moin

See also: móin, môin, and möin

German

Alternative forms

• moin moin (might be perceived as foreign or artificial in some regions, e.g. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)

Etymology

The etymology is not clear.

• It stems possibly from German Low German moi, moie, moien (“nice, bright, shiny”), from Middle Low German [Term?], thus meaning would be '(have a) good one'. This would explain the pronunciation with /ŋ/ in some areas, which would stem from regular inflection of Low German moi.
• It is also possible that this word is a borrowing from a Frisian language, which would explain the vowel sequence /ɔːɪ/, which does not naturally occur in almost any Low German dialect.
• Further, many sources say that the word comes from the Berlin area, representing the local pronunciation of Morgen (“morning”): [mɔɐ̯jɘn]. The pronunciation would come either from local Low German (where the word was pronounced [mɔrʝɘn]) and then have undergone r-vocalisation, or from early modern Upper Saxonian (/mɔˤjən/ or something similar), which is the German dialect that initially replaced Low German in Berlin. The word was understood as 'moin' by the rhotic dialects surrounding the city and spread north from them.
• Should this word be a Frisian or Berlinian borrowing, it is likely that it was later conflated with the Low German word moi (/moːɪ/).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɔːɪn/, /mɔːɪŋ/

• Audio

  (file)

Interjection

moin

1. (colloquial, Northern Germany) hi

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German Low German

Etymology

The etymology is not clear.

• It stems possibly from moi, moie, moien (“nice, bright, shiny”), from Middle Low German [Term?], thus meaning would be '(have a) good one'. This would explain the pronunciation with /ŋ/ in some areas, which would stem from regular inflection of Low German moi.
• It is also possible that this word is a borrowing from a Frisian language, which would explain the vowel sequence /ɔːɪ/, which does not naturally occur in almost any Low German dialect.
• Further, many sources say that the word comes from the Berlin area, representing the local pronunciation of German Morgen (“morning”): [mɔɐ̯jɘn]. The pronunciation would come either from local Low German (where the word was pronounced [mɔrʝɘn]) and then have undergone r-vocalisation, or from early modern Upper Saxonian (/mɔˤjən/ or something similar), which is the German dialect that initially replaced Low German in Berlin. The word was understood as 'moin' by the rhotic dialects surrounding the city and spread north from them.
• Should this word be a Frisian or Berlinian borrowing, it is likely that it was later conflated with the Low German word moi (/moːɪ/).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɔːɪn/
• IPA^(key): /mɔːɪŋ/

Interjection

moin

1. Eye dialect spelling of moi. (several inflections)
2. (informal) hi

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Kairiru

Noun

moin

1. woman

Further reading

• Malcolm Ross, Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian Languages of Western Melanesia, Pacific Linguistics, series C-98 (1988)
• Stephen Adolphe Wurm, New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study (1976)

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North Frisian

Interjection

moin

1. (informal) hi