Which Chikun? Was: -- Re: handcrafted

Robin Hamilton robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM
Tue Dec 28 01:54:20 UTC 2010


<<
From: "Ronald Butters" <ronbutters at AOL.COM>

>
> I am sorry to say that I stand corrected. This rarely happens to me, as
> you know. Are ytrpou sure it is not "Chicken Lichen"?
>>

Pretty sure, though it's a time since I chased this, and I no longer have my
notes.  If I remember correctly, the story begins in mid-nineteenth century
England, and migrates to America within a few years, where it is at first
the proper "Licken", rhyming with "Chicken".  Then one variant introduces
the Chicken Little version, and this gains a life of its own.

The original, if I remember correctly, emerges from the literate Victorian
fairy story tradition, rather than folk construction, so this should be
fairly easy to confirm.

Robin
______________________________________

> Clearly, Colonel Sanders has ruined Chicken Likkin for me forever.
>
> On Dec 27, 2010, at 7:52 PM, Robin Hamilton wrote:
>
>> <<
>> From: "Ronald Butters" <ronbutters at AOL.COM>
>>
>>       " ... or is this just more Chicken Little lexicography?"
>>>>
>>
>> K, one of *my pet peeves.
>>
>> It wasn't (and in a non-judgemental sense, shouldn't be) "Chicken Little
>> [sic]".
>>
>> Much of the imaginative logic of the original narrative turned on the
>> assertiveness of the rhymes used to name the creatures -- Chicken Licken
>> [sic], Henny Penny, Ducky Lucky, Goosey Loosey, and finally of course
>> Foxy
>> Loxy.
>>
>> Thus whether or not Chicken Licken Was Right, Chicken Little was
>> assuredly
>> wrong about the sky falling.  A Chicken of Very Little Brain, that one,
>> or
>> perhaps whatever few brains he had were knocked out of his head by the
>> acorn, no Newton he.
>>
>> Robin

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list