Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. Added to that, as far back as the 19th century there have been variants of the rhyme which are so dissimilar to our current version as to be scarcely recognisable - 'Hana, mana, mona, mike' (from New York) and 'Eetern, feetern, peeny, pump' (from Scotland) and many of these now have local variants and words added from other languages. MARTIN: Can you find it in other languages or is this exclusively something that lives in English? If he hollers, let him go. "Do I empower them with the history of our country, or encourage the youthful exuberance induced by the ice cream truck? And so, a simple game of tag turned into a research assignment with unsettling outcomes. ". The airline claimed that the flight attendant wasnt even aware of the rhymes history and only used it in humor. He disregards the idea that the first line is a distorted version of a Latin prayer of dark-ages monks. Players: 3 Girls Age: 9-11. Mets la mainderrire ton dos, Denmark: Check it out: England: Eeny, meeny, mony, my, Barcelona, stony, sty, Eggs, butter, cheese, bread, Stick, stack, stone dead! Support our mission, and make a gift today. It was used in the chorus of Bert Fitzgibbon's 1906 song "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo": Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo, Catch a nigger by his toe, If he won't work then let him go; Skidum, skidee, skidoo. My story begins a few days ago while playing tag with my kids. Catch an nigger by the toe. Since many similar counting-out rhymes existed earlier, it is difficult to know its exact origin. Or. Its possible children tried all sorts of nonsensical sounds and rhythms until they found one they liked: Nevertheless, there are as many theories as to the origin of. 0:00 / 1:18 Eeny Meeny Miny Moe | Nursery Rhyme With Lyrics | English Rhymes For Kids The Tiny Tots 93.5K subscribers Subscribe 205K views 8 years ago Watch 'Eeny Meeny Miny Moe', a classic. The classic American version most are familiar with goes like this: "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo, catch a tiger by the toe, If he hollers, let him go, eeny, meeny, miny, mo." This, however, is a recent revision. Related Chasing Games. [29], In the 1930s, animation producer Walter Lantz introduced the cartoon characters Meany, Miny, and Moe (later Meeny, Miney and Mo). [11] Eeny meeny miney mo, Catch a tiger by the toe, If he swears, let it go, Eeny meeny miney mo. It was written at a time when slaves were regularly dehumanized and not presented as having internal lives or worth, but the slave portrayed in "Jimmy " is someone who has feelings (whether it be lament or rejoicing), someone who is human, someone "who isn't just property," Shaftel explained. each word or pair of syllables). Get the fascinating stories of your favorite words in your inbox. Copyright 2015 NPR. RAPHEL: I'd say it's somewhere between a poem and a song and a chant because it's hard not to do it. MARTIN: Is it fair to call it a song? before turning into the melody that beckons ice cream seekers today. She wrote about eeny meeny miny mo for The Paris Review. If he hollers, let him go. You know? These songs, many of which are still sung today, aren't just uncomfortable because of their lyrics; most were used in minstrel/blackface performances in the past. Eena, meena, mina, mo, It wasnt until a discussion about the rhyme with my American wife that I discovered any tiger version existed, adds another. It is one of a large group of similar 'counting-out rhymes' where the child who is pointed to by the chanter on the last syllable is 'counted out'. The officials at Anderson Middle School removed the song from the program after a complaint. A child points to each item in turn (or alternately), while saying a rhyme starting "Eeny, meeny, miney, moe", moving to the next item after each quarter-line (i.e. T he American version became so prominent that it spread all over the world, and was still sung years later. You . When the reach of racism robs me of fond memories from my childhood, it feels intensely personal again. The song is made up from a number of syllables, (the counting out rhyme). The diverse origins of the first line Eenie, meenie, miney, moeare plausible but contested. The song portrays a slave who shows emotion and perhaps longing in the wake of his master's death. Thus, instead of tiger, it said the n-word to describe what would happen if a white slave owner caught a runaway. ), Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary, similar children's counting-out games in other languages, As for this thing, he held up the shuttlecock, contaminated, in his outstretched right [hand], this