[Lexicog] salutations and leave-takings

[Peter Kirk]

On 23/04/2004 09:02, Wayne Leman wrote:

> ...
>
> So, how about you? Are you familiar with languages which lack indigenous
> salutations or leave-takings?
>
>
In Azerbaijani, and in many other languages heavily influenced by
Arabic, the commonly used salutations and leave-takings are not
indigenous, but are loans from Arabic, e.g. salam, salam aleyküm,
xudahafiz (the last is actually a mixture of Persian and Arabic). But
they are fully indigenised.

What is lacking in Azerbaijani is an indigenous word for "please". There
are various loan-translations of the kind you mention for Cheyenne
salutations, but they are not in general use. When buying things in the
bazaar everyone just says "Give me...", a plain imperative with no
polite expression at all. This is an interestingly strong contrast with
neighbouring Persian which is absolutely full of polite expressions. The
difference probably reflects the different social statuses of the two
languages, whose area of use overlaps strongly.

--
Peter Kirk
peter at qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk at qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/



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