sawatdi (สวัสดี)

Thai. ‘Be blessed’. Official greeting used when first meeting someone and to a lesser extend also when parting, for which also a number of other greetings exist that are more commonly used, e.g. laew pop kan mai (แล้วพบกันใหม่) for ‘see you soon’, if a new rendezvous is anticipated, or lah kon (ลาก่อน) for ‘goodbye’, if no new meeting is foreseen in the near future. Sawatdi can be used on any time of the day, even though there are also other words that can be used as a greeting to indicate the specific time of the day, such as arun sawat (อรุณสวัสดิ์) for ‘good morning’ and ratri sawat (ราตรีสวัสดิ์) for ‘good night’. The term sawatdi was coined by Nim Kanchanachiwa (นิ่ม กาญจนาชีวะ), also known as Phraya Upakit Silapasahn (อุปกิต ศิลปสาร), a lecturer at the Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Arts, and officially introduced on 22 January 1943 AD by then Prime Minister Field Marshall Plaek Phibun Songkram (fig.). Sawatdi is said to derive from the Sanskrit word suvasti (सूस्वस्ति), which is a compound of su (सू) and vasti (स्वस्ति). Both su and vasti have a variety of meanings, yet in this case su can be translated as ‘bringing forth’ or ‘to have’, and vasti (स्वस्ति) may translate as ‘well-being’ (akin to swastika), ‘blessing’, ‘fortune’, ‘success’, and so forth. The rest is down to the individuality of the Thai language, in which the first vowel (u) in suvasti eventually became pronounced as an unwritten vowel (a). Furthermore, the Thai letter wo waen (ว) may well be transliterated as v it is always pronounced as w, and a final -s in Thai, i.e. at the end of a word or syllable, automatically becomes a -t. Hence, suvasti became written swatti and pronounced sªwatti, and this over time evolved into sªwatdi, typically transliterated sawatdi, or alternatively sawatdee or sawatdih, and occasionally sawasdi or sawasdee, in the knowledge that the final -s is actually pronounced as -t. To be respectful, the Thai greeting sawatdi is traditionally always accompanied with a so-called wai, a gesture in which the hands are brought together in front of the chest or face, or above the head (fig.). The height of the hands increases with the amount of respect paid, depending on who is being greeted and according to social status. The more respect given the higher the hands are held (fig.). In order to be polite, the greeting sawatdi should always be followed by the word khrab (ครับ) or kha (ค่ะ), depending on the gender of the speaker, i.e. men say khrab while women say kha, thus sawatdi khrab (สวัสดีครับ) and sawatdi kha (สวัสดีค่ะ), though in northern Thailand the term chao (เจ้า) is often used instead, which is said by both men and women, i.e. sawatdi chao (สวัสดีเจ้า). These words are also added to the end of any statement to indicate respect and are also used standalone to indicate agreement, comprehension, acceptance, or acknowledgement. 回