What do you say when you come into the office and see your colleagues for the first time each day? You say, “Good morning!” am I right? Sometimes you say it in a chirpy, perky voice (if you are not me) and sometimes you say it in a “wannamakesomethingofit” way and sometimes you slur your way through it, and sometimes you just abbreviate it: “Morn” as you walk by, open the door to your room or turn into your cubicle or hang up your jacket and turn your monitor on.
In Swedish, “good morning” is God morgon but when it is spoken, it invariably gets slanged sideways into Go’morron, pronounced goo-moron or, to save time, just moron. I’ve been saying “moron” uncountable times every day for over 6 years of my working career in Sweden, and only just realized yesterday that it sounds rather scarily as if I’m impugning my colleagues’ intellectual capacity with each utterance.