Subject: Re: [lojban] Re: zoi gy. Good Morning! .gy.

From: Ivan A Derzhanski <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 02 Dec 2000 09:13:19 +0200

John Cowan wrote:
> Ivan A Derzhanski wrote:
> > Contrariwise, in Russian _dobroe utro_ can't be a wish,
> > because then the case of the phrase would have to be
> > genitive, and it is actually nominative/accusative,
> > so the whole is a statement of fact if anything.
> 
> This reminds me of my repeated observation that Russian-speakers
> here in the U.S. often respond to "How are you?" with a personal
> medical report.

Whereas foreign students in the US (I used to be one, as you
may recall) often find that Americans are the rudest lot ever:
they ask you how you are and then move on without listening to
the answer.

> > Many languages have calqued the Western time-of-day greetings,
> > but considerably fewer use them as partings also.
> 
> It's an interesting oddity that "Good night" is only a parting;
> the corresponding greeting has to be "Good evening" no matter how
> late it is.

Bulgarian has a full set of `good morning/day/evening', used
only as greetings. By contrast, the parting `good night' is
_leka nosht_, (lit. `light night').

Hosts of night-time 'phone-ins on the radio, however, seem to
have got into the habit of using the odd-sounding _dobra nosht_
(lit. `good night') as a greeting. Callers sometimes respond
in the same way, but more often they say `good evening', though
it be past midnight.

--Ivan