tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post6996044560599515849..comments2024-03-28T16:11:36.465+00:00Comments on Separated by a Common Language: good morninglynneguisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comBlogger93125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-62349189427228462062022-05-10T18:08:49.758+01:002022-05-10T18:08:49.758+01:00I'm Dutch... living in the Netherlands... and ...I'm Dutch... living in the Netherlands... and I say 'Hi' all day long to just about everybody who crosses my path, unless they deserve to be greeted with more respect and civility: then it's Good Morning, Good Afternoon or Good Evening (in Dutch, natch). Good Night is reserved for going-to-bed, though usually we say<br />'Welterusten' [meaning, Sleep Well] instead.Petra1945https://www.blogger.com/profile/06559677258676647710noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-39563247388158801212022-05-10T17:52:09.234+01:002022-05-10T17:52:09.234+01:00The Dutch sure as hell do: Goedemiddag, or more in...The Dutch sure as hell do: Goedemiddag, or more informally Goeiemiddag (Good Afternoon) is ubiquitous.Petra1945https://www.blogger.com/profile/06559677258676647710noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-37611405616430786942017-08-22T22:28:09.195+01:002017-08-22T22:28:09.195+01:00American, 29, northeast. I greet my coworkers wit...American, 29, northeast. I greet my coworkers with "good morning!" most days. I do not regularly use "good afternoon" "good day," or "good evening," except in valedictions, and then always paired with "have a ______." <br /><br />Part of me must still be 6 years old, because I instictively expect an interaction consisting of "Hello." "Hello." to be immediately followed by "Do you like my hat?"Christina C.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-57219711060034304622016-05-29T00:53:34.361+01:002016-05-29T00:53:34.361+01:00I am an American. Nearly all Americans greet peopl...I am an American. Nearly all Americans greet people in the morning with "Good morning." In all of America. It seems borderline rude to do otherwise.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17268061685047418858noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-21704334882576727192016-05-29T00:48:32.123+01:002016-05-29T00:48:32.123+01:00I am an American. In my experience, nearly all Ame...I am an American. In my experience, nearly all Americans in every part of America greet people in the morning with "Good morning." If somebody greets you first with "Hello," it would be OK to reciprocate with that. If they greet you with well-wishes along the lines of "Good morning," it seems a mite ill-mannered to reciprocate with a terse, cursory, perfunctory "Hello."Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17268061685047418858noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-11660310670992125802016-05-15T19:27:07.725+01:002016-05-15T19:27:07.725+01:00As a German I'm saying 'Morning' all t...As a German I'm saying 'Morning' all the time, less often good morning. Using good morning reminds me of school and my teacher entering the class.<br />I use less often Guten Tag - Good day or guten Abend (I'd say 'nabend) - good evening (evening). During the day I'd prefer to say Hallo.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-53552407121649666812016-05-06T04:29:26.115+01:002016-05-06T04:29:26.115+01:00If I may make some random points:
In Oz, they oft...If I may make some random points:<br /><br />In Oz, they often substitue "g'day" for "Good morning" or "good afternoon", though both of these are very common.<br /><br />In posh restaurants in England it is always morning until you've had luncheon.<br /><br />In Tuscany it is customary in the later afternoon and evening to greet those whom you pass with the word "sera" (i.e "evening"). Of course Tuscany is known in Britain as Chiantishire due to the high number of English people you will find there. So it is possible that the Italians picked up on the British greeting. I don't know.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-41616617969183779322016-04-29T19:42:54.892+01:002016-04-29T19:42:54.892+01:00I don't think I would ever say "good afte...<i>I don't think I would ever say "good afternoon" or "good evening."