Language changes rapidly these days, which is (mostly) fine by me. What concerns me, though, is that spelling is becoming too fixed. For this, I blame ze spellcheck. In a recent manuscript I used the word 'prised', as in 'I prised the lid off the jam jar', or whatever. A red underline rapped me over the knuckles. Ouch.
Anyhow, being in need of some humour, I've been rereading Georgette Heyer, this particular book published in the 1940s. 'Hallo' came a greeting, and I thought, why can't I use that spelling anymore? Or, not in North America. It sounds different from 'hello'. Both, of course, can be and are used humourously as in 'hel-lo!' or, as that old English comedian Jimmy Edwards used to say on the radio in a very suggestive way "'allo, 'allo, 'allo"
He used to play polo in Richmond Park and us ballet students used to wander by occasionally.
Anyhow, I digress... and in more than one direction, because I was thinking of greetings in general. The other day I was taken by surprise when a woman greeted me with 'Good morning'. It left me smiling, though. And I thought, with some nostalgia, how nice it used to be to mark the passing of the day with the progression from morning, through noon and afternoon, to evening and night. I confess I've fallen away from this way of greeting. Maybe I should revert. Or would that sound and be too old-fashioned?
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When I met the riding club one morning when out walking with my father, we greeted every one of them with a personal "good morning", and there were at least twenty of them. Anyone met on the path was greeted the same way. If we tried that in the city, we'd expire before lunch. But I like being friendly, must be a small town person at heart.
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