How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?

Subject: How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?
From: frogprince
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 09:54 AM

I grew up in Minnesota, singing "doggies", because midwestern grain farm people didn't know any better. I long since learned the standard pronunciation as "Doughgies". A few days a collegue of wife, declaring herself to be a horse owner and student of western lore, proclaimed that it should be "Dewgies". Has anyone heard any credible support for that pronunciation?

Subject: RE: How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?
From: frogprince
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 09:56 AM

...a few days ago...

Subject: RE: How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?
From: john f weldon
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 10:03 AM

dough-gies is correct, because i say so!

Subject: RE: How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 10:05 AM

I allus heard it as rhymed with stogies.

~S~

Subject: RE: How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 10:05 AM

'How much is that dough-gie in the window?'

Subject: RE: How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 10:12 AM

Right, Wysiwig. It rhymes with stogies.

Subject: RE: How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 10:16 AM

I have never heard the pronunciation, "DEW-gies" before.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 10:19 AM

In the title song from "Rawhide",whence we in England have learned everything that there is to know about the "Wild West" (after "Wells Fargo", "Bronco" and "Boots and Saddles" ,of course,), it is ,I would say from memory,almost certainly "Doh" (as in Homer Simpson) and "Gees" ( as in Geese without the final E). QED.

Subject: RE: How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?
From: Wesley S
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 11:22 AM

The only time that the "Dewgies" pronunciation is proper is when you are discussing the rare Houser breed.

Photos here.

Subject: RE: How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 11:54 AM

Owen Wister used the term in "The Virginian." It appears in a number of cowboy songs from the late 1800's or so, as in:

"Whoopy-ti-yi-o, get along, little dogies,
   It's your misfortune and none of my own.
   Whoopy-ti-yi-o, get along, little dogies,
   You know that Wyoming will be your new home."

I raised quite a few "dogies" while growing up on a ranch in central California; Hereford calves to be precise. The term was once used to describe unbranded calves in a herd. At roundup time, they would be corralled and branded. The young bull calves would, most of them, offer up their "mountain oysters" at the same time, yielding steers for market.

Subject: RE: How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 12:04 PM

Wesley...I couldn't remember any instance of it being "dew gee" until I clicked on your link!**bg**

My dad and granddad, both Colorado ranchers always said "DOH geese."

Subject: RE: How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?
From: Mark Ross
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 12:10 PM

A calf when it is being weaned, well, the stomach swells up, and the punchers used to refer them as "doughguts", 'cause it looked like that's what they had a bellyfull of. This got shortened to 'dough-gies". At least that's what I heard.


Mark Ross

Subject: RE: How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 01:23 PM

Two schools of thought. One prefers the 'doughguts' origin.
The other is that the origin is from the Spanish word dogal which in Vaquero lingo means a motherless calf, and in Spain originally meant a rope around the neck, e. g. halter.

This has been gone into in previous threads. Two references:

Donald Chavez y Gilbert, " Glossary in "Cowboys - Vaqueros".
www.nmhcpl.org/COWBOY.html
Go to Chapter 11, 'Vaquero-Cowboy Lingo'; definition of 'dogal'.

Ramon F. Adams, Western Words, a Dictionary of the Range, Cow Camp and Trail
Adams offers two explanations:
1- The northern range was esp. good for fattening young animals, and a demand rose for them, esp. yearling steers, and the name 'dogies' was applied to them.
2- After a severe winter in the eighties, many orphan calfs were left; grass and water was too heavy for the little orphans and they developed bellies that resembled a batch of sourdough carried in a sack, thus 'dough-guts.'
Adams acknowledges that there is controversy over the origin of the word.

Being from New Mexico, I learned the 'dogal' origin for the term.

Subject: RE: How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 04:24 PM

Some of you are getting things confused....it's all very simple:

"Dew-gee" is that Scottish singer

"Doe-gees" are bovine

"Dog-gees" are canine

Now you know.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 04:40 PM

And Doges are old Venetian bigshots. The only ones with a soft mushy 'g'.

Subject: RE: How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?
From: Don Firth
Date: 24 Mar 09 - 05:05 PM

Dogies -- with the long O. I see this thread is in good hands. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?
From: Jim Lad
Date: 25 Mar 09 - 03:21 AM

I tap them three times on the head, with a silver hammer then hand it off to a Cardinal.

Subject: RE: How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 25 Mar 09 - 11:32 AM

Sounds very Nautical to me !!

Subject: RE: How do you pronounce 'Dogies'?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 25 Mar 09 - 12:41 PM

I believe that Q has got it right in terms of derivation from the Spanish as in "orphaned calfs." I always heard it pronounced as "doughies" as sung by Tony Kraber on his 1940's cowboy songs recording.

Charley Noble