"Good to hear(read) from you" [duplicate]

Solution 1:

That's what people say and a language doesn't have to follow any rules of logic - people use a certain word to mean something and that's correct. Everybody uses "hear" to mean

gain information, learn, to receive communication - Merriam-Webster

• Good to hear from you.
• Hope to hear from you soon.
• I haven't heard from her for a long time.

Solution 2:

People use "good to hear from you" or "hope to hear from you" instead of "good to read from you" or "hope to read from you" because sending (and receiving) letters, e-mails, and text messages is not the only communication method in the world. You receive a voice call and video call using your mobile phone, Skype, etc. In that case, you can't "read" from someone. That's why you use "hear" rather than "read" because it covers all of the communication methods you have.

In addtion, "Hear" has the following meaning:

(hear from) Be contacted by (someone), especially by letter or telephone: ‘if you would like to join the committee, we would love to hear from you’

[Oxford Online Dictionary]

So you can't say it is wrong to use "hear from" in your example.

In the past, not many people had a proper education and illiteracy rate was rather high. When an illiterate person receives a letter, he can't read it. He has to "hear" the contents from someone who can read it on behalf of him. I think it is part of the reason the word "hear" has been used.

Solution 3:

I have an ingenious explanation to offer. Among the 'verbs of perception' we depend mostly on 'see' and 'hear' to be informed about someone's well being. Perhaps long before the age of stage-coach (mode of sending a letter) or penny post,let alone the modern era of communicative explosions, the only dependable mode of knowing about someone's wellbeing was to hear from someone about the person of our interest, who happened to visit our place from the distant land of my acquaintance, relation or friend.

'HEAR' gains into prominance for the simple reason that we have no means of 'seeing'. Moreover, seeming is not like the seeming. So, depend on 'hear'.

The days of face to face interaction are long lost in oblivion. Letters come to replace it. But by that time, 'hear' has earned a permanent reputation in communicative English. Letters become the representative figure of relations or friends. Through them we commune, we hear them speak.

Invention of telephone further reinforced this communicative usage of 'hear' with the present day dictionary meaning. We don't use 'good to read from you' for the simple reason that "reading" is a comparatively recent development in the evolution of languages and when you read, you read at the exclusion of your friends, where the comprehensive character of 'hear'is missing.

A word of worry. In this age of Skype, video calling and whats-app, hear would soon fall into abuse. We would begin to say — Good to see you, Good to hear you ("from " being struck off.)