# All Slavic: greeting at meeting and parting



## Encolpius

Hello, I wonder if Czech and Slovak are the only Slavic languages using a colloquial greeting both at meeting and parting. _Do you have a greeting used both at meeting and parting?_ Thanks. 

*Czech, Slovak: *
meeting: Ahoj!
parting: Ahoj!


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## DenisBiH

Bosnian: Ćao, zdravo


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## NotNow

Polish: cześć


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## vianie

> I wonder if Czech and Slovak are the only Slavic languages using a colloquial greeting both at meeting and parting.



And a classic fast-footed "Ahoj!" said on the street can join these (meeting & parting).


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## *cat*

*Slovene* (meeting, parting): Čao (that's the only one that comes to my mind)

"Ahoj" is really some kind of old-fashioned to my ears ... and "zdravo" is used only when meeting; it was also used when parting, but not anymore since we are an independent country.


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## sokol

Well, in Slovene there's also "servus" or rather "serbus" which seems to be more common (see this thread); however, "serbus" seems to be almost obsolete already.
For all I know should be used both for greeting and parting.

Another thing, Cat - what about "živio"?
In the mid-1990ies "zdravo" was mainly used in Western Slovenia (Maribor) while "živio" was used in the rest of the country (noticeably, of course, Ljubljana, while at the coast "čau" probably was the most frequent one even then).
And I thought they were all used for both meeting and parting - but my memory isn't as good as it was, seems I'm growing old.


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## *cat*

sokol said:


> Well, in Slovene there's also "servus" or rather "serbus" which seems to be more common (see this thread); however, "serbus" seems to be almost obsolete already.
> For all I know should be used both for greeting and parting.
> 
> Another thing, Cat - what about "živio"?
> In the mid-1990ies "zdravo" was mainly used in Western Slovenia (Maribor) while "živio" was used in the rest of the country (noticeably, of course, Ljubljana, while at the coast "čau" probably was the most frequent one even then).
> And I thought they were all used for both meeting and parting - but my memory isn't as good as it was, seems I'm growing old.



Oh yes, I forgot about "serbus". I don't like it, but it's used.
And about "živijo" - I heard it only when meeting. Someone else should step in ...


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## sokol

*cat* said:


> Oh yes, I forgot about "serbus". I don't like it, but it's used.
> And about "živijo" - I heard it only when meeting. Someone else should step in ...


Oh, you know I might indeed have used "živijo" for parting when I was in Slovenia even though it was wrong - and that Slovenes out of politeness didn't remark. 
Or it might be that use has changed.
My old (very old ;-) dictionary by Janez Gradišnik gives as alternative translation for "živijo" also "auf Wiedersehen" = for parting, but it is marked "pog. = pogovorni jezik" = colloquial speech.

So possibly this once was (and no longer is?) used for parting in colloquial speech, or whatever.


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## *cat*

sokol said:


> Oh, you know I might indeed have used "živijo" for parting when I was in Slovenia even though it was wrong - and that Slovenes out of politeness didn't remark.
> Or it might be that use has changed.
> My old (very old ;-) dictionary by Janez Gradišnik gives as alternative translation for "živijo" also "auf Wiedersehen" = for parting, but it is marked "pog. = pogovorni jezik" = colloquial speech.
> 
> So possibly this once was (and no longer is?) used for parting in colloquial speech, or whatever.



I wonder what someone from Ljubljana would say about this ...


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## Maroseika

Russian - привет.
However using it when parting is somewhat outdated.


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## !netko!

In Croatian, it's "bog"/"bok". "Bok" is used in kajkavian regions (including Zagreb), and "bog" in shtokavian regions, and also in chakavian regions when people are speaking the standard (in proper chakavian "bog" is actually "boh"). Nowadays, quite a few young people from non-Kajkavian areas have started using "bok" due to the influence of Zagreb. 

The interesting thing is that, although most people here just assume the two are just variants of the same, it seems that they might have completely different etimologies. "Bog" has the meaning of "god", and could be abbreviated from a longer greeting, while the Kajkavian "bok" supposedly comes from the German greeting expression "mein Bocken", meaning "my bow". 

I don't know, it's always seemed like too much of a coincidence to me, but people from Kajkavian regions always swear to me that their "bok" has nothing to do with our "bog". Could anyone confirm or disprove this etimology?

