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''Moin'', ''moi'' or ''mojn'' is a
''Moin'' is used at all times of day, not just in the morning (see Etymology section below). The reduplicated form ''moin moin'' is often heard,Plattmaster.de
Moinmoin - wat heet dat?
Retrieved 2011-05-31. although some authors claim it is regarded by locals as tourists' usage.
''Moin'', ''moi'' or ''mojn'' is a Low German
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, familycolor = Indo-European
, fam2 = Germanic
, fam3 = West Germanic
, fam4 = North Sea Germanic
, ancestor = Old Saxon
, ancestor2 = Middle L ...
, Frisian, High German ( or ), Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
() and Kashubian Kashubian can refer to:
* Pertaining to Kashubia, a region of north-central Poland
* Kashubians, an ethnic group of north-central Poland
* Kashubian language
See also
*Kashubian alphabet
The Kashubian or Cassubian alphabet (''kaszëbsczi alf ...
() greeting from East Frisia
East Frisia or East Friesland (german: Ostfriesland; ; stq, Aastfräislound) is a historic region in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West Frisia ...
, Northern Germany
Northern Germany (german: link=no, Norddeutschland) is a linguistic, geographic, socio-cultural and historic region in the northern part of Germany which includes the coastal states of Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lower Saxony an ...
, the eastern and northern Netherlands, Southern Jutland in Denmark and parts of Kashubia.
It means " hello" and, in some places, " goodbye" as well.
Usage
''Moin'' is used at all times of day, not just in the morning (see Etymology section below). The reduplicated form ''moin moin'' is often heard,Plattmaster.deMoinmoin - wat heet dat?
Retrieved 2011-05-31. although some authors claim it is regarded by locals as tourists' usage.
Etymology
Many people think that ''moin'' derives from various regional pronunciations of ("good morning"), which tend to alter, vocalise, or skip ''rg''. However, the word may actually also derive from the Dutch, Frisian, and Low German word , meaning "beautiful" or "good". Similar forms in Low Saxon are , , . Possibly, as is common in etymology, one origin is correct (either from or ) but spread thanks to its oral assimilation with the other term. The Luxembourgishcognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
of the word is , which can mean either "hi" or "morning" ( means "good morning!"). Interestingly, in the bordering area of Germany with Luxembourg, it common to use , instead of .
Unlike , can be used 24 hours a day. It is semantically equivalent to the Low Saxon ( Plattdüütsch) greeting and replaced it in many areas. In Hessen, is used for hello and good bye, but is solely used for good bye. The double form is also used as an all day greeting in for example Flensburg
Flensburg (; Danish, Low Saxon: ''Flensborg''; North Frisian: ''Flansborj''; South Jutlandic: ''Flensborre'') is an independent town (''kreisfreie Stadt'') in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg is the centre of the ...
that belonged to Denmark until 1864.
In Finland, a similar greeting () is used for "hello", "hi" in the
Finnish language
Finnish ( endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish ...
. However, is used as a good bye, similarly to "bye bye" in English, even with a similar intonation. Both are particularly typical of Southwestern Finnish, but through internal migration spread to the capital and with the help of TV to the rest of the language area. 's use is identical to that of : diminutive forms and , and duplication as a good bye. Southwest Finland traded with Hanseatic cities, so it is plausible that the greeting was borrowed from their dialects.
is found in some parts of Finland and has also been used in the same way as . It is theorised that it comes from Tampere due to its large number of foreign workers and like has been borrowed from morrow and abbreviated.
is also used in Dutch Low Saxon
Low Saxon, also known as West Low German ( nds, Nedersassisch, Nedersaksies; nl, Nedersaksisch) are a group of Low German dialects spoken in parts of the Netherlands, northwestern Germany and southern Denmark (in North Schleswig by parts of th ...
dialects in the eastern part of the provinces Groningen
Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...
and Drenthe
Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Nov ...
.
See also
* MoinMoin ( wiki software named after the greeting)References
{{reflist German words and phrases Kashubian language Greeting words and phrases Culture of Schleswig-Holstein stq:Moin