Dying words (fwd link)

[Richard Smith]

I guess someone could get a million dollar grant to find
out why many native cultures don't have a word for "good-bye"
but hasn't  "good-bye" (likely from God-speed or God bless your journey)
evolved to become only a verbal sound even atheist English speakers make
when they part company?     more noun-ish  than  verb-ish

But how important "good-bye" has become for us english speakers!
its almost a required period in a sentence.
a culturally demanded sound at departure
 without it...something is broken...left unfini---

It's absence can evoke sympathy,sorrow or even resentment
"They left without saying good bye"

even personal guilt,grief or remorse
"...and i never even got to say good-bye"

I imagine ALL cultures have appropriate ways of departure?
It might make a fascinating study of cultures

hmmm..  a future book:

"1000 ways to say good-bye"
including photographs of departure around the world

Richard Zane Smith
Wyandotte, Oklahoma



> And the Koasati language of Louisiana provides no word for good-bye, since
> time
> is seen as more cyclical than linear. To end a conversation, you would say
> something like, "This was good."
> 
> More than 300 American Indian languages flourished in North America at the
> time
> of Columbus, each carrying a unique way of understanding the world.