The Slangs of New York

Although I have posted here a picture of what seems to be a very affluent San Francisco hipster, would you believe that it is a Bowery B'hoy from a antebellum New York City. This group of people from Manhattan's lower east side inspired this image with the way they dressed. However the Bowery b'hoys and g'hals were also responsible for slang and a cultural atmosphere that made the Bowery a place of cultural revolution. Though many gangs were a part of the Bowery, and many of the b'hoys were street thugs, they helped shape a part of the colloquial American speech.

The flop-houses, cheap theaters, and dance halls made the Bowery a place where the working man could go to have a good time. Of course, wherever there is culture there is bound to be slang, and it was this slang that caught Walt Whitman's eye. We even still use some of this speech today. Every time you say "so long", or "chum", call someone your "pal", or say that the party was a "blow-out" you have to thank the bowery b'hoys and g'hals. Whitman, a clear lover of language, was a fan of the language of the Bowery. Whitman even used parts of their slang in his poetry.

Although I can't see Whitman agreeing with the thuggish elements of the Bowery i can see that he might be interested in them and thier language. A language of the working class man, of the dancehalls, flophouses, and theaters is the language fo the people. Although the high academic institutions of America always hold a sway on what language is proper or literary, it is always the people who come up with the new additions to language. Language is a sign of the times and even certain periods are demarkated by words. If i say "groovy" an image of the late sixties and early seventies comes to mind. "Radical" and "dude" remind us of the eighties. So we can see how powerful the language of the people, and how even some of this slang still sticks around with us today!

I can imagine Walt Whitman seeing this new slang, new words, words of the people, and i can imagine him saying "Why the hell not!" Whitman was all about the language of the people, the lull of the voices he loved, and as an autodidact, how could he not love the new slang coming from the lower east side.

But speaking of the atmosphere that was made by the Bowery? How about a little place called CBGB's? How about The Talking Heads, or The Ramones?


Though the Bowery was a spot of ill repute, much like San Francisco's Tenderloin, sometimes it's these places of low rents and residents that stay up all night that allow this kind of art to flourish. New styles, new art, new slang, all form in these cultural epicenters and that is perhaps what Whitman saw, and why he enjoyed the slang of the Bowery.

So, that picture of that hipster with the tall hat, weird pants and red shirt wasn't too far off. Surely there may have been more violence and less av-ante-garde snobbery, but the spirit may be the same. New people, trying new things, trying to live their life in new ways, and creating a microcosm of culture that may be immortalized through language.

Well in the words of the Bowery, so long.


Sites Cited:

http://www.boweryboogie.com/2010/11/bowery-slang/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowery
http://ahistoryofnewyork.com/tag/bowery-bhoys/