Jennifer's Language Page FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Contact the creator of this website

Send any comments or suggestions to Jennifer Runner at jrunner5@yahoo.com

Sources for the translations

I began collecting greetings in 1992 by asking people in my culturally diverse community and penpals around the wold how to say hello in the languages they spoke. My short list of greetings began to grow and I created the website in 1995 as a way of sharing the list as well as a way of asking others to contribute their own languages. I began asking people in places I travelled, visiting the language sections of libraries, and searching online. Many of the translations in my collection have come from my own research, from people I have met and from dictionaries, language textbooks, linguistic documents, phrase books, travel books and Internet language resources. Other translations have come from people who have seen these pages and sent me comments, suggestions, additions, and corrections by e-mail from all over the world. Many people have also have verified (or corrected) translations I have found from other sources.
There are still several thousand languages out there that I don't have yet, so all additions and corrections will be very welcome. Send any comments or suggestions to me at jrunner5@yahoo.com

Why do some languages have so many ways to say the same thing?

Most languages have several ways to say the phrases listed here. The same is true for English: we sometimes say "hi" (in the United States), "good morning" (in the morning), "g'day" (in Australia), etc., depending on the time of day, the place, and how well we know the person we are greeting. Many languages have greetings that should only be used during certain parts of the day, like English; others have words that are only used when speaking to children, to relatives, to women, or to elders. Words that should only be used in certain situations are indicated with an explanation in square brackets.
Additionally, many languages don't have a direct translation for the words presented at this site. For example, some of the translations for words listed on my "goodbye" page mean "go in peace", "until I see you", and "I will return". Although they each have different meanings, these words are listed as translations for "goodbye" because all these words are used when people are leaving.

How can I contribute additions or corrections?

Send them to Jennifer Runner at jrunner5@yahoo.com! Currently, I am mainly updating the alphabetical pages linked from the greetings page on a regular basis.

The older greetings pages are no longer being updated; see the newer greetings pages for the most complete, updated version (if you've sent me corrections, your corrections will appear on the newer pages). I am not currently adding much to the other phrases pages, but will occassionally add languages, and will make corrections if there are errors.

Please let me know if you see any mistakes, or if you have any translations to add that I have not included. Although I sometimes do not have time to update this site as often as I would like to, I am still adding to this site and it is always "under construction." Any additions or corrections I receive will be added as soon as possible.

How do you pronounce these words?

Each language pronounces letters a little differently, and this information is currently not available on this website. For languages that do not use the Latin alphabet, I have tried to include both the language's own writing system as well as a transliteration in the Latin alphabet. (The Latin alphabet is the alphabet used in English and many other languages such as Latin, Spanish, French, German, Swahili, etc.)

How can I read the different writing systems? What fonts are used?

For most languages on the newer greetings pages, the words are written in their native script in the left-hand side of the list. On the right side, the same words are written with the Latin alphabet.

For Latin-based alphabets, I used Times New Roman font for the newer greetings pages, and Courier New for the older pages.

Your computer will need to be able to read the Arial Unicode MS font to correctly display most of the non-Latin characters used on this site. Arial Unicode MS font includes many alphabets not available in other fonts. For languages that use an alphabet not available in the Arial Unicode MS font, I have used a variety of other Unicode fonts. If your computer is unable to read these fonts, the pronunciation or transliteration is available in the left column.

For some languages, only the Latin writing system is available on this website and the words in the language's own writing system still need to be added. (I'm working on it!)

What are the three-letter codes? What is ISO 639-3?

Languages are identified on this site by three-letter ISO 639-3 codes. These codes were created by SIL International's Ethnologue in cooperation with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to provide a consistent, international way to identify individual languages. Since many languages are known by several names, these codes helps to identify the specific languages listed on my site, to avoid confusion between languages with similar names, and to avoid duplicate listings (such as one language being listed under several different names).

In the newer version of the greetings lists, the ISO 639-3 code is provided for each language, with links to the Ethnologue page for that language. The Ethnologue links provide information about where the language is spoken, how many people speak it, names of dialects of the language, and other names the language is known by. Some languages that are no longer spoken (extinct, historical or ancient languages) do not have Ethnologue links. For those languages, the links on my site will take you to information about the language from The Linguist List, which uses the same system of ISO 639-3 codes with an additional set of local-use codes. All languages listed on my site are identified by an ISO 639-3 code or by a local-use code from The Linguist List's MultiTree and a link either to Ethnologue (if available) or MultiTree.

More information about ISO 639-3 codes is available from Ethnologue's page explaining three-letter codes for identifying languages and from The Linguist List's answer to the question What is an ISO 639-3 code?

Copyright information

The collections of translations and the graphics at this site are Copyright © 1995 - 2012 by Jennifer Runner and may not be copied in any form. Just like the words you find in a dictionary or phrase book, the individual words listed here are intended to be used freely and are not copyrighted, but (like a dictionary or phrase book) the complete lists themselves are the result of years of work and are protected by copyright.

Use of the information for non-profit educational use is encouraged; please give credit to the source (Jennifer's Language Page at users.elite.net/runner or www.elite.net/~runner/jennifers). E-mail me at jrunner5@yahoo.com if you have questions about use of this site or for permission to use the lists or graphics found at this site.

If your question was not answered on this page or you have comments or suggestions,
please e-mail them to Jennifer Runner at jrunner5@yahoo.com

Send comments, additions, or corrections for this page to Jennifer Runner