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GOOD MORNING!

in 141 languages



My Turkish friends Aynur and Zübeyir
at their "Maksim" café in Wimbledon, south London

As an internationalist, I would like to welcome you to my web site by greeting you in your own language, but I don't know what time of day it is for you and I don't know which language you normally speak. So I'm going to assume it's morning and, if it isn't, then never mind. As we say in English: 'It's the thought that counts'.

One cautionary note: There are often several ways to say "Good morning" in any particular language. For instance, in Czech I know three ways. Often the difference is between an expression that strictly refers to first thing in the morning and a more general term applying to the whole of the morning or even the whole of the day. Another difference is that, in many countries and cultures, the greeting used is not so much strictly "Good morning" as a kind of general salutation often referring to God. Language is not a science and, on this page, I've tried to give the version of "Good morning" that is specific to early in the day.

I hope that below you will find the greeting "Good morning" in your own language. If not, please e-mail me, advise me how to say "Good morning" in your language and I'll add it to this page.

Meanwhile, I was delighted in August 2003 to receive the following e-mail from a couple of teachers in the Los Angeles South Central district:

"Hi there! Thank you so very much for listing so many ways to say good morning. My room mate and I are teachers here in Los Angeles. She will be using your "good mornings" to teach her international 2nd graders (7 years olds) a different way to say good morning every week. Thank you again. Most sincerely, Gertie (and Lisa)".

It certainly is a small world - although, as one wag once told me, I wouldn't want to paint it!


One of my many friends from other countries:
Yoko Ogawa from Japan with two of her little friends

Afrikaans Goeie môre
Albanian Mirëmëngjes
Amharic Endemn adderu
Arabic Sabah-il-kheir
Aramaic Yasetel liesbukh
Armenian Bari luys
Assamese Xu Probhaat
Assyrian Kedamtookh brikhta
Azerbaijani Sabahiniz Xeyr
Bamougoum Oli yah
Bangla Shuvo sokal
Basque Egun on
Belarussian Dobray ranitsy
Bemba Mwashibukeni
Bengali Shu-probhaat
Bisaya Maayong adlaw
Bosnian Dobro jutro
Bulgarian Dobro utro
Cantonese Zou san
Catalan Bon dia
Cebuano Maayong buntag!
Chichewa Mwadzuka bwanji
Chinese: Mandarin Zao shang hao
Cornish Myttin da
Corse Bun ghjiornu
Creole Bonjou
Croatian Dobro jutro
Czech Dobré ráno
Danish God morgen
Dari Sob Bakhaer
Divehi Baajjaveri hedhuneh
Dutch Goedemorgen
English Good morning
Esperanto Bonan matenon
Estonian Tere hommikust
Etsakor Naigbia
Fanti Me ma wo akye
Farsi Sobh bekheyr
Fijian Sa Yadra
Filipino Magandang umaga po
Finnish Hyvää huomenta
Flemish Goeie morgen
French Bonjour
Frisian Goeie moarn
Galician Bos dias
Georgian Dila mushwidobisa
German Guten Morgen
Greek Kali mera
Greenlandic Iterluarit
Gujarati Subh Prabhat
Hakka On zoh
Hausa Inaa kwana
Hawaiian Aloha kakahiaka
Hebrew Boker tov
Hiligaynon Maayong aga
Hindi Shubh prabhat
Hungarian Jo reggelt
Icelandic Gódan daginn
Ilocano Naimbag nga Aldaw
Indonesian Selamat pagi
Irish Gaelic Dia duit ar maidin
Italian Buon giorno
Japanese Ohayo gozaimaz
Kannada Shubhodaya
Kapampangan Mayap a abak
Kazakh Kairly Tan
Khmer Arrun Suo Sdey
Kimeru Muga rukiiri
Kinyarwanda Muraho
Konkani Dev Tuka Boro Dis Divum
Korean Annyunghaseyo
Kurdish Badini Spede bash
Kurdish Sorani Beyani bash
Lao Sabaidee
Latvian Labrit
Lithuanian Labas reytas
Lozi U zuhile
Luganda Wasuze otyano
Luo Oyawore
Luxembourg Gudde moien
Macedonian Dobro utro
Malayalam Suprabhatham
Malaysian Selamat pagi
Maltese Għodwa it-tajba
Manx Moghrey mie
Maori Ata marie
Mapudungún Marí-marí
Marathi Suprabhat
Mongolian Öglouny mend
Navajo Yá'át'ééh abíní
Ndebele Livukenjani
Nepali Subha prabhat
Northern Sotho Thobela
Norwegian God morgen
Nsenga Mwauka tyani
Owambo Wa lalapo
Pashto Sahar de pa Khair
Persian Subbakhair
Polish Dzien dobry
Polynesian Ia ora na
Portuguese Bom dia
Punjabi Sat Shri Akal
Rapa Nui Iorana
Romanian Buna dimineata
Russian Dobraye ootra
Samoan Talofa lava
Sanskrit Suprabhataha
Sardinian Bona dia
Serbian Dobro jutro
Shona Mangwanani
Sinhala Suba Udesanak Wewa
Slovak Dobré ráno
Slovenian Dobro jutro
Somalian Subax wanaagsan
Southern Sotho Dumela
Spanish Buenos dias
Swahili Habari za asubuhi
Swazi Sawubona
Swedish God morgon
Tagalog Magandang umaga
Taiwanese Gau cha
Tamil Kaalai Vannakkam
Telugu Subhodayamu
Tetum Dader diak
Thai Aroon-Sawass
Tibetan Nyado delek
Tonga Mwabuka buti
Tswana Dumela
Turkish Günaydin
Turkmen Ertiringiz haiyirli bolsun
Ukrainian Dobri ranok
Urdu Subha Ba-khair
Uzbek Khairli kun
Vietnamese Xin chao
Welsh Bore da
Wolof Nakasubasi
Xhosa Bhota
Xitsonga Avuxeni
Yoruba E karo
Zulu Sawubona
!Kung san Tuwa

An addition to this list of oral greetings is "Good morning" in American Sign Language.

According to the best estimates, there are now about 6,000 languages in the world, although some 5,000 of them have fewer than 100,000 speakers. In my own city of London, there are 193 languages spoken.

The most widely spoken languages are Chinese Mandarin (885M), English (508M), Hindustani (497M), Spanish (392M) and Russian (277M).

No of speakers No of languages % of languages
More than 100 million 9 0.15
10-99.9 million 72 1.2
1-9.9 million 239 3.9
100,000-999,999 795 13.1
10,000-99,999 1,605 26.5
1,000-9,999 1,782 29.4
100-999 1,075 17.7
10-99 302 5.0
1-9 181 3.0

Source: Summer Institute of Linguistics, "Ethnologue", February 1999

ROGER DARLINGTON

Last modified on 26 February 2022

Link: Greetings in over 1600 languages click here

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