Eeny, meeny, miny, mo: Counting ditties long ago
April 22, 2015 5:22 AM   Subscribe

Eena, meena, mina, mo, / Cracka, feena, fina, fo, / Uppa, nootcha, poppa, tootcha, / Ring, ding, dang, doe. "Losing Count: “Eeny, meeny, miny, mo” and the ambiguous history of counting-out rhymes," from The Paris Review.
posted by MonkeyToes (29 comments total) 19 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is great! While I'm here, can I favorite these last two fpps as a pair? Favority pavority postery two, samma kamma wacky blue.

(I hope I can shake this off before writing a quiz for class today - could be an interesting one.)
posted by klausman at 6:11 AM on April 22, 2015 [5 favorites]


Hard to figure out what this article is trying to say. I had always heard that these counting rhymes were vestiges of older words for numbers, and in the case of "yan, tan, tethera" the relation to Celtic numerals seems clear. See the wikipedia article.
posted by Pararrayos at 6:38 AM on April 22, 2015 [2 favorites]


I really don't get the connection between "irel pirel" and "easel diesel". Can anyone explain?
posted by Omnomnom at 6:43 AM on April 22, 2015


I really don't get the connection between "irel pirel" and "easel diesel". Can anyone explain?

It's more referring to the dangers of oral transmission - one person mumbles something, another person overhears and repeats what they think they heard, and the sounds morph as a result. (Think back to any game of "Telephone" you ever played as a kid.) "Irel pirel" could have been mis-heard as "Izzle Pizzel" or even "ivvle pivvle" and then further mis-heard as "EE-zel PEE-zel", which could have been further misheard as "ee-zel BEE-zel", etc.

I've been reminded of the "extra verses" we kids would sometimes add on once we all got wise to working out ahead of time if we would be picked, and would shift where we were standing in the circle so as not to be the one who got tagged on a count-out (or TO be tagged, depending). So sometimes it went from:

"...if he hollers let him go,
Out goes y-o-u"

to

"...if he hollers let him go,
Out goes y-o-u
and you-are-not-it."

or

"...if he hollers let him go,
Out goes y-o-u
and you-are-not-the-one."

or

"...if he hollers let him go,
Out goes y-o-u
and you-are-not-the-one-who-is-it."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:31 AM on April 22, 2015


My mother and your mother
Live across the bay,
Every time they have a fight
This is what they say:
Icka bucka soda cracker,
Icka bucka boo,
Icka bucka soda cracker,
Out goes YOU!
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 7:39 AM on April 22, 2015 [2 favorites]


Ooncha ooncha one-two-three-cha!
Gonna get a breadtangle of pizza!
posted by Metroid Baby at 7:41 AM on April 22, 2015 [2 favorites]


Omigod, ThatCanadianGirl, you've just reminded me of another one we used:
My mother and your mother were hanging out clothes,
My mother punched your mother right in the nose -
What color blood came out? [the person tagged names a color - we'll use "purple"]
P-U-R-P-L-E spells purple
And you are not it.
That one was actually more common than "Eeny Meeny" in my crowd, and nearly tied with "one potato, two potato".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:43 AM on April 22, 2015 [4 favorites]


....and I haven't thought of that rhyme in about 30 years.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:43 AM on April 22, 2015 [2 favorites]


If he hollers make him pay
$50 every day
My mom said to pick the very best one and
You are it!
posted by klausman at 7:45 AM on April 22, 2015


My family lived in England for a year when I was ten. When my neighborhood mates used this rhyme to choose teams, it was my first indication that the rhyme might not be the same everywhere.

Eeny meey maka raka,
Om pom paka raka,
Eeny meeny maka raka,
Om pom poosh.
posted by asfuller at 8:31 AM on April 22, 2015


What I always wondered is if other languages have something like the "one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand..." method for counting seconds.
posted by Sangermaine at 8:41 AM on April 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


"...if he hollers let him go,
O-U-T spells out
And out you go!
posted by Mister Bijou at 8:48 AM on April 22, 2015


"... if he hollers let him go,
Out goes Y-O-U."

I have never seen this Yan Tan Tethera thing before, though. How odd: it's just completely slipped my notice.

