Hi, a really uninteresting update to yesterday's post.
Reading the post and comments, i felt moved to inform everyone (poster and commenter alike) that the word "hello" is, in fact, an Americanism. Hullo, Hallo, Hola and other such greetings have been around for longer than i care, but "hello" was most definitely American, and popularised by the great Thomas Edison, who shunned Alexander Graham Bell's insistence that everyone should say "ahoy" when they answer the phone (NB he stole the invention anyway so who cares what he thinks).
With the growing network of telephone communication (tele - far, phone - sound, communicate - to make information communal... so you know) "hello" spread and kicked ahoy's arse.
Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage states in 1926:
"Hello, formerly an Americanism, is now nearly as common as hullo in Britain ... and the Englishman cannot be expected to give up the right to say hello if he likes it better than his native hullo."
So... we have the Americans to thank for hello. But also for Britney Spears, so i don't know what to think.
Reading the post and comments, i felt moved to inform everyone (poster and commenter alike) that the word "hello" is, in fact, an Americanism. Hullo, Hallo, Hola and other such greetings have been around for longer than i care, but "hello" was most definitely American, and popularised by the great Thomas Edison, who shunned Alexander Graham Bell's insistence that everyone should say "ahoy" when they answer the phone (NB he stole the invention anyway so who cares what he thinks).
With the growing network of telephone communication (tele - far, phone - sound, communicate - to make information communal... so you know) "hello" spread and kicked ahoy's arse.
Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage states in 1926:
"Hello, formerly an Americanism, is now nearly as common as hullo in Britain ... and the Englishman cannot be expected to give up the right to say hello if he likes it better than his native hullo."
So... we have the Americans to thank for hello. But also for Britney Spears, so i don't know what to think.
Posts
4 comments:
Hold on just one cotton-picking minute (that phrase is an Americanism I will grant you). Changing the spelling of a word does not mean they invented it. And changing the spelling from Hullo to Hello does not materially change the prounciation - accent has more effect on this.
It is like saying the Welsh invented the word Ambiwlans when actually they just bastardised the word Ambulance to fit their spelling and pronunciation rules.
Poorly done, interestingtonobody.com, poorly done.
Please read posts before commenting. No claim was made that Americans "invented" the word. In fact, the blog clearly states that the greeting was merely a form of hallo hullo ola hola etc etc which go back longer than i care.
Instead, the post states (quite factually) that the word was an Americanism, that is "a word, phrase, or other use of language characteristic of, peculiar to, or originating from the United States."(OED)
And thus it was. A word that was peculiar to the United States, only popularised and globalised with the help of the telephone.
The post was not meant to apply national ownership/authorship to words. It was meant to be thoroughly uninteresting, and show that the words we use cannot really be attributed to a nation-state, a flag, a people, a race, a class etc etc blah blah blah.
As for ambulance, English bastardised from the French "ambulant", bastardised in turn from the Latin "ambulans".
So NUR.
My daddy said he will buy me a car.
Wow.
I love my daddy.
I'll be honest. Halfway through my point I did come round to your way of thinking and realised I was wrong. But I decided to finish what I had started and continue with my way of thinking.
Just to clarify. This is Lindsay. Just so you know.
Lindsay Ash.
Post a Comment