Houdoe

Houdoe (pronounce: how do) is a Brabantic greeting which is spoken in parts of the Dutch province North-Brabant. It is a misunderstanding that it has been derived from the English language short sentence "how do you do?". Houdoe has been derived from the Brabantic sentence "Houd oe eige goed." This sentence can be translated to "Take care of yourself."

In parts of North-Brabant people don't pronounce the H, there people say "oudoe" instead of "houdoe". This phenomenon is called H-deletion and is most prevalent in the western part of Noord-Brabant.

In 2005 the newspapers Brabants Dagblad, Eindhovens Dagblad and BN/De Stem organized an election for the most beautiful Brabantic word, which was won by the word Houdoe. [Nu.nl Nieuws (2005): ' [http://www.nu.nl/news/536599/10/'Houdoe'_mooiste_Brabantse_woord.html 'Houdoe' mooiste Brabantse woord] ', 5 juni 2005, info verkregen op 30 december 2006.]

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