dot-com wanes; eny, meny, miny, mo

[Arnold Zwicky]

dale coye <Dfcoye at aol.com> reports:

 >Some adult in my family told us kids (in the 50s) about the older
 >version with 'nigger' but instructed us never to say it.  The
 >replacement we were taught (and I don't know how widespread it was),
 >was of all things, Indian!

this would be the time to mention an agatha christie novel and the
wonderful rene clair movie (of 1945) based on it.  the novel was
originally entitled Ten Little Niggers, soon changed to And Then There
Were None; the movie (made in the u.s.) was released in the u.k. under
the first title, in the u.s. under the second.  the central plot
device involves a set of ten figures, of [american] indians, and the
counting-out rhyme "ten little *indians*".

a 1966 british version of the christie novel was in fact entitled
Ten Little Indians.

a (dreadful) 1974 british version was entitled And Then There Were
None in the u.k., Ten Little Indians in the u.s.

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)