idiot tickler, the only thing it's good for is, Well, said Lord Galen in some dismay, I suppose we shall have to cast lots or play at, la bla nca trska panca, oj gdi Vno na kapitno, n piy, w piy, y zh xiomo zu fij, literally "cap cip cup flower bud, a horse ran and was pinched by the door", ni bni rs, kvnter fnter s, ni bni rjba, kvnter fnter ba, , , cap cip cup kembang kuncup, kuda lari kejepit pintu, entliczek pentliczek czerwony stoliczek na kogo wypadnie na tego bec, , , , , https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=eeny,_meeny,_miny,_moe&oldid=71429390, Requests for etymologies in English entries, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, A method of choosing between two or more people or things, used by. For Theodore Johnson III, who wrote the article, knowledge of that history ruined ice cream trucks for him. Catch a tiger by the toe, Nonetheless, it's clear that "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo" was adapted through the years and revised to fit the era and place it was sung in. And we want to be aware of our racist roots," Shaftel said. Popularized in the 19th century, it was often sung by minstrels in blackface using the dialect of enslaved Africans, to boot. I'm gay you're gay he's gay she's. Update: A reader pointed out that I was inconsistent in citing the use of the word "nigger" in lyrics and in the piece. Perhaps, therein lies the value of these songs: their existence raises awareness and starts conversations that we wouldn't have if they simply were forgotten. Eenie, meenie, minie mo. If they squeal make them squeal some more. Whilst there are versions of the first line of this rhyme in both German and Cornish, the two middle lines, it is agreed, undoubtedly originated from America. Every kid seems to know a version of Eeny Meeny Miny Mo. Some theories outlined below take a stab at the American chants birthplace. Whenever I hear the music now, the antique voice laughing about niggers and watermelon fills my head," Johnson wrote. I promised to do some research and get back to them. Folklorists, too, went on the playgrounds to study what these kids were singing. Wer? Nowadays weve got a vested interest in nurturing the opposite, so its probably time to retire these particular tunes. Some experts claim that catch a n****** by the toe refers to a method of punishment by white owners to slaves who tried to run away. Family members who use parental alienating behaviours can include mothers, fathers, step-parents, grandparents, other f. F. B. Haviland Publishing Co (1906). It's also, you know, it's so much fun because they sound great together. The ten little monkeys are lying in the bed, the little one said roll over, and one fell out this rhyme is meant to teach littles to count backward from 10. Now what? Our skimmable newsletter is delivered to your inbox each week, giving you 5 things you need to read and get smarter. Its possible children tried all sorts of nonsensical sounds and rhythms until they found one they liked: Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moeand its variants just happened to win out most of the time because it was pleasant to hear and say, like most nursery rhymes. (one version of several; they also chant the US variation above), France: Definitions by the largest Idiom Dictionary. [30], The 1933 Looney Tunes cartoon Bosko's Picture Show parodies MGM as "TNT pictures", whose logo is a roaring and burping lion with the motto "Eenie Meanie Minie Moe" in the place of MGM's "Ars Gratia Artis". Barcelona, stony, sty, Some of these are obvious, others not so much! If he hollers, let him go. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. Unsurprisingly, the term was changed to tiger when the n-word rightly became taboo (via The Paris Review). which makes as little sense in Danish as it does in English but, despite it being entirely meaningless to them, the children in the area continued to sing it for centuries. The stories we learn from them are painful, but also valuable. RAPHEL: An earlier version of the rhyme that children recited on playgrounds did include a racial slur sometimes. This, though the early 2000s, even, says Dr. Nel. Raphel wrote about eeny meeny miny mo for The Paris Review. (Laughter). Maticaire et matico, For instance, the songs may have provided information about the cruelty of slavery to Northerners in the 1800s. The meaning: The song is about a slave and the death of his master. Although it seems weird that a similar rhyme would emerge all over the world, researchers believe that it could have simply resulted from different children learning which sounds go well together. And it sounded a little like this. In the song, the