Ciao, ma guarda un pò...

**nucleo** · 18/08/2007, 23:11

Dal Wikipedia inglese:

The word ciao (pronounced "chow" /tʃao/) is an informal Italian verbal salutation or greeting, meaning either "goodbye" or "hello". Originally from the Venetian language (this word means "servant"), it was adopted by Italian and eventually entered the vocabulary of English and of many other languages around the world. The word is mostly used as "goodbye" in English, but in other languages it may mean "hello", "goodbye", or both.

Etymology

"s-ciào vostro", (or "Sono vostro servo" in Italian) is a Venetian sentence, literally meaning "I am your servant". This greeting is analogous to the Latin Servus which is still used in a large section of central/eastern Europe by people in Hungary, Romania, Austria, Slovakia and Bavaria (Southern Germany), this either in the native language of each speaker or in the original Latin form (famous Austrian song "Sag beim Abschied leise: Servus" ("Say softly 'Servus', when we part").
The word s-ciào ['stʃao] is still used in Venetian and in Lombardian as an exclamation of resignation in unavoidable situations. A Milanese proverb/tongue-twister says "Se gh'inn gh'inn, se gh'inn no s-ciào" (If they are - meaning money - they are, if they aren't no problem). In Italian: "Oh, va be', s-ciào" (Oh, well, never mind)
Also derives from Venetian dialect saying "sciavo su" (I'm your servant) used as a greeting. In modern Italian it translates to "servo suo".
In Italian "schiavo" (slave) means a man that's property of the master, while "servo" (servant) means a paid low-rank butler. In Venetian, "s-ciào" means usually "servant": in "Serenissima" Republic of Venice there never was slavery.

Spread

The Venetian greeting, shortened to ciào, soon lost all its servile connotations, and came to be used as an informal salutation by speakers of all classes. It was adopted by the Italian language, with the spelling ciao, presumably during the golden days of the Venetian Republic. It has since spread to many countries in Europe, along with other items of the Italian culture. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the salute spread to the Americas—especially Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, and Argentina—largely by way of Italian immigrants. Ernest Hemingway is credited with bringing the word into the English language. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition states: “Ciao first appears in English in 1929 in Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, which is set in northeast Italy during World War I.”

Usage as greeting

In contemporary Italian usage, ciao is interchangeable for both an informal hello and goodbye, much as aloha in Hawaii or shalom in Israel. In other countries it has come to have more specific meanings. The following list summarizes the spelling and uses of this salutation in various languages and countries.

Bosnian: ćao
Bulgarian чао (transliterated as chao; "goodbye")
Croatian: ćao
Czech: čau ("hello" or "goodbye")
English: ciao ("goodbye")
Esperanto: "ĉaŭ" ("goodbye", rarely "hello")
Estonian: "t¨au" ("hello" or "goodbye")
Finnish: "tsau", also "tsaukki" ("hello" or "goodbye")
French: ciao, sometimes (frequent in Quebec, Canada) tchao ("goodbye")
German: ciao, sometimes tschau ("goodbye")
Hungarian: csáó or the more informal csá ("hello or "goodbye")
Interlingua: ciao ("goodbye")
Italian: ciao ("hello" or "goodbye"). Doubled (ciao ciao) is used just as "goodbye". Tripled or quadrupled means "Bye, I'm in a hurry!". Pronounced with a long "a" means "Hello, I'm so glad to meet you!" (be it sincere or hypocritical). Pronouncing the "i" is flirtatious (it sounds like a meowing of a cat)
Latvian: čau ("hello" or "goodbye"; this is by far the most common form of informal salutation used in Latvian)
Lithuanian: čiau ("goodbye", rarely "hello")
Macedonian: чао ("goodbye")
Maltese: ċaw ("goodbye"); also ċaw ċaw ("bye bye")
Portuguese,: tchau ("goodbye"); esp. in Brazil, also diminutive tchauzinho
Romanian: ciao or rarely ciau ("goodbye", less frequently "hello")
Russian чао (transliterated as chao; "goodbye"); also jokingly чао-какао
Serbian: ћао or ćao ("goodbye", frequently "hello") - (this developed into to ћаос оr ćaos).
Slovak: čau ("goodbye", less frequently "hello")
Slovene: čaw ("hello" or "goodbye"); also čaw čaw ("bye bye")
Spanish, esp. in Latin America: chau or chao ("goodbye")
Swedish: tja ("hello", less frequently "goodbye")
Turkish, çav ("goodbye")
Venetian: ciào ("hello" or "goodbye")
Vietnamese: chào ("hello" or "goodbye")