Btw, DenisBiH, so, in Bosnia, you can use "ćao" when meeting someone, not just at parting?


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## sokol

Netko, I do not know a German idiom "mein Bocken" - this sounds entirely foreign to me, and does not convey any meaning at all. 
It might still be used as a greeting in some parts of the German speaking nations but personally I doubt it.

Which would also mean that this etymology is doubtful. But if you want to delve deeper into that matter we should discuss this in a thread of its own, and in Etymology and History of languages.


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## itreius

I'm pretty sure the kajkavian "bok" has the same etymology, that is, "Bog daj".

Edit: Also, the pronunciation of the kajkavian "bok" is the same as the kajkavian variation of "Bog" (as in the deity, not the greeting). ("o" is the Close-mid back rounded vowel if I'm not mistaken)


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## !netko!

Sorry, I'd completely forgotten about this thread



sokol said:


> Netko, I do not know a German idiom "mein Bocken" - this sounds entirely foreign to me, and does not convey any meaning at all.
> It might still be used as a greeting in some parts of the German speaking nations but personally I doubt it.
> 
> Which would also mean that this etymology is doubtful. But if you want to delve deeper into that matter we should discuss this in a thread of its own, and in Etymology and History of languages.


 
Well, it would definitely be an archaic idiom, used way back when the kajkavian areas were under heavy germanisation. There were greetings in Croatian around that time that also seem completely archaic to Croatian speakers now (stuff about miladies, and bowing or kissing somebody's hand). Or possibly it was just a literal translation of the Croatian greeting "my bow"? Does "bocken" even have the meaning of "bow" or "to bow" at all? 

But, yes, I definitely agree that the whole thing feels like folk etimology to me. The only reason I bring it up is that when the topic is discussed on Croatian forums, so many people are quite adamant about this theory. A lot of the time they even confidently assert that "bog" is just a relatively recent non-kajkavian bastardisation of Kajkavian German-derived "bok", and that the etimology of either greeting never had anything to do the word "god". I found the bastardisation theory really absurd, since I hail from Shtokavian and Chakavian areas and know my family has always used "bog" or "ala bog" as a greeting. 

I wouldn't mind delving deeper into this, but the thing is, I don't really know much about the whole "bocken" etimology aside from what I've heard on forums from Kajkavians. I could find one of those threads for you, but I'm not sure how well you understand BCS?



itreius said:


> I'm pretty sure the kajkavian "bok" has the same etymology, that is, "Bog daj".
> 
> Edit: Also, the pronunciation of the kajkavian "bok" is the same as the kajkavian variation of "Bog" (as in the deity, not the greeting). ("o" is the Close-mid back rounded vowel if I'm not mistaken)


 
That's what I always thought too, but so many people seem convinced that it's not true. Have you never heard of the whole German-derived theory? I could dig out the Forum.hr thread for you... If we're right and the German-derived theory really is just folk etimology I'm really curious how it came about.


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## sokol

Netko, could you please give as much context as possible about "bocken", and post in a new thread in EHL?

I can easily read BCS (Serbian and Croatian; I will have some difficulties with Kajkavian dialects - but as I know Slovene even better than Croatian I should be able to get the gist of it); and other members might as well. 

Concerning Kajkavian "bok" = possibly "bog": well, as Kajkavian has a tendency of loosing voicing in word-final position this indeed might be the case. However, I don't know and I cannot quote any sources, and anyway, here too you should please open a new thread, and in Etymology forum, we still might be able to find out more about it.


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## itreius

!netko! said:


> That's what I always thought too, but so many people seem convinced that it's not true.


I wouldn't go so far as to call it "many people". Doing a Google query for "mein bocken" (with the quotation marks so it only finds that exact expression) doesn't show many results - three forum discussions and a comment on a news article, all four proposing that etymology but not substantiating it. The other results are German but none of them uses it as an expression nor in the meaning suggested for the etymology. Also, with sokol being from Austria I would expect him to be familiarized with such an expression if it really existed (well, at least more than those of us that aren't adept in Austrian German), since German borrowings in Kajkavian mostly came as a result of Austrian influence.



!netko! said:


> Have you never heard of the whole German-derived theory? I could dig out the Forum.hr thread for you...


I've seen the forum.hr thread but the explanation doesn't provide any source for those claims - when was the expression used? Do we have it in written form?


