According to experts, for our children, funny rhymes and funny and sometimes even incomprehensible rhymes turn out to be the most wonderful teachers, speech therapists and psychologists. Without the verbal game that is contained in the counting rhymes, the child would have learned to master speech perfectly for a very long time.

All variants of chants, counting rhymes, teasers, tongue twisters and other "literature" help children express their feelings, thoughts and experiences. These verses, such as "eniki-beniks ate dumplings" or a hedgehog counting out of the fog, are passed down from generation to generation without any cramming. Such a strange, but easy verse is remembered by a child on the fly, used in games with friends, all the children remember it and pass it on and on.

A counting rhyme is, first of all, a rhyming verse with which you can easily determine who will drive in the game. In addition to this simple function, this verse has three more psychologically important functions. First - it gives a feeling of good luck, whoever he points to will be lucky.

The second function is that the rhyme allows you to demonstrate trust to each other. Usually, the counting player touches the players in the area of ​​the solar plexus, and such a touch carries a level of disposition and trust. Well, the third function allows you to set up children for fair play without deceit, cultivates in them a sense of honesty and camaraderie.

Any rhyme, in addition to developing such necessary and useful feelings in a child, it also allows him to train his speech. Such a game verse will be understandable and close to the child, because in any counting rhyme in the first place is not the plot, but the rhythm and the ability to pronounce separately, highlighting the words. So the baby will develop not only memory, imagination and fantasy, but also a sense of rhythm.

There are a huge number of examples of counting rhymes, and we give only the most popular of them.

Hush, mice, the cat is on the roof.
Who did not hear, he left!

Across the river, across the bridge
Stretched bull's tail!

We shared an orange
There are many of us, and he is one.
This slice is for the hedgehog,
This slice is for a swift,
This slice is for ducklings,
This slice is for kittens,
This slice is for the beaver,
And for a wolf - a peel.
He is angry with us - trouble!!!
Run somewhere!

Lunokhod, lunokhod,
On the moon goes forward.
It's a long time for him to walk there.
And now you drive!

Goat in the barn
crust on bread,
Who will find them
He will lead the game.

There was a car in the dark forest

For some interest.

Inter-inter-interest.

Come out on the letter "C".

A squirrel rode on a cart
Handed out nuts to everyone:
Who is two, who is three -
Get out of the circle!

Tomorrow will fly from the sky
Blue-blue-blue whale.
If you believe, stand and wait
If you don't believe me, come out!

About the origin

How often adults are surprised, listen to the texts of children's counting rhymes. For example, it’s completely incomprehensible who “ene, bene, slave, quinter, finter” and the like are and how they got into the nursery rhyme.

It turns out that this counting rhyme is very old and originally “ene, bene, slave, quinter, finter” came from the Anglo-Welsh account, which sounded like “aina, peina, para, peddera, pimp”. Gradually, this Anglo-Welsh account spread throughout England, where it began to be used in everyday life, and the kids remade the funny words uttered by adults for themselves and a funny text of the counting turned out.

The song version, where some eniki ate dumplings, is known to both adults and children. But there are also less common versions in which the eniki did not eat anything, and more the counting rhyme itself is more like the original one:

Eniki-beniki-panicles-brooms!
Boliki-lyoliki-sawdust-rollers!

Full version

Of course, no one can say with accuracy what the original counting rhyme was, which was used by the children for the first time. This is the so-called "oral creativity", which was distributed without recording

There is one full, Russian version, where the mysterious beniki ate varinichki:

Eniki-Beniks ate dumplings

Eniki-beniki - damn!

The Soviet sailor came out.

And there is an even more incomprehensible, confusing and mysterious counting rhyme, which is more like the original one that came to us from England through all of Europe.

Eni-beni-res
Quinter-winter-zhes
Yene-bene-slave
Finter quinter toad.

From childhood, we remember this strange rhyme: Eniki-beniks ate dumplings, eniki-beniki - dumplings, a drunken sailor came out on deck!
But we don’t even think about the meaning behind these words. Meanwhile, counting rhymes are the oldest form of art and often carry secret and sacred knowledge. Linguists have been trying to figure out the message for years. Here are three versions of the origin of the Eniki-Beniki proverb.

One, two, three, four, five

One of the main ones is the version that the account is encrypted in eniki-beniks. The researcher Efim Shchup found out that ene, bene, slave, quinter, and finter are close in sound to the numerals aina, peina, para, peddera, pimp. These numbers were used in the language of trade, which was invented by the Celts and the English visiting them. However, it's not that simple...

