Is "Howdy" really english?

[Touchdown]

Somebody sent me some crappy e-mail with John Wayne's cowboy picture on it saying...

"Now just tell me why in HELL I have to press '1' for English?"

Never mind that this sentence is just begging for an english teacher to correct it, this is about Wayne. Since when has Wayne ever spoken proper english? I can't even remember him walking properly. Since when is "Howdy!" an english word? In Colorado, we have tons of Texas transplants, and they are coming into my land and trying to change my native language, by saying "HOWDY" all day long. You come here Texans, learn the language. Say "Hey Dude." or get out! :evilgrin:

[shain from kane]

1. Before the telephone was invented? n/t

[Beelzebud]

2. Want to see how to enrage your average John Wayne fan?

Say this: "Isn't that the guy that Brokeback Mountain was based on?"

That line nearly got me in a fight with an overzealous Wayne fan. :D lol

[shain from kane]

7. Does he still beat his wife? n/t

[KurtNYC]

19. John Wayne's real name: Marion Robert Morrison

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wayne

mucho macho Marion

[The Stranger]

28. And he was a draft dodger.

[supernova]

3. Howdy is vernacular

for the formal greeting "How do you do?"

[Quantess]

25. So it is English, then.

Derived from it, at least.

[Touchdown]

26. I doubt it.

My response has always been..."How do I do what?":D

[supernova]

29. It's pure southern

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary:

howdy
1840, first recorded in Southern U.S. dialect, contraction of how do you do (1632), phrase inquiring after someone's health; earlier how do ye (1563).

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=howdy&searchmode=none

[shain from kane]

4. A cowboy wearing a toupee? n/t

[BOSSHOG]

5. The answer would seem self-evident

If you want to listen to the English language you press "1," get it John.

My favorite John Wayne quote - "Chief Petty Officers run the Navy."

[napi21]

6. Oh comeon. It's not that bad.

Howdy is just a short version of how do you do. I've heard MUCH WORSE than Howdy!

[Touchdown]

8. You're from the South, aren't you?

LOL.:D

[napi21]

9. Actually no. I was born in Pa, and lived there for 45 yrs.

I moved to the south in 1987, and even lived in Tx. for 6 years.

It's pretty funny! When I go back to Pa, they say I sound like a southerner. When I meet people in the south, they say I sound like a damn yankee!

I guess I'm just a nobody now. LOL

[Bluzmann57]

10. Howdy from a lifelong Midwesterner

Heck, I'm from Iowa where Marion Morrison aka John Wayne was born. I've been saying Howdy since I could speak and see nothing wrong with it. Hey Dude, on the other hand...hmmm.

[Touchdown]

14. Why does everybody have to sound like Minnie Pearl?

I don't get it. Nobody that moved here from Pennsylvania says "Yous Alls".:shrug:

[Quantess]

27. In the trashier parts of Oregon,

you can hear people who regularly speak like this:

He/she don't do nothing. He/she don't got any.
The word doesn't doesn't exist. Got replaces have.

I feel a little like a snob saying this, because there is a fairly subsantial number of people around here who really do talk this way on a daily basis. But it does make me cringe.

[checkmate1947]

11. If you find that hard to understand, try this

Dawg
Hawg
Jeetyet
furpiece
Yonder
 also a DUDE is a fellow in a cowboy hat, and no cattle, as in
GWB

[niccolos_smile]

12. Actually it's Texan speak...

And pretty soon y'all will be speaking it fluently with the new TSL classes installed in every state. :evilgrin:

[lonestarnot]

33. hmmmmf... What is a TSL class?

[Touchdown]

39. Toad Salamander Larvae? -Sort of a reverse progression.

Terminal: Scandia Lines?
Tyslexia Synching Lips?
Touchdown Sinks Laughter? -probabaly that one

[niccolos_smile]

40. Like ESL, Texan as a Second Language...

B-)

[TlalocW]

13. We-ell... I'll tell you whut

Me and a couple of other buckeroos were down by the canyon huntin' coyotes cuz they've been diggin' up our tomato plants when we saw some Mes-kins out gatherin' rocks to put on their patio (so they said), but we called the sheriff and had them put in the hoosegow.

I've often used this sentence as an example of how languages bleed into each other. Six of the words come from the Spanish language:
Buckeroo - A mispronunciation of vaquero (cowboy)
Canyon
Coyotes
Tomato (from the Aztec language, tomatl originally)
Patio
Hoosegow (juzgado - court, as in where legal judgements come from)

I've made some cowboy-ish acquaintances upset over it. They actually say buckeroo and hoosegow. They didn't realize they were speaking Spanish.

As for John Wayne, you should email back and let the person know that all three of his wives were of Mexican descent.

TlalocW

[dipsydoodle]

15. "Son of a gun" cracks me up

That's a 400 year old Elizabethan expression refering to the kids on the lower gun deck of a galleon. How on earth it ever landed up in cowboy films is completely beyond me.

[niccolos_smile]

17. Probably because you couldn't say sum' b!tch...

sum' bitch = son of a b!tch

[dipsydoodle]

23. If you want some unintelligible expressions

find some recordings of Charlie Poole and the NC Ramblers from the late '20s. So's nobody could copy what he sung Charlie would string words together into one. Here's a sample, on track one, of a clip of which can be played through RealPlayer :

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/poprock/detail/-/hnum/1544750/rk/home/rsk/hitlist

That site is in Germany and they've got the best music search engine on the planet.

[niccolos_smile]

24. Cool. Thanks. n/t

[patricia92243]

16. Is Howdy Doody ok? I loved him as a kid. Just kidding :)

[Touchdown]

18. INteresting you say that.

Since HD was a Hollywood creation. Cowboy hero movies were a Hollywood creation. Their venacular were Hollywood creations. The afformentioned "Son-of a Gun" was Hollywood. Oil Barons like JR Ewing were Hollywood creations. Hee Haw was a Hollywood production using Nashville talent. The list goes on...

It seems that Texas' culture was a product of California's commercial enterprise.:rofl:

[lectrobyte]

20. and on a contemporary note, "Larry the Cable Guy" is a Hollywood

creation, he's from Nebraska and allegedly college-educated. I guess if the gig pays enough, someone will do it.

[ComerPerro]

21. That's such an inconvenience, and its so difficult, to press "1"

:sarcasm:

[sui generis]

22. How do ye do? Howdy?

Hey hey hey.

Coloradan ain't no language. When we visit with y'all there it's to learn you how to speak proper. I'm fixin' to come show you now.

:rofl:

[OxQQme]

30. Yup! Comin' to set y'all straight

in my ve-hick-le !

[texanwitch]

31. A lot of English isn't English. American english is a combination of

words from other languages. If I remember right about a third of American english is German.

[lonestarnot]

32. I am in AZ and occassionally say Howdy, but John Fucking

Wayne and I are not related. hmmmmmmmmmf.

[Touchdown]

34. Do you walk funny?

Shouldn't the rest of us be the judge of that?;)

[lonestarnot]

35. Judge of what? My walk? Can you go to jail for that?

:rofl:

[Buns_of_Fire]

37. Perhaps. We'll take it up with the Ministry of Silly Walks.

http://upload.wikimedia.org.nyud.net:8090/wikipedia/en/7/7f/Ministry_of_Silly_Walks.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ministry_of_Silly_Walks

[lonestarnot]

38. OMG

:rofl: almost as good as old leftie's cat! I miss that cat!

[leftofthedial]

36. yup

youbetcha