Variations of this rhyme with the nonsense/counting first line have been collected since the 1820s. Bolton also found a similar rhyme in German:Įne, tene, mone, mei, Pastor, lone, bone, strei, Ene, fune, herke, berke, Wer? Wie? Wo? Was? Henry Carrington Bolton discovered this version to be in the US, Ireland and Scotland in the 1880s but was unknown in England until later in the century. Hana, man, mona, mike Barcelona, bona, strike Hare, ware, frown, vanac Harrico, warico, we wo, wac. The first record of a similar rhyme, called the "Hana, man," is from about 1815, when children in New York City are said to have repeated the rhyme: spells out, And out goes she, In the middle of the deep blue sea" or "My mother told me/says to pick the very best one, and that is Y-O-U/you are it" while another source cites "Out goes Y-O-U." " Tigger" is also used instead of "tiger" in some versions of the rhyme. The scholars Iona and Peter Opie noted that many variants have been recorded, some with additional words such as ". If he hollers, let him go, Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Since many similar counting-out rhymes existed earlier, it is difficult to know its exact origin.Ī common modern version is: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, Catch a tiger by the toe. Some versions use a racial epithet, which has made the rhyme controversial at times. The rhyme has existed in various forms since well before 1820 and is common in many languages using similar-sounding nonsense syllables. It is one of a large group of similar rhymes in which the child who is pointed to by the chanter on the last syllable is chosen. " Eeny, meeny, miny, moe"-which can be spelled a number of ways-is a children's counting-out rhyme, used to select a person in games such as tag, or for selecting various other things.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |