling me.
So I just say "Hi Dad" or "How are you doing Mom?" or the name of whoever else might call.
in Italy we say 'pronto' which literally means 'ready!' when picking up the phone =)
mwahahahaha. We say Hoi Hoi or we say Jaah? means: hello and yes?
when I call my friends I always say: raad eens wie? Means guess who? It's dutch,
btw,, good site. keep going
to pby, jenny, kayanon...
The Spanish "Hola" comes from the english Hello/Hallo.
I am no linguistic expert but it is more likely that french people adopted the Allo from the english Hallo, since there is no latin root in the word "allo".
French is a romance language.
By the way, lets not forget what country invented the phone first, so I think it is more likely that trying to imitate the americans, hello-hola-hallo-allo got somehow standarized when greeting on the phone.
The exceptions I know are Italy with their "pronto", Japanese "moshi moshi" and the Korean "yoboseyo".
Well my parents are from Mexico and we are used to the "Bueno" when picking up the phone, which means "Good"
"Good" = yay we got a phone call!
Well... In Venezuela we say "Aló" to answer the phone xD
I say "YO!"
If it's a number I don't recognize, I announce myself first before my hello...
"This is Vivian"
I only really greet people I know, not strangers.
I know it sounds unfriendly, but it may be a professional person calling (or a bill collector) ;P
Hello. And Bye.
In Romania we say Alo
In Portugal we say "Estou Sim!"
It is remarkable, this rather valuable opinion
Moshi moshi xD i know that it isnt for 'cha conversations' but i like it :P when i answer the phone with one of my bests friends i use moshi moshi and her too ^^
bu taliking about how we say in our country, in portugal we can use diferent words to answer a call like: 'estou' - 'i am here' 'estou sim?' - literally is 'i'm here, yes?' 'olá!' - 'hello' or when we dont know who is calling we can say 'quem é?' - 'who is it?'
well and i think its everything :P
kiss
sayonara ^^
nadreia
p.s i forgot we can use too, 'sim?' - 'yes' to answer the phone :P
and i've wroten my name mistaken xD
andreia, now its right ;D
sayonnara ^^
We also use "Alo" in Romania.Or maybe just "Da" as in Yes(I'm listening,sort of)...
It's so interesting to see what other people use in the same situation;))
We also use "Alo" in Romania.Or maybe just "Da" as in Yes(I'm listening,sort of)...
It's so interesting to see what other people use in the same situation;))
In Poland we have "słucham" (i'm listening) or regular "halo" (we write it with one L)
In Portugal we also use "Allo", in this case it's said the same way as in france and russia, but it writes as "Alô"(same thing).
In Portugal we also use "Allo", in this case it's said the same way as in france and russia, but it writes as "Alô"(same thing).
I say "Hi hi" "Salutations!" or "Allo!" in my greetings.
I have a question. When texting do you have a particular greet you use? Either in Japan or for the other commenters.
What I am really askin is: Is there a text (as in texting) equivalent to moshi-moshi? Something like taipu-taiou or kaku-kaku? Or with they were odd “Kakikomu” could be turned into “kaki-kaki” … ok, perhaps not… ^_^
In fact, the Spanish "hola" comes not from English, but from the old High German, which is also the origin of the English "hello". Don't forget that Britain was invaded by the saxons, in the same way as Spain was invaded by different gothic waves. The original german word "halâ" or "holâ" is the enphatic imperative for "halôn", "holôn" which meant "bring" or "reach" and specially used to greet the boat or ferryman.
Anothe ethimological theory is that it comes from the French "holà", literally "hey there!" from "lá", "there".
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