Question about Hey.

[PeteCampbellsRecedingHairline]

Hopefully this is the right topic. DS and I were wondering about Hey- where it originated and which decade/era it really came into use, especially in America.

I've always presumed it was a mid 20th century word but have no basis for that.

You need to go to the library and look it up in the OED. If I had one I'd look it up for you, but I don't, so no help at all, really.

Hey (as in a cry to call attention) is first recorded in OED from 1225

(Those dusty tomes come in handy!)

In Sweden, hello is hej (pronounced hi).
I imagine it would have travelled to the Americas with the european settlers.

Thanks everyone. I didn't realise it was so old.

In the Southern US, it has long had a particular usage not generally common to the rest of the country: as a word of greeting used instead of hi or hello as in "hey, y'all."

I have noticed from Borgen that Danish for "bye bye"is "hi hi". Maybe a bit like the Italians using Ciao for both hello and goodbye.

Though Brazilians (who spell it "tchau" ) only use it for goodbye, much to the embarrassment of my Italian speaking friend who realised he'd been greeting Brazilians with a cheery "bye!" for a whole week...

I don't speak Swedish but knowing quite a few Swedes and having worked in an office full of them for several years, I have to say that "hej" is pronounced "hey" (and not "hi").

I think hey for hello is catching on here (thanks to Friends, initially).

What about hey, nonny nonny?

Cotedazur perhaps the pronunciation changes across Sweden.
I know that I worked in an area of France where the word 'oui' was pronounced 'way' rather than 'wee'.

Re 'oui' - A short whee is the correct pronunciation, but in everyday language, many people say whay. Just like the correct pronunciation of 'no' is no and 'yes' is yes but you hear people say naah and yah or yeah all the time.

I don't know if there is a dialect of Swedish where 'hej' is pronounced hi but I have never heard it from the 100 or so Swedish people I have known.

I asked a Swedish friend and she says 'hej' is indeed pronounced hey in Swedish.

She says it is pronounced hi in Norwegian.