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 :-)

"Kate Morgan" wrote in message
et...
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 :-)



Have you tried the song lyrics of the late Jake Thackeray? I know he did a
song about it, IIRC it was to do with counting livestock.

Steve

"Kate Morgan" wrote in message
et...
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

"shazzbat" wrote in message
...

"Kate Morgan" wrote in message
et...
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

The message
from "Kate Morgan" contains these words:

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 :-)


I don't think it's a rhyme as such - apparantly it's understandable in
Norway. Much of the East coast was populated by Norsemen.

Yan = 1
Tan = 2
and so-on - it's just counting, and if still used will be restricted to
stock, especially sheep.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

"Kate Morgan" wrote in message
et...
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

kate

You could have Googled it in a lot less time than it took you to write that post. Hardly relevant to a gardening forum.

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.

In article , shazzbat
writes


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




I've always known it as yan, tan, fether dick, ether dick, gigit
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

In article ,
Rusty_Hinge writes


Yan = 1
Tan = 2
and so-on - it's just counting, and if still used will be restricted to
stock, especially sheep.



I've always known it as a counting method by Celts.
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

In article ,
Janet Tweedy wrote:
In article ,
Rusty_Hinge writes

Yan = 1
Tan = 2
and so-on - it's just counting, and if still used will be restricted to
stock, especially sheep.


I've always known it as a counting method by Celts.

Yes. Something that I find very puzzling is how little of the original
Brythonic language remains in English. A very high proportion of place
names etc. are, and so is the genome (even the Y chromosome), and not
just in the west. But very, very few words - exept in such usages.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

The message
from Janet Tweedy contains these words:
In article , shazzbat
writes


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




I've always known it as yan, tan, fether dick, ether dick, gigit

terabit, upabit, downabit, roundabit, oops!

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

The message
from Janet Tweedy contains these words:
In article ,
Rusty_Hinge writes


Yan = 1
Tan = 2
and so-on - it's just counting, and if still used will be restricted to
stock, especially sheep.



I've always known it as a counting method by Celts.

A proportion of the Vikings *WERE* Celts - or at least, had a common
origin somewhere in the easy of Yurp.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

The message
from contains these words:
In article ,
Janet Tweedy wrote:
In article ,
Rusty_Hinge writes

Yan = 1
Tan = 2
and so-on - it's just counting, and if still used will be restricted to
stock, especially sheep.


I've always known it as a counting method by Celts.

Yes. Something that I find very puzzling is how little of the original
Brythonic language remains in English. A very high proportion of place
names etc. are, and so is the genome (even the Y chromosome), and not
just in the west. But very, very few words - exept in such usages.

Oh, I dunno, where ja rear English spoked nahdays innit?

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

In article ,
Rusty_Hinge wrote:

Yes. Something that I find very puzzling is how little of the original
Brythonic language remains in English. A very high proportion of place
names etc. are, and so is the genome (even the Y chromosome), and not
just in the west. But very, very few words - exept in such usages.

Oh, I dunno, where ja rear English spoked nahdays innit?

As far as I know, neither oikish nor orcish are Celtic languages!


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.