Funny thing. When Russians answer the phone, it's almost universally with a word that is "Allo?". It seems to me like it would be the closest translation (phoenetically) to "hello" that is easy in the language. I asked Ira about it and she said yes, it's just a word that has no other meaning, it's not a word in the Russian language except it means, "I am beginning a phone conversation with you, can you hear me, is our connection good, etc." It would not be acceptable to say "Allo" to someone on the street, but it is what you say at the beginning of a phone call.
It seems pretty likely to me that this is simply a case of linguistic 'contamination' where the English word came over due to whatever reason, but only in that role. Strange.
She vigorously denies this, and insists it's a Russian construction that has nothing to do with English, but oh well...
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