Ni hao

Ni hao (你好) is the Mandarin Chinese word for 'hello'. It literally translates to 'you good' but is not a question unless the 'question word' 'ma (嗎/吗)' is added to the end to form Ni hao ma? (how are you?). It is unclear when in Chinese history this became the most popular Chinese greeting. Traditionally, Chinese say 'xìng huì' (幸会) as a general hello greeting, which means 'nice to meet'.

In some Turkic languages, there are similar greetings to this Chinese one. In Kazakh, people say 'Yaqşime siz' as hello which literally means 'good you'. Also, in Uyghur it is 'Yaxshimu siz' and in Tatar it is 'İsänmesez'. Strangely, in modern Turkish, there is no equivalent phrase. This may reflect the cultural contact between ancient Chinese and Turkic tribes.

Explicitly stating "you good" might not be grammatically correct in many languages, but various short greetings that indicate well being of another are common in other languages as well. Although such short greetings usually are less formal. For example Russian 'здор`ово' [zda róva], Lithuanian 'sveikas' and Finnish 'terve' are common ways to say 'hi' while actually meaning 'healthy'.