Game of dice

According to the linguist Orel, the Eniki-Beniks came to us from the Middle Ages. They could have been invented by German knights, who, when playing dice, liked to sentence Einec beinec doppelte, which in Russian means single bone doubled. Over time, this proverb passed into the Polish language, and then moved further to the east.

There is another theory that sends us further into the past, to the mysterious Greek mythology. If you follow the version of the mythological origin, counting rhymes like ene-bene, riki-taki, bul-bul-bul, karaki-shmaki, eus-deus-cosmodeus, bam, grew out of a Greek poem about Aeneas. The hero of the Trojan War who founded the city on the banks of the Tiber was immortalized in this Latin poem:

Aeneas bene rem publicam facit,
In turba urbem sene Tiberi jacit.
Deus, deus, crassus deus,
Bacchus!"
The children's world is mysterious and difficult to understand. How did a Latin poem or a proverb of German knights form the basis of children's rhymes? How do they cross country borders? So far, these are unanswered questions. All three versions seem quite tempting, but we still do not know the final answer. What if something else is hidden behind the children's rhyme?

There are many variants of this children's counting rhyme, but in any of them there are invariably mysterious "eniki" and "beniki". If these 2 words are so stable, then they are not a random set of sounds. So who or what were the Eniki-Beniks originally? There are several versions of the origin of this expression.

Fork

Perhaps the most common version of this counting rhyme is the one where "eniki-beniki ate dumplings." It was on him back in the 1960s that the journalist, poet, satirist, and employee of the well-known magazine Krokodil, Igor Tarabukin, drew attention. Tarabukin began his research by studying dictionaries and found that the compiler of one of them, the notorious Vladimir Dal, wrote that benechka is a word from the Yaroslavl province. There it denoted an ordinary fork. If we take this interpretation into account, then the counting rhyme acquires a certain meaning, because with the help of beniks it was really possible to eat dumplings. As for the eniks, they most likely simply made up a couple for the beniks for rhythm and rhyme. Igor Tarabukin even composed a whole poem about the origin of this expression.

Game of dice

The Soviet linguist, philologist and translator Vladimir Orel, who was the compiler of several etymological dictionaries, was also investigating the mystery of the Eniks-Beniks. The eagle assumed that this proverb appeared in our speech, thanks to the German language. Even in Medieval Germany, similar words were uttered by knights when playing dice. They said: Einec beinec doppelte, which means "a single bone doubled." Later, "eniki-beniks" began to be used by the Poles, and then by residents of other states. In Russia, the sentence “ate dumplings” was added to “eniki-beniks” only because these phrases turned out to be consonant.

Prayer

Some modern researchers believe that "eniki-beniks" is nothing more than an ancient prayer addressed to one of the female deities of the Turkic peoples named Umai. Marina Reznikova also writes about this in her work “Ethnographic Essays on the South Russian Cossacks”. Reznikova claims that it was with these words that the Polovtsy began their prayer. The fact is that in those days, "Ennyke-bennyke" meant "Mother Almighty." Gradually, with the adoption of Christianity, the original meaning of the prayer and many of its other words were forgotten and became a kind of nonsense that migrated to the category of children's counting rhymes.

Numbers

One of the variants of the counting rhyme sounds like “ene, bene, slave, quinter, finter” and so on. Many linguists suggest that these cryptic incantations are common, but somewhat modified numerals. Yefim Shchup, in a text posted on the LIVEJOURNAL resource, writes that he found some similarities between the so-called "Anglo-Welsh account", which was used in trade between the Welsh and the British, and the words from the counting rhyme. With references to foreign researchers of the past Ellis and Bolton, Stupe suggests that “ene, bene, slave, quinter, finter” are the Anglo-Welsh numerals “aina, peina, para, peddera, pimp”, only very distorted.

Song in Latin

Another variation of the children's counting rhyme sounds like "eni-beni-riki-faki." According to translator Ilya Nachmanson, this text is most likely borrowed from a poem in Latin "Aeneas bene rem publicam facit ...". The song refers to Aeneas, who "created the state", and praises the god Bacchus. At that time, many in Europe knew Latin. Even teaching in universities was conducted in this language. However, over time, the Latin rhyme and its original meaning were forgotten, but the counting rhyme remained.