</i><br /><br />This claim suddenly made me think of something baseball commentators have been known to say in response to a 3-pitch strikeout. Without going into the minutiae of baseball terminology, a 3-pitch strikeout occurs quickly and often unexpectedly. So the commentator may recap the 3 stages of the event by saying "Good morning, good afternoon, and good night! That didn't take long."Dick Hartzellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07065924271517452841noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-24496819949081378532016-04-29T07:55:43.120+01:002016-04-29T07:55:43.120+01:00"Good Day," to me, cannot be separated f..."Good Day," to me, cannot be separated from the voice of Paul Harvey, who ended has shows with a very distinctive signoff. I don't think I've ever heard it from anyone else.<br /><br />I think I (Northern California native) commonly say "good morning" when it actually is morning, and "hello" or "howdy" (like Doug above, with a very flattened diphthong) the rest of the day. I modify the stress to show informality. (GO--OD morning is much less formal than good MORNing.) I don't think I would ever say "good afternoon" or "good evening." "Good night" means I'm either going home or going to bed, or both.Juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14376545097377854998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-50167348378985370912016-04-25T15:32:15.114+01:002016-04-25T15:32:15.114+01:00This post was a fascinating analysis of morning gr...This post was a fascinating analysis of morning greetings. I must agree that the use of "good morning" does seem to be used mainly when the person being addressed is suffering from a rather bad case of bed-head. At least, thats how I perceive it as a midwesterner...<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />ZBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-85894374933620081982016-04-20T16:10:30.877+01:002016-04-20T16:10:30.877+01:00Reading Anonymous's comment about working the ...Reading Anonymous's comment about working the graveyard shift got me thinking about a memorably topical joke the American journalist William Shirer relates in his book <i>Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934-1941</i>. I found the book online so I could quote the joke verbatim and not have to rely on my faulty memory. It's from an entry dated November 9, 1940:<br /><br />The chief of the Air-Raid Protection in Berlin re-<br />cently advised the people to go to bed early and try to <br />snatch two or three hours of sleep before the bombings <br />start. Some take the advice, most do not. The Berliners <br />say that those who take the advice arrive in the cellar <br />after an alarm and greet their neighbours with a "Good <br />morning." This means they have been to sleep. Others <br />arrive and say: "Good evening!" This means they <br />haven't yet been to sleep. A few arrive and say: "Heil <br />Hitler!" This means they have always been asleep.<br /><br />I read <i>Berlin Diary</i> perhaps 35 years ago and this joke stayed with me -- I guess because it had never occurred to me that ordinary Germans at this early date were willing to indulge in black humor about <i>der Führer.</i>Dick Hartzellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07065924271517452841noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-65322584438918110632016-04-20T00:52:04.332+01:002016-04-20T00:52:04.332+01:00It is funny to think about this common greeting as...It is funny to think about this common greeting as I work a shift at my place of work commonly known as the "grave shift". In the morning, as the day moon rises, I typically see all the normal sleepers as they are preparing for the day ahead of them. Unfortunately, "Good Morning" is the last thing they want to hear due to its assumed sarcastic undertone; however to me, it really is a good morning as I am about to go home and inevitably fall asleep! Most assume it is said in a facetious manner, however in the morning this tone escapes me as delirium is catching up due to lack of sleep. Anyways, that's my two cents, so to those howling at the morning individuals cheerfully "sing songing" I say, be more positive! :) Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-6906300219770672292016-04-07T03:21:49.739+01:002016-04-07T03:21:49.739+01:00Massachusetts USA here.
