Re: Humorous Mistake on Goethe Institute Poster


<hanumizzle@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1152851491.261675.320620@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Paul J Kriha wrote:
<garabik-news-2005-05@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:e9524g$tq5$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
hanumizzle@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/5900/00002395mp.jpg

Notice that the deferential Korean greeting in Hangeul, rendered in
Latin script as 'annyeong ha shim ni kha', is definitely upside
down...I make a point of showing this to anyone who is at least half
Korean.

I told the Institute about it, but despite what the picture suggests, I
wasn't nasty about it. I'm on their mailing list now to boot. :)

And, if that Dobrý Den is supposed to be Czech, then the 'Den' should
not be capitalized.

What if 'Den' is the other person's name? :-))

Anyway, what is the origin of all these greetings, which seem very
similar? Dobry den, dobar dan, etc...the only one I really knew was the
aforementioned Czech greeting; I suppose the remainder also belong to
Slavic languages spoken in Eastern Europe?

No, it's a hotch-potch of different languages, only some of which
are European. Only two of them are from Eastern Europe.
Four of them are "good day"s in various Slavic languages, i.e.
Polish, Bulgarian(?), Czech, and Russian.

I am not sure what you mean by "origin" when you ask about
the origins of those greetings. Would their origins be much different
from the origin of English "good day"?

BTW,
"dobrý" (good) is a masculine singular adjective in nominative declension.
"den" (day) is a masculine singular noun in nominative.
It's a short version of "Pr^eji va'm dobry' den", i.e. "I wish you good day".

pjk


.