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From: iiasa!wnp@relay.eu.net (wolf paul)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Answering Phrase
Message-ID: <11378@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 26 Aug 90 13:53:33 GMT
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Reply-To: wolf paul <iiasa!wnp@relay.eu.net>
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 597, Message 11 of 11


In article <11312@accuvax.nwu.edu> motcid!king@uunet.uu.net (Steven
King) writes:

)I was recently in Bangkok for a few weeks, and found the people there
)have the annoying habit of always answering the phone with "Hello" --
)regardless of whether or not they spoke English!  I don't speak a word
)of Thai, and I couldn't keep from expecting that if the phone was
)answered in English then the person on the other end should UNDERSTAND
)English.  Linguistic prejudice, I know.

That's right, since the assumption that the phrase "H[aeu]llo",
pronounced only slightly differently in each case, is English, is
fallacious.  I know of at least three other languages which have that
word, meaning essentially the same thing, and being used to anser the
phone in each of these languages.


Wolf N. Paul, IIASA, A - 2361 Laxenburg, Austria, Europe
PHONE: +43-2236-71521-465     FAX: +43-2236-71313      UUCP: uunet!iiasa.at!wnp
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