Editing Greeting (section)

==Spoken greeting==
A spoken greeting or verbal greeting is a [[convention (norm)|customary]] or [[ritual]]ised word or phrase used to introduce oneself or to greet someone. Greeting habits are highly culture- and situation-specific and may change within a culture depending on social status.

As with gestures, some languages and cultures use the same word as both greeting and [[parting tradition|farewell]].  Examples of [[Colexification|colexified]] greetings are "Good day" in English, "Drud" in [[Persian language|Persian]],  "[[Sat Sri Akaal|Sat Shri Akaal]]" in [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]], "[[As-salamu alaykum]]" in [[Arabic]], "[[Aloha]]" in [[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]], "[[Shalom]]" in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], "[[Namaste]]" in [[Hindi]], "Ayubowan" in [[Sri Lanka]], "Sawatdi" in [[Thai language|Thai]] and "[[Ciao]]" in [[Italian language|Italian]].

In [[English language|English]], some common verbal greetings are:

* "[[Hello]]", "[[Wiktionary:hi|hi]]", and "[[wiktionary:hey#Interjection|hey]]" &mdash; General verbal greetings.  The latter two are less formal.  According to the [[Oxford English Dictionary]], the first citation of "hey" is found as early as 1225, and is defined as "''a call to attract attention . . . an exclamation to express exultation . . . or surprise.''"  The English language's other monosyllabic greeting, "Hi", is actually much newer, having become popular in the [[1920]]s. Many languages use the word as a greeting, though a variety of spellings exist, including "hei" and "hej".
* "Good morning", "good afternoon", "good evening" &mdash; More formal verbal greetings used at the appropriate time of day.  The similar "good night" and "good day" are more commonly used as phrases of parting rather than greeting, although in [[Australian English]] "G'day" is a very common greeting.
* "What's up?", "How's it going?" and "What's happening?" &mdash; informal greetings used frequently
* "How do you do?"  Has two usages, depending on the country. For example in Ireland it should be treated as a salutation, whereas in England it should be treated as a question that requires an answer.
* "Howdy" &mdash; Informal greeting. Derived from "how do you do," it is common in the rural regions of the United States.

===Voicemail greetings===
Voicemail greetings are pre-recorded messages that are automatically played to callers when the [[answering machine]] or [[voicemail]] system answers the call. Some systems allow for different greetings to be played to different callers.