(no subject)

[margaritka.livejournal.com]

So, my phone bill arrived a few days ago with some interesting
phrases on the back, part of their "let them hear your hello"
long distance campaign.

For the Russian (I assume...) was written, здравей. Is that in
any way a version of "hello"?

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

That's probably Bulgarian, certainly not Russian. The alphabet is the same.

[margaritka.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I wonder now if it is another Slavic language. Then again, that's assuming the phone company is even correct to begin with!

[avysk]

It is 'hello' in Bulgarian.

[brat-pushkin.livejournal.com]

It's not. In Russian, you just say "алло" - it's a borrowing from English (a bit transformed though).

[margaritka.livejournal.com]

That I know. Does здравей have any meaning in Russian?

[brat-pushkin.livejournal.com]

No, it doesn't. oryx_and_crake is probably right about Bulgarian.

[icamel.livejournal.com]

He is definitely right. http://www.novatv.bg/bg/shows/view/6/

[alamar.livejournal.com]

Pronounced more like "аллё" these days.

[spiritrc.livejournal.com]

That depends. I believe it has always been pronounced both ways, 'алло' and 'аллё' (or even 'алё'). I tend to say 'алло'.

[claire-chan.livejournal.com]

Back in my first days of studying Russian formally, I learned it was здравствуйте, although informally здравствуй could be acceptable.

[freedomcry.livejournal.com]

It's a regular Bulgarian greeting word; I'm not sure it's even correctly used if they wanted the "phone" word for hello. Bulgarians say "ало" on the phone.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

+1

[j-air.livejournal.com]

what's the contex? It might be comparative degree from the adjective здравый (meaning healthy, sound,sober)

[darth-biomech.livejournal.com]

Maybe, it deformed "здраве", from something like "Здраве будь, боярин!"?

[aida-darzieva.livejournal.com]

Basically, the Russian "Здравствуйте" derives from the old Russian "здравие" (that's a noun), and in modern Russian that's "здоровье". So the idea is that when you greet someone you wish them to be healthy. The word "здравей" is definitely not Russian, although it may come from a Slavic language and it has the same root.
Less formal variants of "Здравствуйте" are: "Здрасьте", "Здо'рово".