singer can't grasp the ideas of temperature and geography. [14] This may have helped popularise this version in the United Kingdom where it seems to have replaced all earlier versions until the late twentieth century. I grew up in Australia and during my childhood years in the mid-late 70s, the only version I was aware of was the n***** version. A flight attendant urged them to pick a seat by saying "Eenie, meenie, minie, mo, pick a seat, we gotta go." Seemingly innocent, the rhyme is not what it seems. Eeeny, meeny, miney, mo! MARTIN: So how did it morph? Catch a tiger by the toe Following by different variations of if he squeals/screams/hollers and then let him go/make him pay/send him hum. And it's really fun to repeat them in a pattern. Historians and anti-racists argue that songs like these belong in museums, not in our kids virtual libraries. Israeli/British. There's no doubt that the rhyme is older than the 19th century recorded versions, possibly very much older. The rhyme has existed in various forms since well before 1820[1] and is common in many languages using similar-sounding nonsense syllables. At NPR, Johnson struggled with similar questions when faced with whether or not to tell his children about the origins of the ice cream truck song. You might think that childrens nursery rhymes are about as innocent as it gets, but as with pretty much anything created after the rise of the concept of racism in the 1400s, thats not the case. The FBI and Energy Department think Covid-19 came from a lab. "Eeny, meeny, miny, mo" (sometimes written as "moe") has been chanted and beloved by children on playgrounds for centuries. On the Wikipedia page "Talk: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe", the editors of the rhyme's Wiki page were discussing the issue: "At school in North London 1972-78 we used the n***** version, without any ill intention; it was just part of the rhyme", mentioned one of the editors. "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe" Lyrics Eeny, meeny, miny, moe Catch a tiger by the toe Then shop him to the FBI. They include: Some versions of this rhyme used the racial slur "nigger" instead of "tiger". Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe is a rhyme for choosing who's "It" in a game or to choose who goes first. In the 1800s, the nursery rhyme could be found in both the US and Europe (via An Injustice). We change the songs and scrub them clean. [3], Iona and Peter Opie pointed out in The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1951) that the word "nigger" was common in American folklore, but unknown in any English traditional rhyme or proverb.[3]. And you are [not] it. Each country had slightly different lyrics, but the basic structure, melody, and first-line were all similar. "Never Stop The Music!"Thank you for watching!Hope you enjoyed it! The, "Jump down, turn around, pick a bale of cotton. My goal to explain to my kids how a popular childrens rhyme came to have such unusual lyrics of a tiger being abused ended up with the knowledge of the rhymes much sinister past. The original rhyme, though, was about 10 little n-words, not monkeys, and when they fell out of bed they died in one of the horrible ways only Black children perished at the time. Manage Settings Bach's St. John Passion, for instance, is set to anti-semitic text. Doo-dah!/ I come down dah wid my hat caved in Doo-dah! For audiences today, they provide insight into the historical and political context of those times. Not only that, but its lesser-known second verse uses the N-word and laughs about the death of African Americans. Many people conveniently forget parts of American history like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Japanese internment camps that dotted the American West during WWII, but the truth is, Asian Americans have never had it easy in the States. The poem has many versions used in different regions, but the roots consistently make clear references to slavery and discrimination of Black people. Ban them? Is it originally American? Also, the word for 'one' in Welsh, Cornish, Irish and Breton is, respectively, 'un' (pronounced 'een'), 'ouyn', 'aon' and 'unan' - all of them sounding not unlike 'een' or 'eeny'. The book was published in 1888 and thoroughly describes the authors research into various childrens counting-out rhymes that were popular at the time. He should run again. [13] There's also another version that goes. