'Round the Rugged Rock the Rude Rascal Ran

[joe greiner]

My late Grandfather (ca. 1885-1966) was fond of occasionally reciting some semi-nonsense phrases from (I guess) early studies in elocution or language training. He seemed to have one for every letter of the alphabet. The only one I remember was " 'Round the Rugged Rock the Rude Rascal Ran." I heard it again many years ago in a Bullwinkle cartoon, so I suppose it was part of the popular literature. Just now, Google wasn't much help in finding more examples.

Playing with language seems to be a favorite Australian sport. Does anybody remember more of them?

Cheers,
Joe

[ian]

Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled pepers, how many packs of pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

[ian]

I'm not the pheasant plucker, I'm the pheasant plucker's mate,
And I'm only plucking pheasants 'cause the pheasant plucker's late.
I'm not the pheasant plucker, I'm the pheasant plucker's son,
And I'm only plucking pheasants till the pheasant pluckers come.

[ian]

If Freaky Fred Found Fifty Feet of Fruit
And Fed Forty Feet to his Friend Frank
How many Feet of Fruit did Freaky Fred Find?

[ian]

Silly Sally swiftly shooed seven silly sheep.
The seven silly sheep Silly Sally shooed
shilly-shallied south.
These sheep shouldn't sleep in a shack;
Sheep should sleep in a shed.

[ian]

Said the flea to the fly in the flue.
Said the flea. "Oh, what shall we do?"
Said the fly, "Let us flee!"
Said the flea, "Let us fly!"
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.




I'll stop showing off now and post some links
Funny Tongue Twisters at American Folklore (http://www.americanfolklore.net/tonguetwisters/funny-tonguetwisters.html)
Tongue Twisters (http://www.bedavaingilizce.com/intermediate/twisters.htm)
English tongue twisters (http://www.world-english.org/tonguetwisters.htm)

try googling "tongue twisters"

[tea lady]

Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled pepers, how many packs of pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?
Where's the rest of it?

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
A peck of pickled peppers Peter piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
:D

[joe greiner]

Thanks, Ian. Most of his were one-liners, but this is a good start.

Cheers,
Joe

[scrapwood]

Hi Joe,

A lady by the name of June factor published a collection of children's chants and rhymes called ALL RIGHT, VEGEMITE in 1985, and later followed it up with more releases. I have searched through the five publications I have and haven't found the type of verse you were after, but that doesn't mean to say that haven't been published in later books. The following excerpt about June is from Splatt: Rotten Rhymes (http://www.abc.net.au/splatt/rhymes/factor.htm). Maybe you Google her as another lead.

June Factor

June Factor is a writer and folklorist, with a special interest in childhood. For twenty-five years she was director of The Australian Children's Folklore Collection, now housed at Museum Victoria and listed on UNESCO's Australian Memory of the World Register. She co-edits the biannual web publication, Play and Folklore, and has produced a series of books of children's playground rhymes - the most recent titled Okey Dokey Karaoke! She is also the author of Kidspeak: A Dictionary of Australian Children's Words, Expressions and Games.

Dr Factor, recognised internationally for her knowledge of children's lore and language, is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Centre, University of Melbourne.

[scrapwood]

Hi again Joe,
Just saw that you are based in Florida USA, my previous link may not be useful as it is Australian.

Norm

[ian]

one of my favourite rhymes is

"the elephant is a graceful bird,
it flits from bough to bough
it alights upon a mulbury bush
and whistles like a cow"

Edward Lear
(of The Owl and the Pussy Cat fame)

[artme]

Try This:

Cecil is a thistle sifter, Cecil's sister is a thistle sifter too.
Now say it quickly six times. This is a true tongue twister.

[Grumpy John]

Betty bought a bit of butter
But she found the butter bitter
So she bought a bit of better butter
To make the bitter butter better.

She sells sea shells by the sea shore.

[jimbur]

A pup ran up upper parliament street

kids love saying:

red lorry yellow lorry

say it over and over again.
Jim:U

[jmk89]

a proper cup of coffee from a proper copper coffee pot

[Woodwould]

How much wood could a wood-chucker chuck if a wood-chucker could chuck wood?
A wood-chucker would chuck as much wood as a wood-chucker could, if a wood-chucker could chuck wood.

I'm not a pheasant-plucker, I'm the pheasant-plucker's son
and I'm only plucking pheasants 'til the pheasant-plucker comes.

[AlexS]

She sells sea shells by the sea shore
And the shells she sells are sea shells I'm sure.

[Greg Ward]

I remember it as: 'Round the rugged rocks, the ragged rascal ran".......
Thanks for tweaking the memory box.
Greg

[Wongdai]

one of my favourite rhymes is

"the elephant is a graceful bird,
it flits from bough to bough
it alights upon a mulbury bush
and whistles like a cow"

Edward Lear
(of The Owl and the Pussy Cat fame)

My mum used to recite this, but slightly differently

"The Elephant is a funny bird,
It flits from bough to bough.
It lays its eggs in a peanut shell
and whistles like a cow."

Not sure where she got her words from. Maybe she mis-remembered it.

[Wongdai]

...and one I made up from the woodchuck one...

How much brew could a Hebrew brew if a Hebrew could brew brew.

[wheelinround]

The boy stood on the burning deck
his britches caught on fire
the flames lept and up they crept
to his loves great desire

The boy stood on the burning deck
Picking his nose like mad
Rolling it into little balls
And flicking them at his dad.


The boy stood on the burning deck
The oars were in the rowlocks
A spark flew up his trouser leg
And burned him on the... knee

[jimbur]

After that edifying selection:D here's one my Dad used to drive my Mum mad with by telling it to us:

Polish it behind the door!

[Dennis Millard]

My English teacher used to say, "Why do you choose such dull books to be read to out of from for? or
"Never use a preposition to end a sentence with!"

[Poppa]

When I was but a wee lad I had a speech impediment - I couldn't say the letter "r". And one of the things they used to make me repeat endlessly was:

Round the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran.

So I think that's how it goes. Brings back memories from 40 years ago...

[TermiMonster]

Not quite in the same category, but how's this:
'One bright day, in the middle of the night,
two dead men jumped up in fright.
Back to back, they faced each other....
Drew their swords, and shot each other.'

TM

[jimbur]

Not quite in the same category, but how's this:
'One bright day, in the middle of the night,
two dead men jumped up in fright.
Back to back, they faced each other....
Drew their swords, and shot each other.'

TM

My grandad used to recite that one to me over sixty years ago. :U

[joe greiner]

Broke loose some cobwebs, didn't I? And all of them are great.

In no particular order,

How can you pick pickled peppers? They're not pickled until after they're picked.

Australian or otherwise, June Factor's work could be a good starting point. Most professional researchers provide citations to earlier work, and those references provide more citations, and so it goes. In many sciences, there are even citation indexes working forward as well as back - gold mines for graduate students.

IIRC, my late Mum used a shorter version, without Betty: A bit of butter makes a bitter batter better (cake batter).

I found a few with the ragged rascal, too.

The one about prepositions is priceless.

There's another one, which I don't quite remember, involving something through a rough bough, to thrash the -ough pronunciation.

And, of course, ghoti = fish. (Think about it).

Cheers,
Joe

[wheelinround]

Dad's favourite to recite was

The Monkey and the Baboon
sat upon the grass the monkey shoved its finger
up the baboons $%^&
The baboon said God bless my soul
will please take your finger out of my %$^$&ole

[Dennis Millard]

Broke loose some cobwebs, didn't I? And all of them are great.

In no particular order,

How can you pick pickled peppers? They're not pickled until after they're picked.

Australian or otherwise, June Factor's work could be a good starting point. Most professional researchers provide citations to earlier work, and those references provide more citations, and so it goes. In many sciences, there are even citation indexes working forward as well as back - gold mines for graduate students.

IIRC, my late Mum used a shorter version, without Betty: A bit of butter makes a bitter batter better (cake batter).

I found a few with the ragged rascal, too.

The one about prepositions is priceless.

There's another one, which I don't quite remember, involving something through a rough bough, to thrash the -ough pronunciation.

And, of course, ghoti = fish. (Think about it).

Cheers,
Joe

Joe,
With regard to your remarks about June Factor, The Opies, Iona nd Peter, are renowned for their books on children and their rhymes etc. Specifically, 'The Lore And Language Of Schoolchildren'. Regarding the 'ough' pronunciation, and other things, I wrote this some time ago, but you may find it amusing. I don't know how to include the footnotes so I'll just add them in brackets.

ENGLISH FOR BEGINNERS
(With a spot of Welsh and Irish and footnotes for students)

A young English student named Alastair Cholmondely, (Pronounced Chumley)
Met a lady co-learner both pleasant and comely,
They met by the sea. As they strolled the tan shore,
She revealed that her name was Patricia Featherstonehaugh, (Pronounced Fanshaw)
In due course they were married and settled in Slough,
Where they baught a small- holding with hens and a cough
The years were all blissful; their marital poise,
Resulted in children, a girl and two boise.
Pat got Broncho-pneumonicosilicosis, (Pronounced D.o.A.)
And passed, we all must, the great metamorphosis.
Poor Alastair, aged and saddened and weary,
Sold off the whole farm and removed to Dun Laoghaire, (Pronounced Dunleary)
Odd this may seem, but just think of the shoch,
Had ir been llanfairpwyllgwyngyllghogerchwerndrobwllantysiliogogogoch. (Pronounced very rarely)

[jimbur]

llanfairpwyllgwyngyllghogerchwerndrobwllantysiliog ogogoch

My other grandad used to say that one. He was Welsh of course:)
Cheers,
Jim

[Rossluck]

Brilliant stuff. Cheered me up enormously. Thanks. :2tsup:

[Ashore]

RepeatAfterUs.com -- Online library and language lab -- copyright-free English texts and recordings (http://www.repeatafterus.com/)
Gives all sorts of tongue twisters , rhymes etc. :2tsup:

[Gingermick]

llanfairpwyllgwyngyllghogerchwerndrobwllantysiliog ogogoch

can you spell that one phonetically :-

[ian]

How can you pick pickled peppers? They're not pickled until after they're picked.how about

peter picked pickled peppers from the pickle pot

[joe greiner]

can you spell that one phonetically :-

The blank space seems to be an addition, according to Google.

St. Marys church, etc. Llanfairpwllgwyngyll - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanfairpwllgwyngyll)

Is that the place where they discovered a spelling error, and had to revise the town's sign?

Cheers,
Joe

[jimbur]

can you spell that one phonetically :-

No way. It seemed to end with anti sea go goh goh goh:B I should have listened more to him.

[pugwash]

One from my Grandad:

I eat my peas with honey.
I've done it all my life.
It makes the peas taste funny
but it sticks em on the knife!

[underfoot]

every BBQ my dad would say :doh:
Shake and shake the ketchup bottle
none'll come, and then a lot'll

[Poppa]

And how about a little one from Monty Python:

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.