Hey...

Is it possible to be greeting by something other than the word "Hey", which has no place in my vocabulary in the way it's apparently being used? Call me a boring Brit, but I've never addressed anyone "Hey" and don't intend to start doing so in the near future...

It works in the American South and Southeast.... I noticed it, too, when I moved to Atlanta.  Being originally from the West Coast (Oregon and California), I always knew "Hi".  It's a matter of locale.  I don't think it's intended to be in your face or impolite as in "Hey, you!", which does come across as rather impertinent, confrontational, and disrespectful.  Having been here for 20+ years now, even I find "Hey" rolling out of my mouth.

.... much as I found my daughter picking up an ever-so-slight British accent when she lived in the UK for 3 years in the late '80s.

I know it's supposed to be friendly, but frankly "Hey, Andrew Rose, you have xxx messages, xx are new" sounds somewhat aggressive in my inner voice!

[Rachel Elliott]

Hey guys, 

Alright, I'll change it.

Maybe they should all say

"Yo, logged-in dude!"

 

Hey,

Being from the southern US, it sounded very friendly and in no way aggressive or disrespectful.

Guess it is all in how or where you're raised. Perhaps a more formal "Greetings, rogue_cop, AudioMastersForum.net hereby presents you with xxx communications from persons abroad, of which xx have be determined to be, as of yet, unread by the browser presenting the 'cookie' for this account."

I'll attempt to speak the Queen's English from this point forward. 

I guess, then, a greeting of "Oi!" wouldn't be very welcome either.  (That's what I had on my login screen on my work desktop for a while.)

[Hey]

Hey,
Being from the southern US, it sounded very friendly and in no way aggressive or disrespectful.

I have to say that I didn't have a problem with it either...

I'll attempt to speak the Queen's English from this point forward. 

I don't think that even she does that! Mind you, maybe that's the way to go:

"My Administrator and I would like to welcome you aboard HMS AudioMasters, and Gawd Bless all who sail in her - except the ones that are caused to Walk the Plank, as they do from time to time, of course..."

Looks like "'bout ye" is out of bounds here in foggy Ireland

I find when phoning radio friends that a long "Heeeeeeey" always get's a smirk. In European soccer "Hey!" has become the standard call player to player .. and "*uck off" is the standard player to referee call.

Hey,

Being from the southern US, it sounded very friendly and in no way aggressive or disrespectful. by the bro

Guess it is all in how or where you're raised.

  I'm a midwest boy - grew up in Illinois (not Chicago) ... moved to North Carolina a couple years out of College.  I was not used to "Hey" as a friendly greeting, but it was in NC it was quite common.  Folks would say "Hey, Karl" - I respond with a "What?!" or "Yeah?" - took a couple years to get past that.

Now in Indiana I've noticed that "Hey" use used here pretty frequently - don't know if "Hey" is on the move, or if that's the difference between central Indiana and central Illinois.

In Norway and Sweden (and Denmark I think) the standard greeting is pronounced "hey" or "hi", so any variant of those two is fine with us!

Is it possible to be greeting by something other than the word "Hey", which has no place in my vocabulary in the way it's apparently being used? Call me a boring Brit, but I've never addressed anyone "Hey" and don't intend to start doing so in the near future...

I understand your concern. The greeting is very American actually, and contains with it the usual (I'm sorry to say) grammatical errors and the word is inappropriate as a greeting as it does sound more like a challenge than a friendly greeting, and as such, this aggressiveness is seen as rude by British people when greeting someone. The phrase, like so many American phrases was most probably first uttered in this way by imigrants with poor English. All this aside, this American greeting together with a multitude of other American greetings and phrases has been imported into the modern everyday vernacular via records and films the world over and is unavoidable now. Your choice to not use it and to take offence by it has nothing to with being boring and British at all, it has everything to do with just being obstinate and unwilling to embrace changes in the vernacular, which I say again, is unavoidable.

The greeting is very American actually, and contains with it the usual (I'm sorry to say) grammatical errors and the word is inappropriate as a greeting as it does sound more like a challenge than a friendly greeting, and as such, this aggressiveness is seen as rude by British people when greeting someone. The phrase, like so many American phrases was most probably first uttered in this way by imigrants with poor English..

See my post above this one - I don't think it has anything to do with grammatical errors, aggression or rudeness, I think it is simply that one of the larger groups of immigrants to the US was from Sweden and there (as noted above) the common, normal and polite greeting is "hej" pronounced (did you guess?) "hey".

BFM's experience is somewhat different from mine.  Around my corner of Britain, I don't associate "Hey" with a friendly greeting; it's more of a rude and threatening way to get somebody's attention.  The next phrase is probably something like "Hand over your wallet and you won't get hurt".

However, it's also a matter of context and tone of voice.  If I actually HEAR an American-accented "Hey" (or, maybe, BFM's extended "Heeeeey") it's easier to interpret intent.  Alas, the single "Hey" on a screen doesn't have accent or context and  is interpretted by me in a negative way.  I'm with Andrew Rose on this one.

Bob