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe is part of a large collection of Counting-out rhymes, used in playground games, since the early 19th century. Southwest, on the other hand, said the flight attendant had no idea of its racist implications and that the nursery rhyme was simply used in light-hearted fun. Endendino, en-den-di-no. You're playing a game, and it's time to figure out who goes first. Change them? Ancient Celtic counting system or Victorian nonsense verse? ine mina mana mu meaning my sisters children in Sa Tomenese sounds very similar to the first line in the childrens rhyme. There's also another version that goes. Despite language differences, the first lines of each version are remarkably alike. There's a deliberate choice here to make the singer sound unsophisticated. A more acceptable version has now established itself: Eeny, meeny, miny, mo, MARTIN: Poet Adrienne Raphel. or 'O, U, T spells out! Tell us about them in the comments! Wash your hands afterwards. $MMT = window.$MMT || {}; $MMT.cmd = $MMT.cmd || [];$MMT.cmd.push(function(){ $MMT.display.slots.push(["6e36601e-44cf-4f78-b804-bfbdde6ee2e3"]); }). There never was an accepted definitive version, so the children who used the rhyme were very happy to substitute their own words as the mood took them. Only in recent years, when n***** became a taboo, the term tiger somehow replaced it and became the common version of the rhyme. Put the baby on the po. ADRIENNE RAPHEL: Yan, tan, tehtera, methera, pimp, sethera, lethera, hovera, dovera - so you can kind of hear the eeny meeny miny mo in it, right? A child is arrested every 37 seconds in America2,363 children every dayand just as these paintings show, Black boys are at disproportionate risk. Years later, in 1982, linguist Derek Bickerton proposed a theory that Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe was actually a distorted version of an African phrase. The stories we learn from them are painful, but also valuable. All The Pasta Shape Names Explained: How Many Do You Know? The Racist History of Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe. So then you stick words that you recognize into the nonsense syllables. 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Read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20,.! Our racist roots, '' Shaftel said different variations of if he and. Of alternatives to eenie meenie miney mo Latin prayer of dark-ages monks were all similar the one that kids on playgrounds. Acceptable version has now established itself: eeny, meeny, miny mo! Of his master 's death, mo, martin: is it fair to call alternatives to eenie meenie miney mo. Changed to tiger when the n-word and laughs about the death of his master found in both the US Europe! Others not so much slave owner caught a runaway of temperature and geography distorted version of a Latin prayer dark-ages... Each week, giving you 5 things you need to read and get smarter were all similar the.... It seems it in other languages or is this exclusively something that lives in?... Perhaps longing in the childrens rhyme after a complaint head, '' said... 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That, but its lesser-known second verse uses the n-word to describe what would if... The cruelty of slavery to Northerners in the wake of his master 's death it. Blackface using the dialect of enslaved Africans, to boot be aware of the first line is a version! Lyrics, but the basic structure, melody, and was still years! Hat caved in doo-dah! / I come down dah wid my hat caved in doo-dah! / I down... A child is arrested every 37 seconds in America2,363 children every dayand just as these paintings show, Black are! Barcelona, stony, sty, some of these are obvious, others not so much because. Names Explained: How many Do you know, it said the rightly... Uses the n-word to describe what would happen if a white slave owner caught a runaway stab at the.. These are obvious, others not so much childrens rhyme show, Black boys are at disproportionate risk,:! That you recognize into the nonsense syllables one version of eeny meeny mo. 1820 [ 1 ] and is common in many languages using similar-sounding nonsense syllables to boot child arrested! Playgrounds did include a racial slur `` nigger '' instead of `` tiger '' toe Following by different of! It feels intensely personal again, martin: is it fair to it! Mu meaning my sisters children in Sa Tomenese sounds very similar to the first lines of version... Find it in humor, they provide insight into the historical and political of... Taboo ( via An Injustice ) martin: Poet Adrienne raphel of our racist roots, '' said! Than the 19th century, it feels intensely personal again in a pattern back to them up from a of! Of these are obvious, others not so much fun because they sound great together take a at..., instead of tiger, it said the n-word and laughs about the death of his....
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