Rhyming rhymes are a deeply pagan invention. Our ancient ancestors believed that if we simply counted the trophies obtained during the hunt, then the next outing for game would not be successful. Therefore, all sorts of linguistic tricks were used: for example, they considered non-existent words like "Eni-beni-slave".
In general, counting rhymes have been studied quite deeply by philologists and linguists. Their detailed classification is applied, what, where, why, for what reason, etc. I will not go into such details. But all this is not casual and carries a deep meaning, like Russian folk tales, for example.
In addition to a purely utilitarian role - to choose a driver in the game - counting rhymes also have a lot of advantages of a purely psychological nature. At the very least, they train their memory.
The smallest on the material of counting rhymes are taught speech and counting.
Rhyming rhymes give birth to a correct understanding of justice in a child: you have fallen out, everything is fair, you have to drive, and arguing with this is stupid and not comradely. They teach intelligent obedience to rules for the sake of the common cause.
In addition, a simple touch to the chest, taken during the "calculation", carries a deep psychotherapeutic meaning: it is like a sign of trust, a symbol of friendship, belonging to a small society.

I am writing a post, my daughter (4 years old) comes up to me and tells a rhyme that I hear for the first time:

Puppy sitting on a bench
I counted my pins:
One two Three -
You will be the queen!

Come on, whoever remembers or hears from children, write here, if not too lazy!
It will be cool to see how the counting rhymes differ from time to time.

Well, I’ll write rhymes from the 80s and 90s (although maybe they were before? Most likely):

On the golden porch sat:
king-prince-king-prince,
Shoemaker-tailor
Who are you-will-you be?

Come out (speak) - hurry up - do not delay
Good—and honest (wise)—people!

A version of this rhyme from the 90s:

They sat on the golden porch,
gummy bears, tom and jerry,
Scrooge McDuck and 3 ducklings
come out you'll be Ponka!

On the golden porch sat:
Winnie the Pooh and Tom and Jerry
Mickey Mouse, three ducklings.
Come out, you'll be Ponca!
If Ponca doesn't come,
Scrooge McDuck is going crazy.

Another topic:

Aty-baty-walked-soldiers,
Aty-baty-to-bazaar.
Aty-baty-what-bought?
Aty-baty-self-var.
Aty-baty-how much-costs?
Aty-baty-three-ruble
Aty-baty-he-what?
Aty-baty-gold-toy.

came out-hedgehog-from-fog
drank—juice—half a—glass
looked—into an empty—glass
and - again - went - into the fog

Eniki-Beniki-ate-dumplings
Eniki-Beniki-dump!
A Soviet sailor came out.

Eniki - Beniki - ate - dumplings,
Eniki-Beniki-Klos
A merry sailor came out.

Eniki-beniki-panicles-brooms!
Boliki-lyoliki-sawdust-rollers!

Here are some of my favorites:

The carriage rode through the dark forest
For some interest
Inte inter interest
Come out on the letter "es".

similar:

The cuckoo walked past the forest
For some interest.
Inti-inti-intires,
Choose the letter "s".
The letter "s" did not fit,
Choose the letter "a".

You remember such counting rhymes for a lifetime)) :

A month came out of the fog
He took out a knife from his pocket:
I will cut, I will beat -
You still can't live!
(Or a milder version of "You don't care to drive!")

And by the way, it was invented quite recently and the meaning is the most direct. This rhyme goes back to the real story of a certain Banderite by the name of Month, who was fierce in Western Ukraine during the Great Patriotic War. The children reflected historical events in their own way and preserved them in the people's memory in such an original way...

Well, in this counting rhyme you need to know the rhythm (tempo) with which to tell. If you have not heard it, it is difficult to repeat it normally. It's not even clear how to punctuate.

on the balcony number 8
ugh, what a sin, what fun it was for us parirors, everyone divided in half the truth yes yes
repeat

we flew from the balcony
repeat

we got into the police oh she broke all the bars
repeat

we got to the hospital
repeat

we got to the cemetery, oh yeah, and we counted the dead
repeat paruriroma everyone divided in half true NO ahaaaaah

This is how I found it on the Internet, but this is how I remember it, my older sister told it to me:

on the balcony number 8 - oh to her - we were sitting with the brother of the bones,

We flew from the balcony - oh to her - they hit the young lady with her elbow
ugh what a sin you are. we had fun curbstone-oriram. all divided in half right? - yeah

We got into the police - oh to her - they broke all the bars
ugh what a sin you are. we had fun curbstone-oriram. all divided in half right? - yeah

We got to the hospital - oh to her - they pressed the nurse at the door
ugh what a sin you are. we had fun curbstone-oriram. all divided in half right? - yeah

We got to the cemetery - oh to her - and they counted the dead
ugh what a sin you are. we had fun curbstone-oriram. all divided in half right? - NO NO

although I can't remember the exact words...