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## !netko!

itreius said:


> I wouldn't go so far as to call it "many people". Doing a Google query for "mein bocken" (with the quotation marks so it only finds that exact expression) doesn't show many results - three forum discussions and a comment on a news article, all four proposing that etymology but not substantiating it. The other results are German but none of them uses it as an expression nor in the meaning suggested for the etymology. Also, with sokol being from Austria I would expect him to be familiarized with such an expression if it really existed (well, at least more than those of us that aren't adept in Austrian German), since German borrowings in Kajkavian mostly came as a result of Austrian influence.


 
I used "many" in a relative sense. Few people are discussing the etimology of Croatian greetings online in the first place (or are interested in it at all). Out of the people who _do_, and who actually subscribe to some sort of etimology theory, a significant enough number have suggested the supposed "mein bocken" connection to pique my curiosity. As I said, I don't find the theory particularly plausible myself, and haven't seen anyone actually substantiate it, but I _am_ interested in where, and how, it originated.

As far as whether the expression exists in Austrian German (or any variant of German, really), of course sokol would know that better than us. I wouldn't know at all, since my German abilities begin and end with a few basic greetings and expressions. I was only speculating on some possible backgrounds of the term, and its hypothetic archaic nature.



itreius said:


> I've seen the forum.hr thread but the explanation doesn't provide any source for those claims - when was the expression used? Do we have it in written form?


 
Well, I would think during Habsburg/Austro-Hungarian times. Other than that, as I said, all I know about this is the little I've read and heard in such discussions.


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## sokol

Netko, I am also familiar with ancient forms of greeting used in the Austro-Hungarian Empire - I would be surprised if "bocken" were a kind of greeting used by the upper and middle class.
If anything, it could be an exotic regional dialect version (but honestly, I doubt it: "mein Bocken" as "my bow - meine Verbeugung" doesn't make sense to me, nor would anybody say "meine Verbeugung", which means "my bow" while "Bocken" as verb used as a noun doesn't make sense at all in this context).

Anyway, as said, please open a new topic if you think you found some sources which could help us establish its etymology - and in EHL forum. 

So let's get back to what this thread is about - and thus to "bog/bok": is it used both ways, for greeting and when parting? I think you haven't mentioned that yet.


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## Majalj

!netko! said:


> Btw, DenisBiH, so, in Bosnia, you can use "ćao" when meeting someone, not just at parting?


 
Yes.  However, it is colloquial - I would never use it to greet e.g. my teacher, especially not an older one.


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## dark_helmut

In Serbia (meeting/parting):

Official: Dobar dan! / Doviđenja! („Do viđenja“, until we see each other again.) _Dobro jutro_ in the morning, _dobro veče_ in the evening. _Dobra noć_ in the late night is occasionally used, but _dobro veče_ is more common.

Casual greetings: Zdravo! Ćao! Pozdrav! Gde si! (literally 'Where are you?') Casual partings: Zdravo! Ćao! Pozdrav! Vidimo se!

Archaic: Pomaže Bog! ('God help you!' Response is: Bog ti pomogao! 'God help you (too)!) / Zbogom! ('With God!')

'Ćao', from Italian _ciao_ became the most popular greeting at meeting and parting.


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## dark_helmut

dark_helmut said:


> Gde si! (literally 'Where are you?')



This reminded me of a foreign student of Serbian language who wasn't familiar with Serbian slang. Greeting 'Gde si!' is in a form of hypothetical question and it confused him greatly at first, because he understood the words, but found them senseless.


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## ilocas2

Czech greetings:

standard:
meeting
Dobrý den - Good day
Dobré ráno - Good morning
Dobré jitro - Good morning
Dobrý večer - Good evening
Dobrou noc - Good night (when someone is going to sleep)

parting
Nashledanou
Naviděnou

colloquial:
meeting
Ahoj
Čau - from Italian Ciao
Čus - from German Tschüss
Zdar

parting
Ahoj
Čau
Čus


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## vladd

Macedonian:
meeting: здраво, добро утро, добар ден, добра вечер
parting: довидување, догледање, пријатно, збогум, поздрав, чао (jargon)


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## iobyo

vladd said:


> Macedonian:
> meeting: здраво, добро утро, добар ден, добр*o*вечер (one word)
> parting: до*_*видување, до*_*гледање, пријатно, збогум, поздрав, чао (jargon)



Just a few corrections.


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