Cheers! , livre ebook

This book is a publication of
Red Lightning Books 1320 East 10th Street Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
redlightningbooks.com
2021 by Brandon Cook All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Manufactured in China
Cataloging information is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-68435-145-9 (hardback)
ISBN 978-1-68435-147-3 (ebook)
First Printing 2021
For my Mom and Dad
CONTENTS
Foreword
Acknowledgments
PART ONE. EUROPE
1. Albanian
2. Basque (Euskara)
3. Breton
4. Bulgarian
5. Croatian
6. Czech
7. Dutch
8. English
9. Estonian
10. Finnish
11. French
12. Galician
13. German
14. Greek
15. Hungarian
16. Irish
17. Italian
18. Latvian
19. Lithuanian
20. Maltese
21. Norwegian
22. Polish
23. Portuguese
24. Romanian
25. Russian
26. Serbian
27. Slovak
28. Slovenian
29. Spanish
30. Swedish
31. Turkish
32. Ukrainian
33. Welsh
PART TWO. EURASIA
34. Armenian
35. Azerbaijani
36. Belarusian
37. Georgian
38. Kazakh
39. Mongolian
40. Tajik
41. Uzbek
PART THREE. ASIA AUSTRONESIA
42. Burmese (Myanmar)
43. Cebuano
44. Chinese (Mandarin)
45. Chinese (Dialects)
46. Hawaiian
47. Hindi
48. Indonesian
49. Japanese
50. Khmer
51. Korean
52. Malayalam
53. Malay
54. Nepali
55. Sinhala
56. Tagalog
57. Tamil
58. Thai
59. Vietnamese
PART FOUR. AFRICA THE MIDDLE EAST
60. Afrikaans
61. Amharic
62. Arabic
63. Hausa
64. Igbo
65. Kinyarwanda
66. Persian (Farsi)
67. Somali
68. Swahili
69. Wolof
70. Xhosa
71. Yoruba
PART FIVE. ANCIENT, CONSTRUCTED, AND MISCELLANEOUS
72. American Sign Language (ASL)
73. Ancient Greek
74. Aramaic (Syriac)
75. Esperanto
76. Hebrew
77. Latin
78. Na vi
79. Quenya (Elvish)
80. Toki Pona
Language List by Country
Bibliography
FOREWORD
F or a significant amount of time that people have been drinking, they have been toasting. Unfortunately, no one knows with any certainty for how long. Unlike the origins of alcohol, which can be more or less confidently dated based on the analysis of fermented fruit, it is considerably more difficult uncovering the origins of toasts. How do you date a clink, a glance, a word?
Short answer: you don t. What we do know is that since at least as far back as the ancient world, people have been raising glasses to their comrades. Achilles drinks to Patroclus in the Iliad , and even earlier than that, in ancient Egypt, drunkenness via beer or wine was central to many religious festivals. If ever we discover the origins of this marriage between drinking and celebration, we will find the beginnings of toasting.
It s likely that you re familiar with some of the stories behind the tradition of clinking glasses. One of the most popular goes that in an ancient time of feuding warlords, paranoia of being poisoned was so great that goblets were ritualistically smashed together so that the alcohol would fly and mix into the other cups. Another story goes that wine glasses in medieval Europe were delicately clinked in order to imitate the sound of church bells. Unfriendly devils and demons lurking about would then scuttle off in fear of the Christian piety. Still another story says that toasting started as a ritual to invoke all five senses-the smell, taste, and sight of the wine; the touch and sound of the glass. Delightful as these stories are, that is precisely what they are-stories.
This book isn t concerned with discussing toasting as ancient history or even with the story of how it became the global phenomenon it is today. It s more of a guidebook exploring how more than eighty languages express the word and culture of our English cheers. I don t mean to suggest that every country in the world has the same culture and custom of toasting as in those countries where English is the native language. Rather, the toasts provided in this book take on a variety of forms and meanings. Readers will find that in Burmese, the word for cheers means something like let s hit it, reminiscent of a general leading his army into battle. The Somali toast isn t used as a prelude to alcohol but for drinking camel milk. Aramaic gives a word meaning love ; Hausa, a phrase meaning rejoice in your heart. The Na vi language, of the 2009 film Avatar , has a toast although its humanoid speakers lack glasses, and Quenya, J. R. R. Tolkien s Elvish language, has both a toast and drinks to toast with, though you probably can t find them in any liquor store.
More than its connection with alcohol, this book celebrates toasting and its connection with language. Americans and foreign languages have a sticky relationship at best. Many of us still have memories of frivolous high school French or Latin courses where a great deal of instruction seemed to leave us equipped with no more than the phrase I want to use the bathroom and some useful curse words. The remedy for the United States difficult relationship to languages probably won t be found here (though you never know); however, at the very least it s worthwhile to look at language as the wonderful and interesting phenomenon it is. The texts below the word and pronunciation of cheers are meant to act as a kind of highlight reel showcasing language s more bizarre and interesting aspects.
