Friday, December 12, 2008
Hallochen?
Damon and I were out the other day and heard a woman say "Hallochen!" to a fellow employee coming on shift. -Chen is a diminutive ending, so adding it to hallo (hello) just makes it cuter, I guess. But, we had never ever heard it before in the last two years! Then at work only a day or two later, one of Damon's coworkers walked in and said it. What's going on here? Is there some pop culture reference to this word that's spreading it? Could it really be that in over two years it just took us this long to ever notice it? Or maybe it's not very usual and it was just coincidence to hear it twice in such a short period of time?
Hallöchen!
ReplyDeleteWith extra stress and prolonged pronunciation on the first syllable, and then the last two lickety-split, right? Kinda like
H A L L L L---öchen!
I think it's one of things where you learn a new word — like Einlauf — and then you hear it like 10 times in the next 3 days. It was always there, waiting for you to discover it.
Hallochen always reminds me of an old Simpsons episode - I think Lisa Kudrow is the guest - no matter who is saying it. They use 'hallochen' as the the translation of a valley-girl 'hello'. But I don't hear it all that often in real life.
ReplyDeleteIt is also a bit dialect, but is most used by pathetic would-be hip individuals who watch an excessive amount of TV.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, I use it a lot.
I asked the German about this and he said, Heck yeah. There are a lot of words you can do that with. Never heard it myself, though I have heard a lot of Tchussi!
ReplyDelete@Vailian: LOL :-) do you also use "alles klärchen"?
ReplyDelete(Boy, does that grate on my nerves...)
there's also hallo-le - pretty much falls into the same category
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the awesomely cheesy Dr. Oetker's Wölkchen commerical I saw a few years ago. That's when I learned about words like: Hüngerchen, Problemchen, and Becherchen (Becher).
ReplyDeleteNow that I think about it, I HAD heard it before on the German transcriptions of South Park ("Hallöchen Kinder!"). It just took hearing it out of context to make me recognize it. I haven't ever heard Hallöle in Heidelberg, yet, but just the other day, we did hear someone say Tchüssle, which is just as awesome.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, Hallöchen has been around for eons. Also listen for the extra cutesy "Halli hallo hallöchen!" :-)
ReplyDeleteMy MIL calls our cat "Katerchen"... using her best "talking to a widdle kitty" voice, of course.
ReplyDeleteI've heard a lot of the -chen here in Berlin. For all kinds of things. Sometimes I hear "Hundchen", and once I even heard a "Klausichen" as a woman greeted a hubby-looking guy at the airport.
I also think that the reason you hear it more now is not only because it is now something you are attuned to, but it might be holiday related. You know, people are in better moods, etc.
Oh, and another...
Tschüssi!
Well, as this is South Germany, the -chen diminuation forms are rarely used. And in Heidelberg we're still a bit too far north for the -le/li forms ;-)
ReplyDeleteI've never heard that before, but I have heard 'Tcheusschen'
ReplyDeleteThat's always the way when you hear something new - you're so much more aware of it, that you seem to hear it constantly.
ReplyDeleteI've heard the 'Hallöchen' around here every so often. I kinda like it. It sounds like a German 'howdy' to me. I also hear 'halli-hallo.' Ever heard that one? Might just be Oberpfälzisch.
I don't know about anyone else, but I kind of love the idea of being able to turn just about anything into something cutesy, just by adding -chen to the end. So useful!
ReplyDeleteHalli Hallo
ReplyDeletejust another version, but probably more antiquated and not on the same "chen" track.
Everyone here seems to say "Moin" which I thought is short for "Guten Morgen" but isn't. It's said at any time of the day.
Yeah, they use "Moin" quite a bit up here where I live, but it's mostly used by people from Friesland and Anonymous is right, it doesn't mean "Guten Morgen" as some people think.
ReplyDeleteHere's a little Wikipedia blurb on it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moin
Anyone else experiencing massive diminutive envy right now?? Attempts to make diminutives in English only end badly, with horrible words like "hubby" (it pains me to type it!) resulting.
ReplyDeleteAs an American, I always feel quite able to use -le as a diminutive. As in: bubile, babyle,sweetile,kittyle, (Thing1)ile. Sometimes an ending vowel is dropped before the diminutive ending.
ReplyDeleteWhen I am being "stern" (as opposed to really unhappy) with the kids, I use "ski". Sometimes that sounds quite strange.
Update... today I heard "Hallochen" uttered to me first thing in the morning by a radio jock.
ReplyDeleteMoin ;), anyone using “hallöchen” (or any derivations) in terms of a greeting someone should be immediately taken into custody by ‘German language police’. At least for me, this is no-go; I'd neither heard nor used it. There is, however, another meaning of it: to express some kind of astonishment, like “[ja] hallöchen, was/wen haben wir denn hier?” (this also works with a simple “hallo” of course.)
ReplyDeleteI guess that means you don't know "Guts Nächtle" either? ;)
ReplyDeleteMy host mom just used 'hallochen' to answer the phone (usually she says 'hallo, hallooo!') and I'm in love. This is better than realizing 'tchussi' was a thing.
ReplyDeleteAdding -chen to EVERYTHING now. :)