Why do we say "hello" on the phone?

At the suggestion of inventor Thomas Edison. When the Scot Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876, everyone wanted to answer that phone saying "ahoy", a nautical greeting. At that time, a general concern was how each party would know what the other wanted to talk.

Was contemplated adopting a bell to indicate to the other one of whose turn it was. But, in 1877, Edison wrote to the director of the telegraph company in the US saying he was not sure if the bell was even necessary. A simple "hello" ("hello") already solve the impasse. To be a more common greeting than "ahoy", the "hello" just getting faster. More likely is that the word derives from the Hungarian word "hallod" which means "do you hear me?". The "hello" in Portuguese is a direct translation.