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April 29, 2005
What's in a name?
As many folks know, Jambo is swahili for hello. Charles and I took swahili classes in Africa, and this is one of the first words we learned. The name Jambo carries a lot of meaning for us, and the concept of hello (and of greeting in general) is our foundation.
It's interesting though, to look into the origin of the english word "hello". It is a very young, new word (the first written record of "hello" was August 15, 1877!) and its rise into common use is deeply rooted in technology.
The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in the 1870s. As the invention became popular, its users found that they needed a signal for starting a conversation -- especially since some early phone lines were left permanently connected and open. People experimented with lots of different telephone salutations like: "What is wanted?" "Are you there?" "Are you ready to talk?"
The word "hello" was invented by Thomas Edison as a gift for Alexander Graham Bell. Before hello, there was no polite way to start a phone conversation (proper people were introduced, they didn't just greet each other). Edison took an exclamation and gave it a whole new meaning. With Edison's endorsement, the word "hello" soon became the accepted telephone greeting -- and eventually a normal greeting for meetings in person, too.
What is interesting is that people generally didn't greet each other directly, pre-telephone. They were introduced. In so many ways, the telephone created a fundamental cultural shift. The behavior change it caused allowed for individuals to greet each other directly, first remotely, and then face-to-face.
So now we've come full-circle. Jambo is all about the introduction before the greeting. We're about establishing a context in the moments before you meet. What information is useful before you say "hello"? Just some food for thought.
Posted by Jim at April 29, 2005 01:23 PM
Comments
I like the fact that an early suggestion for answering the phone was "Ahoy", which made sense because it was used to hail unknown ships at sea. If you watch the Simpsons on TV, you'll find one of the characters carrying on this otherwise short-lived idea.
I think I'll start using Ahoy to begin instant message conversations, in that tentative first volley when you're checking to see if the person is actually sitting at their computer.
Checking my trusty encyclopedia of word origins reveals that perhaps the earliest ancestor of hello is "hallo-er," Old French for "to pursue crying or shouting." Perhaps not the best way to do networking, but a useful approach in certain desperate situations. :-)
Now your homework is to learn the history of the word "Jambo," and how they answer the phone in Kenya.
Posted by: Danny at May 3, 2005 11:19 AM