How now brown cow - Wikipedia How now brown cow For the Cornbugs album, see How Now Brown Cow ( album ). shows the part of and the height of the tongue involved in the articulation of / aʊ / `` How now brown cow '' ( / ˈhaʊ ˈnaʊ ˈbraʊn ˈkaʊ / ) is a phrase used in elocution teaching to demonstrate rounded vowel sounds. Each `` ow '' sound in the phrase represents the diphthong / aʊ /. Although orthographies for each of the four words in this utterance is represented by the English spelling `` ow '', the articulation required to create this same diphthong represented by the International Phonetic Association 's phonetic alphabet as / aʊ / is also represented by the spelling `` ou ''. Some examples of these homophonic / aʊ / 's are the English words `` house '', `` blouse '', `` noun '', and `` cloud ''. The use of the phrase `` how now brown cow '' in teaching elocution can be dated back to at least 1926. Although not in use today, the phrase `` how now '' is a greeting, short for `` how say you now '', and can be found in archaic literature, such as the plays of William Shakespeare. References Jump up ^ Wise, Jessie ; Buffington, Sara ( 2004 ). The Ordinary Parent 's Guide to Teaching Reading. Charles City, VA : Peace Hill Press. p. 203. ISBN 978 - 09 - 72860 - 31 - 4. Jump up ^ Bagley, Louie : `` Elocution do 's and dont 's '', Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1926 This vocabulary - related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. This article relating to education is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. This linguistics article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=How_now_brown_cow&oldid=797907982 '' Categories : Greetings Vocabulary and usage stubs Education stubs Linguistics stubs Talk About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 29 August 2017, at 21 : 37. About Wikipedia

Question: where did the phrase how now brown cow come from
Answer: a phrase used in elocution teaching to demonstrate rounded vowel sounds