Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: "How are you", in different languages?

From:daniel andreasson <danielandreasson@...>
Date:Friday, February 28, 2003, 22:53
Andreas Johansson wrote:

> Quoting "E. Notagain" <ecg321@...>: > > Second: What, in your language (conlang and natlang), is the closest > > translation to the English "How are you" (conversation starter and > > greeting)?
In Piata, the usual greeting is literally "how" plus an emphatic particle. I haven't decided the actual words yet, but probably something like _ni che_, _ni_ being 'how' and _che_ one of the emphatic particles. (Okay, so it's decided then. No wait, that sounds just like "Nietzsche". Hey, Friedrich! Ni che? :D I'd better come up with something else.)
> Well, what _I_ mostly use in this function is _(Och) Hur lever livet med [insert > name] då?_, which means "(And) How is life living with [insert name] then", but > I'm afraid I'm pretty alone in this usage. A more common Swedish expression for > the same might be _hallå, hur mås (det)?_ "hello, how is (it) feeling?".
I just like to point out that if someone on this list ever comes to Sweden and don't want to come out like a total geek or hillbilly (and here I'm refering to anyone not living in Stockholm), </SARCASM> you probably shouldn't use _hur mås det?_. The absolutely most common way to say "How are you?" is _Hur är det?_, which is pronounced /hu"rer@/ or /hu"r&r@/. Another common word is _Läget?_ /lE:g@t/, which is pretty much 'Wzup?'. If you were taught _Hur mår du?_ in some TY-book, it rather gives the impression that you really want to know how someone is feeling... :P Daniel Andreasson

Replies

Sarah Marie Parker-Allen <lloannna@...>
Roger Mills <romilly@...>
Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>