This Little Piggy
| "This Little Piggy" Roud #19297 |
|
| Written by | Traditional |
|---|---|
| Published | 1760 |
| Written | England |
| Language | English |
| Form | Nursery rhyme |
"This Little Piggy" or "This little pig" is an English language nursery rhyme and fingerplay. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19297.
Contents |
[edit] Lyrics
The most common modern version is:
- This little piggy went to market.
- This little piggy stayed home.
- This little piggy had roast beef,
- This little piggy had none.
- And this little piggy went wee wee wee all the way home.[2]
[edit] Finger play
The rhyme is usually counted out on a person's toes, each line corresponding to a different toe, usually starting with the big toe and ending with the little toe. A foot tickle is usually added during the "Wee...all the way home" section of the last line. It varies by the intensity of the tickle, and which parts of the foot are tickled. These often depend on by whom the game is played. The rhyme can also be seen as a counting rhyme, although the number of each toe (from 1 for the big toe to 5 for the little toe) is never stated. Although the game is usually played on a baby, it can be played on anyone with 5 toes.
[edit] Origins
The first line of this rhyme was quoted in a medley "The Nurse's Song", written about 1728, a full version was not recorded until it was published in The Famous Tommy Thumb's Little Story-Book, published in London about 1760.[3] It then appeared with slight variations in many late eighteenth and early nineteenth century collections. Until the mid-twentieth century the lines referred to "little pigs".[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Wentworth. Work and Play with Numbers. p. 14.
- ^ Herman, D. (2007). The Cambridge Companion to Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 9.
- ^ a b Opie, I.; Opie, P. (1951). The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1997 ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 349–50.
[edit] Bibliography
- Wentworth, George; Smith, David Eugene (1912). Work and Play with Numbers. Boston: Ginn & Company.
