Most greetings in the Earth Kingdom are variations of the traditional phrases although they vary the most out of any of the other languages depending on class and region.
Proto-Earth-ese = [1st/3rd.they] [greet] [2nd] (âI/One greets youâ)
(â1stâ is used when itâs one person and â3rd.theyâ is used when the speaker is one of a group)
The lower upper-classes/middle classes are the ones who are the most likely to use this phrase properly.
Northern Earth-ese keeps this phrasing for the most part but Southern Earth-ese includes plural suffixes instead of â3rd.theyâ. So [1st(-plural)] [greet] [2nd(-plural)] (âI/We greet you/yâallâ). Northern Earth-ese has a plural adjective but itâs only used for emphasis.
While Earth-ese doesnât like dropping pronouns, in more casual situations you can drop the âyouâ. In much more casual situations, especially amongst lower middle-class people, family, or younger people you can just say âgreetâ.
In more formal situations amongst the upper-class, you make it fancier: ([Declare]) [1st/3rd.they] ([great]) [greet] [2nd] ([great]) (âI declare the great I/One greets the great you.â), usually first addressing someone by their full title.
Ba Sing Se is notoriously amongst the Earth Kingdom for preserving the whole thing and elaborating on it. In rougher areas, itâs often a game/joke to put on an Upper Ring accent and make it as long as you can.
Proto-Earth-ese = [Command] [leave/stay] [good/happy] (âLeave/Stay wellâ)
(The use of âleaveâ or âstayâ depends on who in the conversation is leaving.)
Southern Earth-ese slang tends to replace the âcommandâ with their context word for âinvitationâ or in some Northern Earth-ese middle-class communities you use ârequestâ.
In very Southern Earth-ese areas, itâs shortened to = [Leave/Stay-invite] (âPlease leave/stayâ) although itâs not interpreted as an actual command/invitation.
While Kyoshi Island is in the South, its Earth-ese is closer of Ba Sing Se Earth-ese so its standard greeting is = [Declare] [greet] (âI declare this greetingâ) while its farewell is = [Declare] [leave/stay] (âI declare this leaving/stayingâ).
Around Omashu, theyâve abandoned this format entirely, using the Proto-Earth-ese word [Love] instead. Itâs related to the story of Oma and Shu and how the person they see would be (their) love. In the Southern Earth Kingdom, they replaced the verb with another word.
Lower Ring people use = [You] [resemble] [good/happy] (âYou look wellâ) or = [Hope] [good/happy] [be] (âHope youâre wellâ). Although, some people often replaced âgood/happyâ with âbadâ or something insulting as a joke to the point it became a sincere greeting in many areas.
Variations of âOiâ and âAiâ (âHey!â) are common across the Earth Kingdom to quickly get someoneâs attention. Theyâre considered rude in polite company.
For âgoodbyeâ, a common phrase is [True] [jewel] [inside] [a] [chest] = (âJewels go in a chestâ). This generally implies that while itâs a shame to leave, you had a nice time.
Sandbender/Si Wong Earth-ese
The usual greeting is âI see youâ, which came about after communicating with each other within dust storms.
[Now-1st-2nd-drift] [see] ~> [Y(a)-(j)ei-su-(yum)en] [lowk(in)-(k)oo] ~> âYungsen luku!â
Sandbender Earth-ese is almost completely unintelligible to most other forms of Earth-ese. Iâll probably do a more complicated post but it combined context words into an auxiliary verb at the beginning which shows the tense and pronouns of what follows.
âGoodbyeâ is the equivalent of âCover your eyesâ, telling someone to prepare for the dust storm = [See-plural] [cover-3rd.they]. (âSeeâ with a plural suffix means âeyesâ and adding the â3rd.theyâ pronoun to the end of a verb turns it into the passive adjective form e.g. âcoverâ ~> âcoveredâ)
Fire Nation Occupied Areas
The Earth-ese natives were forced to say â(Faiya Gazri) Ozai vo lokiâ (âHail (Fire Lord) Ozaiâ) in greeting and farewell but in the pidgin they began to borrow, âUtanâ (from âgood morning/afternoon/night). It just means âgoodâ but it was what connected the various Fire-ese greetings. (If you want to actually describe something as âgoodâ in the pidgin youâd usually use âutuâ, which is the un-conjugated version).
As âHeloâ and âKahguâ became more common throughout the Earth Kingdom, a blacklash occurred against âlosing the Earth-ese identityâ and âhomogenising with the rest of the worldâ, especially amongst those who disliked the United Republic. In the Upper and Middle Rings in Ba Sing Se, many people insisted on the old greetings. Then, once the Earth Empire rose up, they popularised new phrases along with other Zhaofu-based vocabulary to replace loanwords.
The new greeting/farewell they decided on was = [Move-in.front] (âMoving forwardsâ). Itâs used as a call and response like, âMoving forwards?â âMoving forwards.â
While Wuâs supporters often brought back the traditional greetings, after the Earth Empireâs collapse most people either embraced the UR greetings or, usually if they were older, returned to what had been popular in their area beforehand.
