What is there, what is there not

[Rudolph C Troike]

My immediate reaction was the same as Allan's, that this is a calque on
Turkish "Ne var, ne yok?", used as a common greeting among acquaintances,
and thus pragmatically parallel to "What's up?", recently reincarnated as
"Whassup?". I wonder how many other languages in the area use this same
expression?

However, a Turkish student of mine recently told me that this is now
old-fashioned, and the newer "in" expression is "Ne haber?" = "What news?"
i.e., "What's new?"


Rudy