http://noncompositional.com/2005/12/samurai-shampoo/ Thu, 13 Jan 2011 01:44:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 http://noncompositional.com/2005/12/samurai-shampoo/comment-page-1/#comment-39 Russell Mon, 05 Dec 2005 05:02:07 +0000 http://www.noncompositional.com/?p=63#comment-39 <p>Not sure. I know most Chinese languages use some form of "have you eaten" as a greeting (and it's transparantly "have you eaten," - you can actually ask if someone has eaten yet with the same phrase - as opposed to English "good morning/afternoon/evening" which are at best loosely related to "(may you) have a good ...). As for other world greetings, I'm not sure. I wonder how widespread asking about someone's health/condition is (as in "how do you do", "how are you doing"). In Japan, for instance, asking how someone is as a greeting will probably ... well, not be interpreted as a greeting, but as a genuine inquiry. It would be interesting if it was an areal feature.</p> Not sure. I know most Chinese languages use some form of “have you eaten” as a greeting (and it’s transparantly “have you eaten,” – you can actually ask if someone has eaten yet with the same phrase – as opposed to English “good morning/afternoon/evening” which are at best loosely related to “(may you) have a good …). As for other world greetings, I’m not sure. I wonder how widespread asking about someone’s health/condition is (as in “how do you do”, “how are you doing”). In Japan, for instance, asking how someone is as a greeting will probably … well, not be interpreted as a greeting, but as a genuine inquiry. It would be interesting if it was an areal feature.

]]> http://noncompositional.com/2005/12/samurai-shampoo/comment-page-1/#comment-38 klinton Mon, 05 Dec 2005 03:42:24 +0000 http://www.noncompositional.com/?p=63#comment-38 <p>Fujian 'hello' is 'have you eaten'? that in itself is a pretty interesting etymology. What other kinds of etymologies for greetings are there?</p> Fujian ‘hello’ is ‘have you eaten’? that in itself is a pretty interesting etymology. What other kinds of etymologies for greetings are there?

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