Greet with the same or render a better greeting: Some translational discourse of Persian-Gulf-Arabic greetings

Very little is known about the translation or the terminology of the spoken discourse of Gulf Arabic, though; the region has recently gained unprecedented strategic importance. This study explores the linguistic expressions, which are part of the discoursal conventions of Gulf-Arabic discourse community that are recognized by their communicative effects within culturally ritualized use. In particular, the study concerns itself with the way in which the Gulf-Arabic formulaic expressions of greetings and politeness are treated in a contemporary bilingual dictionary on the dialect. The examination focuses on five categories of greeting rituals; initiation of social encounter; concern about wellbeing, health and state of affairs of others; temporal greetings; polite requests and thanking; and closings and farewells. The findings suggest that greeting rituals have to be independently treated, and their dictionary listing must be supplemented with; (1) explanatory definition; (2) actual articulation; (3) adjacency pairs; (4) authentic context; (5) etymology; and (6) cross-reference to the related entries. The study concludes acknowledging that a single-author glossary is not necessarily bad, but it is too short to produce an adequate description of socio-culturally oriented expressions, such as greeting rituals.