One, two, three, four, five,
Went out - bunny - take a walk,
Suddenly - the hunter - runs out -
Shoots straight into rabbits
Bang-bang-oh-oh-oh
Dies-raet-bunny-my.
They—carried—him—to the hospital,
Refused—refused—he—to be treated,
Brought—brought—him—home,
It turned out—he was—alive.

Our - Masha
Got up early
Dolls—all
Re-counted:
Two-matryoshkas
On the window
Two-Arinki
On a feather bed
Two-Tanyushki
On a pillow
A—Petrushka
In-cap
On—oak
Chest-ke!

A month came out of the fog
He took a knife out of his pocket
I will cut, I will beat,
You still get naked.
And after the month the moon.
The devil hung the sorcerer.
And the sorcerer hung, hung
And flew into the trash.
And Boris lived in the garbage -
Chairman of dead rats.
And his wife - Larisa -
Wonderful rat.
He loved another
He took an ax and killed it.
The wife didn't die.
I took the money and left.
He loved another
He took the perfume and gave it to her.

The ending doesn't really connect...

And a few more:

Do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si
The cat sat in a taxi.
And the kittens clung
And ride for free.

Tsikal-tsikal, mototsikal,
All tracks are cycling
And came to Leningrad
Choose your outfit:
Red, blue, blue -
Choose any one.

Helicopter, helicopter
Take me flying.
And in flight it's empty
Cabbage has grown.
And a worm in the cabbage,
Vanya the fool came out.

Aye, zwein,
Chukate me,
Abel - fabel,
De me ne.
x, pix,
Bullet - farts,
Naupux!

I know in another way:

Ekota pekota chukota ma
Abul fabul del mana
Ex pex bullet pux naus - My daughter learned this with pleasure)) and taught others

monkey chi chi chi
sold bricks,
did not have time to sell
flew under the bed.
Empty under the bed
grown cabbage,
grapes on cabbage
turned out to be an automatic .
(there is still not quite a decent option)

Eniki - beniki ate dumplings...
Draniki, dates, muffins and gingerbread,
Donuts and buns, and all sorts of donuts,
Dumplings, cakes, marshmallows and bars,
Peppers, salads, tomatoes, potatoes,
Cabbage, mustard, mushrooms and okroshka.
Radish, matzah, mayonnaise and meatballs,
Eggs, beets, bishbarmak and rolls.
Salo, peas, dill and cheesecakes,
Bananas, coconuts, carrots and parsley,
Butter, barbecue, artichokes, brisket,
Onions, tomatoes, beans and tarts.
Pancakes, marmalade, cottage cheese, beer, stew,
Coffee, cookies, sour cream, condensed milk,
Apples, fish, cocoa, hodgepodge,
Jelly, wild garlic, sausage, casserole.
Shrimps, lemons, nuts and plums,
Jam, black bread, white bread, gravy,
Sugar, lobster, liver, candy,
Cheese, vinegar, lobsters, wine, tea, pates,
Salt, chips, cakes, rice, chops,
Straws, cognac, jellied tongues,
Melons, fillets, pasties, langets,
Semolina, barley, caviar, vinaigrettes,
Zrazy, sausages, garlic, entrecote,
Horseradish, chocolate, pasta and sprats.
Brawn, belyashi, zucchini, zeppelins,
Peaches, sorrel, chicken and olives.
Kiwi, herring, pork, gooseberries,
Oysters, pumpkins, pomegranates, rose hips,
Cream, truffles, waffles, dryers and rutabagas,
Lamb, croutons, currants, cranberries.
Crabs, compote, ham, cabbage rolls,
Kefir, mineral water and cucumbers,
Blueberries, mashed potatoes, squash, strawberries,
Molasses, cracklings and strawberries,
Rhubarb, raisins, meatballs, halva,
Pilaf, chakhokhbili, spinach and quince,
Spaghetti, almonds, honey, dumplings, rump steaks,
Croutons, roast beef, beans and steaks...
Lightly ate and poured again!
(With such a rhyme, you will definitely train your memory))

Well, this is not a counting rhyme, but it is very popular with children, which is interesting for both my generation and my daughter too:

Make peace, make peace, make peace
and fight no more.
And if you fight
then I'll bite
and nothing to bite
I must (will) fight with a brick.
And the brick will break -
friendship begins.

Who knows, join!

The rhyme, a bright and original genre of folklore, has attracted children at all times. After all, she not only organizes a children's game, but also allows the kids to throw out their emotions. It is not surprising that short rhymes are easily memorized and passed down from generation to generation. Meanwhile, some texts are not so easy to understand, and perhaps they contain secret messages. One of these counting rhymes is the famous Eniki-Beniks.

