The Welsh nation can legitimately claim to possess the oldest living cultural language in Europe. Our earliest poetry dates back to the sixth century AD.
The Welsh are of Celtic origins.These people of Indo-European derivation. They conqued Europe in the pre-Roman times but were them-selves conquered by the Romans. Their language might have died out altogether had some tribes not travelled north to the British Isles. One branch settled in what is now Brittany, England and Wales, and these were called Brythoniaid, Britons. Another branch went to Ireland and they were called Goidels. The present-day Welsh word for an Irishman is still Gwyddel.
The Romans followed the Celts into the British Isles but failed to stamp out their civilisation and culture as throughly on the Britons as they had done throughout the rest of Europe. So when the Romans left our shores, the Celtic tongue still existed, even though it had been modified to absorb many Latin names. Interesting to note that the word braich (arm) derives from the Latin bracchia, whereas coes (leg) derives from acient Celtic word cosca. Certain French and Welsh words eg. ffenestr (window) and French fentre; porth (doorway) and porte; un,dau,tri (one two three) and un,deux,trois.

Diolch-Thanks
Dioch yn fawr -Thank you very much.
Dim diolch -No thank you
-------
We'll keep a welcome in the hill side

I know I'm not spelling these right, but they sound like:

jenkooya - "thank you" in Polish

obrigado - "thank you" in Portuguese

Gee thank you everyone, this is great. Got out my pen to jot these all down then remembered the print button. D'oh. I know where to come if I need answers to anything. The very helpful and friendly sharers of wisdom at funtrivia forums.



Jacqui

I had to call my cousin, who remembers my gran speaking some of the Cornish language . She says they are trying to revive it now and there is a web site , but Thankyou is' Marasta vay'.
I found a site and it is spelt Murrasta why! or Gromercy both mean
Thank you

I think I should start with my native language Lithuanian (it’s a little country in Eastern Europe). It belongs to the Baltic branch of Indo-European languages, some linguists even think it is one of the oldest survying Indo-European languages in the world.
So that’s how we say:

Hello: there are many versions, most common is “LABAS” - pronounced like labbahs . It also can be SVEIKAS (to male) sway-kahs or SVEIKA (to female). Sway-kah
Thank you - ACIU aachyoo
Good-bye - SUDIEV sudee-ehv .

Also in Russian: (I can’t write here Cyrillic, so I will provide just Roman transcription)
Hello: PRIVET pree-vyet
Thank you: SPASIBO spahseebah
Bye: POKA Poh-kah
Good-bye: DO SVIDANIYA doh-svee-dah-niya

Danish:
Hello: HEJ hi
Thank you: TAK tack
Good-bye: FARVEL fah-vel

Japanese:
also Roman transcription, can’t write kanji or hiragana here. There are also differences, especially in degrees of politeness. But these are most common.
hello: KONNICHIWA kohn-nee-chee-wa
thank you: ARIGATOU ah-ri-ga-to-oh
good-bye: SAYONARA sigh-oh-na-ra

Well, in Prince Edward Island, we have a french community, And I took the language training for a while. They say here sa va 'flip' ever hear that any where else?

And of course here is howsitgoing?

Nothing all that exciting from us english!!

We already have "thank-you" in Polish but:

Dzien dobry (jin dobray)is hello
Do vidzenia is goodbye (I think that may be spelt wrong)

The most important expressions you'll need in Polish are nie rozumiem (I don't understand) and Na zdrowie (Cheers! They are HARDENED drinkers and will expect you to join in ;-) )

Welsh for thank you has already been done (Diolch) but "please" is "os gwelwch yn dda" (pronounced ossss, gwel-uchhhh un thar) and there are lots of ways of saying hello, but Good Morning is "Bore da" (bor-eh dar), Good Afternoon is "Prynhawn da" (prin-how-n dar), Good Evening is "Noswaith dda" (noss-whyth thar) and Good Night is "Nos da" (noss dar). Phew !!!

I know SOME Thai, but I think it changes either when ADDRESSING men or women or speaking TO men or women. Hello is pronounced "Sa-wah-day Kap" and Thank You is "Kap kun Kap". There is also a lot of emphasis is different places with Thai.

The most important one in Welsh is- Iechid da, meaning Good Health or Cheers.
tecwyn

[ May 22, 2002, 07:46 AM: Message edited by: tecwyn ]

In BENGALI:

Hello: Assalamu 'alaikum.
(This is the Islamic way of greeting and farewell so you'll find it in many languages also.)
It means 'peace be upon you'. The response is Walaikum assalam, which means 'and upon you be peace'.

Thank you: Dhonobad (similar to Hindi)

Goodbye: Allah'hafez or Khoda'hafez or Assalamu 'alaikum (see: hello)

In INDONESIAN:
Hello: Selamat pagi (for morning - dawn to 11:00am), Selamat siang (for early afternoon - 11:00am - 3:00pm), Selamat Sore (late afternoon - 3:00pm - dusk), Selamat Malam (evening)

Thank you: Terima Kasih

Goodbye: Sampai nanti (like see you later). Sampai jumpa (if you will be seeing them soon but not so soon)

As French is pretty common or familiar to lots of us I will go for the local language in Brittany, BRETON. This is a celtic language similar to Cornish, Scots Gaelic, Irish, etc.

In BRETON you say:

"Degemar mat", "demat" or "Devezh mat" for hello, or good day, or "Salud" for a more friendly hi
"Kenavo" for goodbye,
"kenavo ar c'hentañ" for see you (next time),
"Noz vat" for good night,
"Chañs vat" for good luck
"Mar plij" is please, and "Trugarez" is thank you.

Most of these phrases are in common usage in Brittany, and there is a huge interest and pride in their culture and language in general. Many children are educated in bilingual schools, to keep the language alive, although by and large it is not spoken as the daily language anywhere nowadays. Many Bretons are completely bilingual, and proud of their heritage.

How bout good old Aussie strine?

G'day
Owyagoin'
Didgaavagoodweegend?

After visiting Romania for a month with friends whose family lives there, I was forced to pick up at least a few basic words...

Multemesc: Thank you. Formal.
Merci: Thank you. Informal.

Ciao: hello and goodbye. Informal.
Salut: Hello. Formal.
La reverede: Goodbye. Formal.

Va rog: Please. Formal.
Te rog: Please. Informal.

Da: Yes.
Nu: No.


And that is how I managed to get by in Romania for a month! Luckily, some of the family were fluent in English!!

I noticed someone said that the Germans say 'ciao' for bye. It's true, they do. But they also corrupt the spelling... My German friends write "Tschau" at the end of e-mails. It's the same word, but Germanised. (< is that a word? Apologies if it isn't.)

I don't think anyone's mentioned that a lot of English people use 'cheers' for Thankyou.

Screaming Maltese people would conventionally use these forms.

Hello - bongu
Yes - iva
No - le
Please - jekk joghgbok (or jekkigh)
Thankyou - grazziil (or grazzi)

And my personal favourite...

Excuse me - skuzi (pronounced 'Skewzy')

I think we just steal from other languages.

In Hebrew:

Hello: 'Shalom'
Goodbye: Either 'Shalom' or 'Lehitraot' (the second is more like: I'll be seeing you)
Peace: 'Shalom'
Thank you: 'Toda'

www.elite.net/~runner/jennifers/
this site has hundreds of expressions like those commonly needed including hello, thank you, etc.
the number of languages covered range from about 150 on up to 800.
i think you will find this site fairly comprehensive and quite interesting--at least that is my hope.