Show It r d hU 1 i iShall Shall We Substitute Word for J r Hello Through Telephone I s f Comes now u a serious minded citizen citi citi- citizen zen of Great Britain to protest and lament what has b become come a n great Institution institution In Institution In- In In the tho social and l Business C world to wit t the telephone phone Hello II This man prot protests t that It is undignified and he ne regrets that something m more mr r solemn wore were not u used el at the outset He submits I hear In Instead instead of Hello Bello and anti In Insists l hl his candidate I Imore Is Ismore ismore more in keeping with tho the spirit of oC mo most t telephone con cr conversations atlon than J Is the present occupant of or tho mho Job which the tho critic a flIpp nt term To 10 the line rescue comes a patriotic American who defends Hello and proceeds to prove pro not only that Is appropriate appropriate ap ap- and dignified dle but hut that It has become come a fixture In American life regardless re regardless re- re of what the mn may do about It it Further this man writing to the tho New Nety York Times shows that Hello is of ancient and honorable lineage and express just what the telephone telephone telephone tele tele- phone user Usel desires Holler Is the word halloo In Its proper form and halloo is a root common to all Indo European an lan Ian languages languages he writes Tho The root is spelled In the comparative grammer of the European Info language by Heinrich Hein- Hein rich FIck and Is pronounced al almost almost al- al almost most exactly It appears appear's In whole classes classe of words signifying to call call itself being derived from that root and to hear henr and meanIng meaning meanIng mean- mean Ing vel very nearly stop and arid listen to tome Trie me The rhe first filst word In the old Norse Etl Edda n. n is and it means a listening silence so 80 that tho the concrete meaning of ot halloo is il to be In a state of or listening listenIng listenIng listen- listen Ing silence or be still and listen I think that this is one of the tho most Interesting in interesting In- In philological contributions to the literature of oC the telephone illustrating Illus illus- Illustrating the exact meaning of or the word halloo That ought to hold t the c iconoclastic citizen of Great Britain for a while Not long ago a friend of one of ot the Salt Lake telephone companies sent anonymously an Ingenious suggestion that provided for the addition of oC a new new- term to tho the telephone vocabulary The word Is Sicy Sic made mado up of the first letters lotters of the tile sentence Shall I r call you Thus the correspondent ar argued argued argued ar- ar gued instead of the telephone operator r being obliged to sit say MY when reporting a aIn line in use Lines bus busy Shall I call cal l you she need a say only Busy I ISic Sic Sicy 7 The correspondent did not volunteer I r 1 a key to the of or the new new- t f I Y 11 word and anti tl the c company sees ee breakers breaker L m i ahead I If toe the Idea Is adopted Jf If th tho I I short sound of or u. u i 1 is used making the J f. f i t w t sissy I some la lad ladylike ylike lIk j young man might h be offended some fomo f other man might start a a. fight or some iome dignified dowager might start tart a x law- law 3 4 16 e suit lulL Using the long sound of l I 1 Central Cen Cen- r t might Im easily II he be misunderstood to f. f say I Ilee see lee the toe natural t. t Inquiry You l see ce what 1 It will be lie readily understood from the tho few pos pos- i a sl II noted that it would be easy l i ito l J to lose more time In explaining than n I l' l would bo sa requIred to recite the v es es- es t J shed Shall Sha I 1 call you OU 7 C cal w t Speaking of or the word hu busy as used uel I 1 by the telephone operator It Is Inter J esting to note that in Au Australia Central Central Central Cen Cen- t. t does lees not sa say busy bus Silo She says say's sa engaged eng a term sedate t and aristocratic to suit probably even the captious her although the the- American business man will not object ob- ob o ob object fl J to th the word busy 1 e. e h ho knows what that means an and busy us is f t. t ho is is It Is easy to believe that If Central Central Central Cen Cen- said engaged wh when n ho no e called I ho he would take time enough h to say L something like Good shot Who ho is i. f the guy and when docs does the wedding weddin jg J I como come oft off S lr 1 f 1 i America talks a good man many wordy word r In tel telephone transmitters In the course 1 of or a year ear and the telephone w I tit ut 1 J doubt has given en hello more circulation tion Uon than tran It would ever have o ro elv tl in another way A As an Illustration the t main exchange of oC the Salt SnIt Lake Lak office once I of the Rocky Mountain Bell Boll Telephone r company compan handles more t than an f course separate telephone conversations In the tho 1 course of a business day clay Frequent I tests make it possible to get a a. very t close approximation of the length of or j 3 the average Je message which allowing i I sixty words to a a. minute makes make the number of words talked through h the P I m exchange o in the course cOUlse of one tl day v Here are enough words t to i ifill fill nil all nil the columns o of all the tho Salt Lak Lake daily newspapers for about eighteen week-day week issues If ono one person talked l. l the words at the rate of sixty a f fIt It would take him more than eighty eighty- c i three da days to finish the job if ha he worked twenty four hours a a. da day and m did not stop for meals meals- As the word hello figures at least once on un the average and generally generall twice In each fi telephone conversation It Is safe to tu assert that Salt SaIl Lake says hello to it itself elf about times dally through tho the telephones |