Finally, a book about toasting would do itself a disservice if it didn t include some information about drinks. The Tasting Notes list a few of that region s more popular beverages, alcoholic and nonalcoholic. These lists are far from exhaustive, and travelers with serious interests in the local brews would be wise to consult more specialized guidebooks, dialogue with the locals, or both.
Cheers ! is a guidebook for language and culture. Its intention is to make world cultures more accessible and languages more fun. My hope is you ll flip to any language that catches your fancy and discover something new and interesting, but if you come away with no more than a few more strange words pottering around your head, I ll count that a victory. Cheers!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
W henever possible, I have drawn from personal experience and knowledge. As I do not have in-depth knowledge of all eighty of the languages represented, I am extremely grateful for the hundreds of speakers on iTalki and HiNative who graciously responded to my queries and assisted with the proofreading and editing processes. I ve tried to give credit to everyone who has helped me in this process-my apologies if I have overlooked you:
(Albanian) Edlira D; (Armenian) Armine; (Azerbaijani) Zemfira; (Basque) Xubixaretta Ibai; (Breton) Professor Kevin Rottet; (Bulgarian) Nicola Chushkov, Violeta Argelova, Martin Christov; (Croatian) Suzana Andelkovic, Sreten W.; (Czech) Jan Tatousek, Martin Meidl; (Dutch) Sonia Azamifard, Kal van Stigt; (Estonian) Heli Aomets; (Finnish) Jaako; (French) Maud Thami Lopez; (Galician) Mart n Redonda Fern ndez, Miguel Caama o; (Georgian) Giorgi Lotsulashvili, Anna Sanikidze, Dewy Peters, Keti; (Greek) Constantinos Soteriou; (Hungarian) Peter; (Irish) Coligno; (Italian) Giulia; (Kazakh) Merein, Ansar Sarkytov; (Latvian) Krists; (Lithuanian) Sarunas Zavadskas; (Maltese) Andre Xerri, Loron Grixti; (Mongolian) Adiyasuren; (Polish) Tomasz Suchaja; (Portuguese) Camila Alvers, Tawanne Siqueira; (Romanian) Ovidiu Nicolas, Andrei Victor; (Russian) Polina; (Serbian) Suzana Andelkovic, Nash Antic; (Slovak) Sylvia Vitekova, Michal Michalik; (Spanish) Jaime Rivera; (Swedish) Mahyar Hemmati, Matthias Lindstr m, Albin Einarson; (Turkish) Keely Bakken; (Ukrainian) Olga Rezniko; (Welsh) Jonathan Mills, Professor Kevin Rottet; (Burmese) Kenneth Wong, Jar Puu, Cherry P.W., Min Khaung; (Cebuano) Caomhin, Neciforo Pesiao Jr., Kevin Marc; (Chinese) ChenCen, Shimin Qin; (Hawaiian) Professor Puakea Nogelmeier; (Hindi) Priyam; (Indonesian) Rio Wibowo, Yoga; (Khmer) Yulong Vy, Limit; (Korean) John YoHan Park; (Malayalam) Antony; (Malaysian) Jeffrey Biyud; (Nepali) Sunil Rajbahak, Saugat, Samrat Uphadyay; (Sinhalese) Shamil; (Tagalog) Joanna Abaya, Brylle Jansen Llaguno; (Tamil) Arun; (Thai) Sakornpob Nithisopa; (Vietnamese) Ph m Th Xu n Mai, Lan Anh Phan, Hoang Kha; (Afrikaans) Richard du Plessis, Annelie van der Merwe, Christelle Lotter; (Amharic) Pheruz; (Arabic) Hassaine Daouadji Mohammed Amin, Omar Kamal; (Persian) Raena Mazahernasab, Professor Shahyar Daneshgar, Mahdi Birjandi; (Hausa) Mashaer; (Igbo) Sapphire Agwu; (Kinyarwanda) Erin Baumgartel; (Somali) A. Jama; (Swahili) Professor Richard Mathias Nyamahanga; (Somali) Aisha Moha; (Tajik) Maruf Ibragimov; (Uzbek) Alisher; (Wolof) Mame Anna Fall; (Xhosa) Luvo; (Yoruba) Tayo Ayinde, Professor Matthew Ajibade; (Ancient Greek) Michela, Oscar Goldman, Pantazis Stougianas; (American Sign Language) Aunt Mary Betts; (Aramaic) Emarceen; (Esperanto) Thomas Alexander, Martin LeLarge; (Hebrew) Elena Luchina, Sam Sternfeld, Ita; (Latin) Ivana Ciric; (Na vi) Learn Na vi Community; (Quenya) Council of Elrond.
Much of the information in this book has come from combing through articles on the internet. Travel websites and YouTube have been particularly helpful in putting the texts together. I am indebted to the channels sweetandtastyTV for the information about Korean and to StreetEnglishTV for Japanese.
Huge thank yous to Blakely Meyer, Preston, and Shimin for their devoted readings and re-readings.
Lastly, my thanks to everybody at Red Lightning for making the publication process such smooth sailing, and for producing such a beautiful book.

The name Albanoi crops up around the year AD 1080. The name stuck in more places than one: some linguists believe that the root alb , meaning mountain or hill, later found its way to mainland Europe, wh