On 2 Dec, 19:40, "Kate Morgan" wrote:
"Kate Morgan" wrote in message
snet...
Does anyone know how this counting rhyme goes, my husband has been
nagging me all morning and I don't have time to surf, I think that one
of you will know, hopefully :-)

OK, I looked again and saw your "don't have time to surf."

It starts

Yan Tan Tether mether pip

Steve

OK, you've got me going now. The wiki entry -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yan_Tan_Tethera

gives loads of different varieties, apparently each dale had it's own
similar, but slightly different system.

Steve

* Thank you very much for your interest and help Steve, I appreciate your
input very much, I wasn't being lazy, honest guv. just have a lot on at the
moment. Got a couple of hours off tomorrow so will follow some links up,
thanks again

I recall an article in Lincolnshire Life about this around 0.45
centuries ago, which later appeared too in Essex Countryside. My
grandfather (an east coast man) used Yan, Tan, Tether etc. to count
turns of rope or rag marks on a depth line. It is now known
univerally as 'the method of counting sheep', but I suspect was
applied more widely.

http://www.ramshornstudio.com/lincoln_sheep.htm suggests that
quantities up to 20 would be held in the head, and then tallied on a
notched stick. Such notched sticks have been found in Roman remains,
and allegedly back to the iron age.

It is a fascinating subject - I have heard on the BBC that they may be
the only surviving iron age words in the language. Certainly it is
interesting that they seem to work in base 20, like most european
languages (french, for example, has distinct words like quinze, but
goes for vingt et un above 20. Just as dutch has vijftien, for
example). The "correct" way to use the 5-barred-gate method of
tallying is in rows of 4 gates, or 20s. There does seem to be
residual evidence of base 20 being as important as base 10 before
scientific consistency got going.