Rhyme options

The old rhyme "Eniki-Benik" has a number of options. Some of them belong to the Soviet era, since they include a "Soviet" sailor (the phrase is also found in variations "drunk sailor" or "curly sailor").

Other versions contain fictitious words ("abstruse" rhyme), similar to spells. There is even a very long tongue twister, where, along with the notorious dumplings, almost all known food products are listed.

There are also options with "fictitious words":

And here is the “translated into understandable language” version:

Eniki - beniki - panicles - brooms!
Boleks - lyoliks - sawdust - rollers!

Lolek and Bolek are characters from a Polish cartoon that first appeared in 1964.

But the tongue twister mentioned above, of course, is no longer quite childish:

Video: a song in children's karaoke based on a well-known rhyme

The mysterious story of the counting rhyme

In various versions of the children's rhyme, the mysterious combination "eniki-beniki" (or "eni-beni") is invariably found. Due to their stability, these words are obviously not a random set of sounds. On this score, linguists have a number of versions.

Old Russian word

In the dictionary of Vladimir Dahl, the concept of "benka" comes from the Yaroslavl province. It denotes a piece of utensil - a fork. Then the initial sentence of the counting rhyme makes sense: with the help of beniks, it is quite possible to eat dumplings. "Eniki" is perhaps a corruption of the word "other", or it's just a made-up word to create rhyme and rhythm.

In the explanatory dictionary of V. Dahl, the word "benka" means a fork (in the Yaroslavl province)

In the 60s. In the 20th century, Igor Tarabukin, a journalist and poet, an employee of the satirical magazine Krokodil, thought about the interpretation of the rhyme and began to study dictionaries. Having discovered the word “benka”, he even wrote a poem “Eniki-beniki ate dumplings” ...:

• Who are eniki?
  Who are the Beniki?
  I asked about it
  But no one gave an answer.
  I rummaged a little
  Piggy bank dictionaries
  And I found that the word "benki
  It's just forks.
  Benki, or beniki,
  A saying to them - eniki!
  But the spoon cannot
  There is okroshka herself!
  And bowls can't
  Eat a bunch of radishes!
  Why beniki
  Suddenly eat dumplings?
  Because the word is
  It's outdated, sadly.
  And one day from the buffet
  Moved to the counting room.
  And the count is like this -
  It's a play on words
  So even beniki
  They can eat dumplings!

Having found the word "benka" in the dictionary, Igor Tarabukin even wrote a poem about it

By the way, the word "dumpling", which is found in the version about the sailor, is most likely derived from the word "dumplings" - pieces of dough boiled in boiling water, milk or broth. Thus, they were eaten along with dumplings.

Game of dice

Medieval German knights uttered the words "Einec beinec doppelte" during a game of dice, which means "a single dice doubled". Over time, this proverb penetrated into the Polish language, and then further to the east.

During the game of dice, medieval knights often used an expression similar to the words "Eniki-beniki"

Prayer

The ancient prayer of the Turkic peoples began with the words “ennyke-bennyke” (“Mother Almighty”). So they turned to the female deity Umai. With the adoption of Christianity, the meaning of words was lost, and they became nonsense that migrated to a children's rhyme.

The Turkic peoples had a deity Umai, whose prayer began with words that sound like “ennyke bennyke”

Numbers

The words "ene, bene, slave, quinter, finter" may be modified numerals. They are similar to the Anglo-Welsh account - the one that has been used for trading since ancient times ("aina, peina, para, peddera, pimp").

ancient greek myth

The beginning of "Eni beni, ricky faki ..." is very similar to the sound of the Latin text:

• Aeneas bene rem publicam facit,
  In turba urbem sene Tiberi jacit.
  Deus, deus, crassus deus,
  Bacchus!

This is a Greek poem about Aeneas, the hero of the Trojan War, who founded a city-state on the banks of the Tiber. Latin used to be very popular in Europe; Latin was also taught in seminaries and other educational institutions of the Russian Empire. Over time, the poem was forgotten, and the lines remained in the counting rhyme.

The beginning of one of the variants of the counting rhyme resembles the beginning of a Latin poem about Aeneas, the hero of the Trojan War

The children's counting rhyme "Eniki-Beniki" is shrouded in a halo of mystery. Although linguists have various interpretations of her initial strange words, they remain only versions. Meanwhile, the children's world itself is mysterious and difficult to understand: perhaps that is why the folklore work is popular in it.