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.) Have a nice one, Wilko -- 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/20130717151258.ga24...@fok01.laje.edewe.de