Why is it that when people answer the phone, even if they know who is on the other line, we still say HELLO?

Answer 1

The word hello is also credited to Thomas Edison specifically as a way to greet someone when answering the telephone; according to one source due to expressing his surprise with a misheard Hullo.Alexander Graham Bell initially used Ahoy (as used on ships) as a telephone greeting.[8] However, in 1877, Edison wrote to T.B.A. David, the president of the Central District and Printing Telegraph Company of Pittsburg:

"Friend David, I do not think we shall need a call bell as Hello! can be heard 10 to 20 feet away.
What you think? Edison - P.S. first cost of sender & receiver to manufacture is only $7.00."

By 1889 central telephone exchange operators were known as 'hello-girls' due to the association between the greeting and the telephone.

In Hungarian, Hallod? (pron. roughly as British hullo) means "Do you hear [it/what I am saying]?" and the answer is Hallom (pron. like hullom) for "I hear [it/what you are saying].". Another story suggests this as a source for the use of hello on the telephone: the Hungarian inventor Tivadar Puskas was in America when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Soon Puskas began work on a telephone exchange. According to Thomas Edison, "Tivadar Puskas was the first person to suggest the idea of a telephone exchange". Puskas' idea finally became a reality in 1877 in Boston. It was then that the word hallom, which later became hallo/hello was used for the first time in a telephone conversation when, on hearing the voice of the person at the other end of the line, an exultant Puskas shouted out in Hungarian "hallom" "I hear you".

Answer 2

We say "hello" on the phone because we were saying "hello" commonly before Graham Bell invented the phone in 1876. In 1872, for instance, Mark Twain used 'hello' in his book, Roughing It: "A miner came out and said: 'Hello!'"

Thomas Edison got into the picture in 1877, a year after Bell invented the phone. Edison wrote a letter to the president of the telegraph company in Pittsburgh, saying he didn't think we needed a "call bell as Hello! can be heard 10 to 20 feet away." So, hello was the telephone greeting from almost Day 1, although Bell liked the idea of "ahoy" (nautical) or "hoy hoy", a Gaelic greeting, meaning perhaps 'out there' (Bell was Scottish).

A TV program still uses the expression "hoy hoy." "In one episode of The Simpsons, Mr. Burns, depicted apparently as much as a century old, answers the phone with 'Hoy Hoy'," e-mails linguistics scholar John McWhorter, author of The Power of Babel.

Answer 3

Good question! I've been wondering the same thing. I guess it's just culture/tradition/expected to greet whoever comes in contact. Now instead of saying hello, I say, "Who's there?" cuz you never know, it might be someone you don't know or do know but would rather not talk to. Eh, I guess it's hard to explain... but good luck!

Answer 4

Mostly habit. Some time I say hello, sometime good morning or good evening, sometime when I notice who is calling I say yes, and what are you wearing?

Answer 5

Respect, courtesy. I do have a friend that in certain situations will not say hello or him, he will say speak. Just take whatever someone says in stride and move on.

Answer 6

I am from Russia and I say Allo which does not mean hello. But it just acknowledges that you picked up and is on the other aend and as if to ask who is there.

Answer 7

Because saying hello when you answer the phone is imprinted in our brain. Actually I think that it is how we have been "trained" to answer the phone......phone etiquette.

Answer 8

It is used as a greeting. It it better than saying "Bob, what do you want?" or "who is this?, or speak now". Say "hello" instead.

Answer 9

What other word would you like to say? Speak!

Answer 10

lol! i'm so guilty of doing this. it's force of habit, i guess, but i know a lot of people who go, "hi (name)," or "what's up" or something.