leeneia,

I did not indicate nor did I mean to imply that Puddin Tane and those other questions/responses sayings/rhymes orignated among African Americans. This may be true, but I'm not certain that anyone could prove it if it were true.

What I did say was that "Puddin" is used among African Americans as a nickname. I then cited other African American "sugar" nicknames. I didn't say this, I will do so now, I'm certain that African Americans aren't the only people to use these nicknames.

**

However, I will say that this question/response type rhyme is very similar {or maybe they are a variant form of?} call & response patterns. And a great deal of research has shown that call & response is a signature of music from Africa and the African Diaspora. That said, there are music forms which aren't from Africa and the Africa Diaspora that use call & response patterns.

**

I also want to say that I'm not certain if there is any connection whatsoever between the word "poontang" and the name "Puddin Tane". If there is, I doubt that very many people {children especially} who have recited or who presently recite that rhyme knew or know about the meaning of "poontang" or that it may be connected in anyway with "Puddin Tang". I know that I didn't know that word "poontang" before reading about as a result of online searches about this subject. I also know that there are a number of words and phrases that sound alike or sound very similar and are spelled alike or very similar that have completely different etymologies. "Puddin Tane" and "poontang" may be examples of this.


**

Also, I wasn't aware before opening this thread this morning that the comments from the Depression era thread about Puddin Tane were combined with this thread. Prior to starting this thread, after I found more information about Puddin Tane, and expanded my inquiry to other question/response rhymes and sayings, I used the Mudcat search engine to look for any pre-existing threads or posts about Puddin Tane, and "See ya later alligator". As I indicated in my initial post {and as I reiterated in my 01 Sep 07 - 11:03 AM post to this thread, I found posts from 2005 that other people and I had shared on the topic of Puddin Tane, and other queston/response folk sayings/rhymes. {As you will note I provided hyperlinks to all of those entries that I had found}.

Though I considered doing so, I did not post the information & examples that I had subsequently found in either the I'm Rubber, You're Glue thread or the Depression Era Children's Songs thread for the reasons I stated in my initial posts. Another reason why I did not post the additional information about Puddin Tane that I had found in that Depression Era Children's Song thread was that I didn't want anyone to think that I was trying to hijack that thread.

I am grateful that Mudcat exists to provide a forum for its members and guests to share examples, comments, and information about topics that we as individuals believe are interesting and which we believe may be of interest to other folks as well.

I certainly have learned a lot as a result of being a part of this online community.

Thanks again for your postings to this thread!


Best wishes,

Azizi