Good Morning, Good Aftern...Massachusetts USA here.<br /><br />Good Morning, Good Afternoon and Good Evenings are all greeting to be used in passing or on meeting prior to an assembly of some sorts, at more or less the appropriate time of day, with the boundaries between afternoon and morning/evening a bit fuzzy, but generally around noon and around sunset.Any of the 3 can be said with some or all of "good" elided. Any of them can be interchanged with Hello or any of its variants(Hi, Hey, 'lo, yo etc) or How are/do you (do), What's up, and their variants. <br /><br />Good day and Good Night are either dismissals or farewells and can be interchanged with goodbye.<br /><br />Within the home itself the day begins with good morning and ends with good night, and the closest thing to a greeting in between is usually an "I'm home" or an "excuse me I need to get by"(and less polite variants) and the farewell usually a bye or a bye bye. Hello seems out of context in a familiar/intimate setting.<br /><br /><br />As to the many senses of hello(hallo, hullo, ahoy) It can range from greeting:"Hello, nice to meet you" to surprise/curiosity "hello, what have we here?" to warning/announcement/alarm: "hello? anybody there?" to an imperative: "hello? pay attention!" to condescension/ridicule: Plaid with spots? Hello!"<br /><br />In every case I can think of it either serves to emphasize a statement, or through tone imply one.<br /><br /><br />Regardless of when it is uttered the most annoying thing to a night owl is a morning person cheerfully sing songing goooood mooorning.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02138260302522477243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-78730165053697090732016-04-01T17:24:14.700+01:002016-04-01T17:24:14.700+01:00Just listened to the Allusionist episode--that was...Just listened to the Allusionist episode--that was great! My dad is from Long Island (where I grew up) but my mom was born in London. She married him and came here at age 21, but never shook her accent or her manners. So your posts are great! I identify with both sides. I'm decidedly American, yet say "please" far more than most. Beginning to recognize why my work emails are sometimes seen as passive-aggressive! <br />So I'm more likely to pipe up with "Good morning!" when I greet people at work. Then again, quite a few people here aren't US natives. So maybe that's why I tend to hear it back. ;-)Jen Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16883292339031554249noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-44849763468533690162016-03-28T09:03:52.233+01:002016-03-28T09:03:52.233+01:00@ Lynne:
> If I hear it in my head, it's ...@ Lynne:<br /><br />> If I hear it in my head, it's in a sort of brusque RP accent. <b>Good day, old chaps!</b> <br /><br />Lynne, you will never hear that anywhere else than in your head. No native BrE-speaker ever addresses a group of males as "old chaps". It can't be pluralized in the second person like that.<br /><br />Even saying "Good day, old chap!" sounds weird. "Old chap" has a sort of soothing or emollient or sympathetic tone to it that doesn't fit with the chirpiness of the greeting. "You're looking a bit rough this morning, old chap!" sounds more plausible.<br /><br />At least, I imagine it being said in the sort of gentlemen's club where someone might be addressed as "old chap". I don't actually move in such circles.Chris Cooperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06442478441209335753noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-85903451512726213842016-03-26T01:56:41.009+00:002016-03-26T01:56:41.009+00:00Part two of the experiment: waking my offspring on...Part two of the experiment: waking my offspring on a school morning by playing the video above. They loved it. flatlanderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14711270206823934186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-71780825060107819952016-03-23T19:32:09.464+00:002016-03-23T19:32:09.464+00:00I've continued to keep track of this at work a...I've continued to keep track of this at work and it continues to be the case that about 75% of the people who greet me use some form of "Good Morning" (the second most common greeting is 'Hi"). I did notice today that one coworker passed me early in the day and said "Morning". Then about an hour later we passed each other again and I said "Morning" to her and immediately felt a little weird about it since we'd already done our morning greeting and therefore it felt like the wrong word to use. So I think at least for me, "Morning" is reserved for the first greeting of the day. <br /><br />It is definitely not the case, either for me or for at minimum the majority of my coworkers and students, that "(Good) Morning" is reserved for people who just got out of bed, though, since it seems to be the preferred greeting by a wide margin all the way up until lunchtime. <br /><br />[Side note, related to the video in this post. I am a habitual whistler and often when I'm out in the hallways between classes I whistle. (Yes, I realize this probably makes me despised by a number of people for whom whistling is like nails on a chalkboard. To be honest, I don't even know I'm doing it all the time.) All of the "Good morning" greetings that I participate in at the beginning of the day tends to put that song in my head, which makes it maybe my most frequently whistled song. ]smrnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-36046146373790663312016-03-23T08:22:01.264+00:002016-03-23T08:22:01.264+00:00This does not surprise me about Utah at all. But i...This does not surprise me about Utah at all. But in many ways Utah is its own usage arena!lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-41238638899497142022016-03-23T00:35:17.683+00:002016-03-23T00:35:17.683+00:00I've been listening at work this past week. M...I've been listening at work this past week. Mind, this is an OR that starts cases at 0800, and we clock in an hour before, which may be relevant. (US, Utah.)