The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #94034   Message #2601371
Posted By: Azizi
31-Mar-09 - 12:19 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Down by the Banks of the Hanky Panky
Subject: RE: Origins: Down by the Banks of the Hanky Panky
GUEST,Momo, thanks for sharing the version of this rhyme that you know.

As to your comment asking if your version is "correct" or "right", let me say this:

We may think that a rhyme has the wrong words because those words are different from the way we learned it. We may think that the way other people do (play) that rhyme is different because it's not the same way we learned it. But when it comes to playground rhymes, there is no right version or wrong version.

When it comes to children's playground rhymes, people can talk about whether they correctly remember the version that they heard or saw or read. And people can talk about whether a version of a rhyme is like or is different from the earliest version of that rhyme that was collected and written down or recorded.

And although people can say that the way they learned that playground rhyme is the only right way to say it, hopefully the more people read so many different versions of one rhyme on the Internet and elsewhere, they'll realize that playground rhymes don't have anything to do with right and wrong words.

Best wishes,

Ms. Azizi