Handout 2. Greetings: Language and Culture

* Fill in the blanks with the word beginning with the given letter, and arrange the given words in the parenthesis correctly. 

               

          Greetings: Language and Culture

 

   Most human interaction starts with a basic

 

greeting. A main  function of greetings is (1)

 

_________  (make, someone,  to, aware of) 

 

another person’s existence. This comes from the fact

 

that human beings are social (2)b     n              ,

 

and thus have an almost inherent need to

 

communicate with each other.

  

    Greetings are, (3)h            , not simply words and phrases. They also reflect culture and history. For example, one culture’s most common greeting may (4)p          r                     to an ancient god or king, while another culture’s may (5)r          t      social status. Let’s take a look at greetings found in different languages.

 

     In speech, one of the most well-known greetings in the world is “hello.” It is used throughout the English-speaking world. In addition, some greetings in other languages are so (6)s                 to “hello” — for example, Germans often say “hallo”  (/halo/) — that (7)___________________ (difficult, tell, to, is, it) the difference between them. But do you actually know (8) ___________________ (means, the greeting, what, “hello”), or where it comes from?  Some say that the word comes from an old form of German “halâ, holâ” (/hala hola/), which was used to draw people’s (9)a               . Others connect it to the French word “holà” (/ola/), which roughly means “Hey, there!”