<br /><br />We all say Good Morning to each other. Or 'mornin'. First greeting of the day, and we all use Morning. May be that we are all tired and implying we are all tired and need coffee, but it doesn't seem so. People who come in later in the day may get a Hi, or hello, but I wasn't checking for that. Maybe because of that I use Good Morning on other days, and it seems normal. <br /><br />Zhoenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03515663141425057088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-13586176494569376482016-03-21T12:20:11.932+00:002016-03-21T12:20:11.932+00:00Not at all relevant to Lynne's query, but may ...Not at all relevant to Lynne's query, but may I present J R R Tolkien?<br /><br />"Good morning!" said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat.<br />"What do you mean?" he said. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"<br />"All of them at once," said Bilbo.<br /><br />Rachel Ganzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16512329333010333925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-35552775155024322272016-03-21T12:14:17.890+00:002016-03-21T12:14:17.890+00:00BrE here. "Good morning" is more formal ...BrE here. "Good morning" is more formal than "Morning" is more formal than "Hello".<br />It interesting that some people think Hello is more formal than (Good) Morning.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-88571622774442528052016-03-20T12:41:40.270+00:002016-03-20T12:41:40.270+00:00Oh, gee, flatlander. That's making me feel lik...Oh, gee, flatlander. That's making me feel like I should have got(ten) ethical clearance for this experiment. It might be doing damage! :/lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-53548525150950104002016-03-19T14:51:26.667+00:002016-03-19T14:51:26.667+00:00Yesterday I decided to keep track, and as per Lynn...Yesterday I decided to keep track, and as per Lynne's comment I was careful to not greet first and thus influence the other party's response. That led to the awkward realization that I am apparently the designated First Greeter in many of my everyday interactions, because when I remained silent so did the others. While I worked through that existential crisis, I did note a handful of "(Good) morning"s and one "Oh hi" as a colleague rounded the corner and nearly crashed into me. The only true "Hello" came from a schoolchild hanging out a bus window. That was less a greeting and more a "Look at me! I'm hanging out a bus window!" - AmE, mid-Atlantic region, smallish college townflatlanderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14711270206823934186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-59775429942405373922016-03-18T11:30:51.769+00:002016-03-18T11:30:51.769+00:00Keeping count on this morning's dog walk it wa...Keeping count on this morning's dog walk it was 100% for "Good Morning", from people I know well through to strangers. When I met up with people for a second time when walking round we all said "Good morning again!", I think 7 am is just too early to use anything else and I only switch to "Good Afternoon at some point after lunch (when depends on how well I'm keeping track of time). "Hello" seems somewhat formal to me and is something I use for business greetings but not in my personal life and "How do you do" is for formal first meetings only. Growing up in East Anglia if we didn't reference the time of day the other greeting was "Alright boi", or just "Alright", still used with family but I don't hear it from anyone else since I've moved to other areas in the UK. "Good day" in an English accent brings to mind old British black and white films and sounds very old fashioned to me.Saltwaternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-21072998333552570222016-03-17T03:18:56.323+00:002016-03-17T03:18:56.323+00:00I'm quite surprised, because I (university stu...I'm quite surprised, because I (university student who's lived in Ohio her whole life) am wholly with the BrE on this one! "Good morning" is my greeting of choice before noon, and I would find saying "Hello" to someone you're just passing to be quite odd (although I've been taking Chinese as my first class of the day for the past two years, so perhaps the daily 早上好's have been messing with me?). I'd probably be more likely to greet someone with "Hey" or "Hi," but it's college, so I chalk that up to the informal setting. Saying "hello" to someone in passing seems somehow rather stilted and formal, but I'm not quite sure what that means.basshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07224916720003456481noreply@blogger.com