Moin

''Moin'', ''moi'' or ''mojn'' is a Low German, Frisian, High German ( or ), Danish () () greeting from East Frisia, Northern Germany, the eastern and northern Netherlands, Southern Jutland in Denmark and parts of Kashubia in northern Poland. The greeting is also used in Finnish.

It means "hello" and, in some places, " goodbye" too.

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, although some authors claim it is regarded by locals as tourists' usage.

Etymology

Due to the similarity of the words one might 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 (from or ) but spread thanks to its oral assimilation with the other term.

The Luxembourgish cognate of the word is , which can mean either "hi" or "morning" ( means "good morning!"). Interestingly, in the area of Germany bordering Luxembourg, it is common to use , instead of .

Unlike , can be used at any time of 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 that belonged to Denmark until 1864.

In

Finland, a similar greeting () is used for "hello", "hi" in the Finnish language. It may have been borrowed from German in the 19th century. The earliest records of the word occur in Southeast Finland, which had strong connection through Viipuri to partially German-speaking Estonia and Latvia. 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.

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 dialects in the eastern part of the provinces Groningen and Drenthe.

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