Jake Thackery Enquiry
Unk
I am trying to track down the method of counting that Jake used on one
of his tracks. I originally thought it was before "Fine Bay Pony", but
now I think I may be wrong. Anyway, the premis behind it was that Jake
was illustrating an ole method of counting in 20s. A farmer would
count his sheep, when he reached 20 he picked uo a pebble to indicate
he had reached that milestone; then he continued to count again.
I think it was a method employed in yorkshire, and don't coumt on my
spelling but it was something like:
Yan
tan
tethermether
pip
for the first 4 numbers
any help wopuld be most appreciated
James Prescott
m.bev...@bangor.ac.uk (Unk) wrote:
> I think it was a method employed in yorkshire, and don't coumt on my
> spelling but it was something like:
>
> Yan
> tan
> tethermether
> pip
Try any number of sites, such as:
Nigel Stapley
"Unk" <m.bev...@bangor.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:26e6a22e.04022...@posting.google.com...
The song was "Old Molly Metcalfe" (from the "Bantam Cock" LP - 1972).
Jake's interpretation was :
yan, tan, tether, mether, pip,
azar, sazar, akka, cotta, dik,
yanadik, chanadik, tetheradik, metherdik, bumfit,
yanabum, chanabum, tetherabum, metherabum, jiggit.
There are variations, of course.
This system seems to be the last remnant of the form of Old Welsh which was
spoken across most of what is now the North of England up to about 1000
years ago.
Your e-mail address suggests that you have some connection with UCB (if
that's what it's known as nowadays). A comparison with the Welsh cardinal
numbers will therefore be within easy reach!
(Note for others :
un, dau, tri, pedwar, pump,
chwech, saith, wyth, naw, deg,
un-ar-ddeg ("one-on-ten"), deuddeg ("two-ten"), tri-ar-ddeg
("three-on-ten"), pedwar-ar-ddeg ("four-on-ten"), pymtheg ("five-ten"),
un-ar-bymtheg ("one-on-15"), dau-ar-bymtheg ("two-on-15"), deunaw
("two-nine"), pedwar-ar-bymtheg ("four-on-15"), ugain
("dau", "tri" and "pedwar" change to "dwy", "tair" and "pedair" before a
feminine noun).)
--
Regards
Nigel Stapley
<reply e-mail address will bounce>
David Kilpatrick
26e6a22e.04022...@posting.google.com, "Unk"
<m.bev...@bangor.ac.uk> wrote:
Yan or ran (yin, ain, one, une, una, ena)
Tan (two, taw, twa, twae, deux etc)
Tethera (tres, three, but not tetra despite resemblance)
Methera (not so easily explained, but is four)
Pip (pinf, punf, pun as in a punjab, funf, five - pip is exactly consonant
with 'five' as a word)
Old northern, primarily Cumbrian/Westmorland, dialect and not involving
twenties, just words related to Romany (indo-European) counting from one,
two, three etc upwards. I seem to recall that after pip they deviate more
from the philology. My mother pointed these out to me in Cumberland from a
very young age, about 4 or 5, in the 1950s, but I can't recall her ever
going beyond the sort of sing-song recitation of the first four numbers.
It is not a method of counting, it's probably a language but functioned as a
dialect leftover for people who spoke English. Same way that any kid growing
up with the King James Bible can generally do the first few letters of the
Hebrew alphabet - aleph, beth, gimel, daleth... Because they were written
there. The shepherds probably knew the 'counting' even if they didn't know a
single other word of the language these originally came from.
David