Which is kind of awesome: I will always be finding new things to learn.
posted by suelac at 8:53 AM on April 22, 2015


Also titled "More Fun with Ablaut!"
posted by eclectist at 8:54 AM on April 22, 2015


We always did eeny meeny growing up. I was watching Seinfeld the other week when they did:

Inka Binka bottle of ink,
The cork fell off and you stink,
Not because you're dirty,
Not because you're clean,
Just because you kissed a girl
Behind a magazine!

I had never heard that one before, but my wife said that was the most common one when she was a kid, followed by:

My mother & your mother were hanging out the clothes,
My mother punched your mother one right in the nose,
What color was the blood? (etc)
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:58 AM on April 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


On the subject of extra verses, if you didn't land where you wanted to land, you added:

"And out you must go
On your mother's BIG. FAT. TOE!"
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 9:01 AM on April 22, 2015


Anyone remember these?

Engine, engine number 9
running the Chicago line
if the train goes off the track
do you want your money back
Yes, no, maybe so.
Y-E-S spells yes and you are not it

Bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish
how many pieces do you wish?
1-2-3 and you are not it

posted by magstheaxe at 9:46 AM on April 22, 2015 [3 favorites]


Fun article but not super well-researched. The "n***er/tiger" thing is a very popular and, I believe, very incorrect urban myth; apparently it's always been "tiger" or some other animal, but some unsavory characters in the American South coined the other usage, which became regionally popular for a while.

Myself being also poorly-researched, however, I can no longer find documentation to back this up and so forget how I knew that. Sounds true, though, doesn't it?
posted by Mooseli at 9:54 AM on April 22, 2015 [2 favorites]


it's always been "tiger" or some other animal

Can't speak for America but it was definitely "nigger" in the English West Midlands in the 1950s.
posted by Mister Bijou at 9:59 AM on April 22, 2015


Definitely the n-word in suburban Toronto in the 60's & early 70's. Didn't hear the "tiger" option until well after I was using these rhymes.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 10:15 AM on April 22, 2015


OH MY GOD THE BUBBLE GUM ONE I FORGOT ABOUT THAT ONE TOO
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:17 AM on April 22, 2015 [1 favorite]


Aukka bokka soda crakka
Aukka bokka boo
In comes Unca Sam
Out goes Y-O-U
(In-this-game-of-hide-and-seek-in-denny's-backyard-on-Wednesday-night....)
posted by firemouth at 10:45 AM on April 22, 2015


hide-and-seek

Not a counting-out rhyme as such, but us kids stole lines from Schoolhouse Rock for hide-and-seek:

Apples, peaches, pumpkin pie,
Who's not ready? Holler "I"!


If you hadn't found a hiding spot by then, you could holler "I" and be excused for that round.
posted by magstheaxe at 10:52 AM on April 22, 2015


Where I'm from it's mostly pito pito colorito, although una dola tela catola might be closer to the counting rhyme.
posted by sukeban at 11:04 AM on April 22, 2015


Yeah, not tiger in the 70's. It wasn't until the 80's that tiger started to become the norm where I lived in Southern Ontario.
posted by fimbulvetr at 12:41 PM on April 22, 2015


Back in 2009, I asked a question about regional variations on children's jumping and counting rhymes that readers of this thread might find interesting. The result was lots and lots of regional variations (as you might imagine) but with a high amount basic stability across the major rhyme.

Also fun? The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, a book (and a classic) on the particular rhymes and mythologies of British schoolchildren. You can find the introduction online [pdf].
posted by librarylis at 1:55 PM on April 22, 2015 [4 favorites]


Calls to mind Agatha Christie's 1939 classic, renamed for American sensibilities as And The There Were None. It came out as a play in London in 1943, same title as UK book. The American staging (1944) took on the title Ten Little Indians, which obtained for the (British) 1965 film version, and which itself had begun to sound wrong. Another variant was Ten Little Soldiers. I saw a stage version in London in 1985 (?) in which the rhyme had morphed into Ten Little Travelers. Presumably there it will rest.

(Or perhaps not....)
posted by BWA at 2:10 PM on April 22, 2015 [1 favorite]




Superman, superman, fly away,
and don't come back 'til the very next day.

My mother told me to pick the very best one
and you are not it
for the rest of your en-tie-yer life!
posted by lostburner at 3:54 PM on April 23, 2015


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