And btw, I don't want to open up a can of worms or anything, but is there any difference between 'folk etymology' and mondegreens?

I suppose the folk process can be said to occur if someone consciously or unconsciously changes words or phrases in a song.
And I suppose that mondegreen are words that are accidently misheard.

Is that the difference-words changed on purpose vs words changed accidently and if so words changed on purpose wouldn't be called mondegreens, right?

I'm confusing myself...

Let me give you two examples from my favorite category of folk music: children's rhymes.

One of the few African songs taught in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania public schools is the Ghanaian game song "Kye Kye Kule" {pronounced Chay Chay Koo-lay}

The words to that call & response song are usually given soemthing like this:

Che che kole
che che kole
Che che kofi sa
Che che kofi sa
Kofi sa langa
Kofi sa langa
langa shi langa
langa shi langa   
Koom ma den day
koom ma den day
[often with the added Americanism "Hey!"}

-snip-

In the mid i990s, I collected this foot stomping cheer from my daughter's memory of African American girls [around 6-12 years old]chants in a Pittsburgh summer camp where she worked [in the early 1990s}:

Soloist #1        Jay Jay Kukalay
Group                Jay Jay Kukalay
Soloist #1        Salesah lahndah
Group                Salesah lahndah
Soloist #1        Step back, Shalanda [or "back, back Shalonda"]
Group                Step back, Shalanda
Soloist #1        Oosh, my lover boy!
Group                Oosh, my lover boy!
Soloist #1        I'm callin on,
                I'm callin on
                I'm callin on Rhonda [substitute the name of
                                     next soloist, and repeat entire
                                     cheer]

-snip-

I also collected a version of this foot stomping cheer from a White woman in Pittsburgh who said this was from her memories of the late 1980s when she was growing up in a predominately Black neighborhood in Washington, DC. BTW, my 'informant' wrote the title of the
cheer as "J.J. Cool Aid". IMO, since this is cheer comes
from the oral tradition, it also could have been written "J.J. KoolAid"..and that spelling would have given it a different connotation.

The words to "J.J. Cool Aid" as I was given them are:
Soloist #1        J.J. Cool Aid
Group                J.J. Cool Aid
Soloist #1        Teresa Londa
Group                Teresa Londa
Soloist #1        Back, back Tuanda *
                Whose my lover boy?
                I said mmm my sweetie cakes
                I'm callin on
                I'm callin on
                I'm callin on
                Shakera *

* I think "Tunada" is supposed to be a personal name like "Towanda". "Shakira" is a personal name and is probably the name of the next soloist.

****

My question is this: Is Jay Jay Kukalay, and "J.J. Cool Aid" a mondegreen, an example of folk etymology, both, or something else-and what is this "something else"?

Thanks in advance.


Azizi Powell