"Rock paper scissors" vs. "Rock scissors paper"

[Benjamin Barrett]

That's jan ken pon ("jahn ken pohn"), the Japanese name for it. BB

Wilson Gray wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Rock paper scissors" vs. "Rock scissors paper"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> As a child in Saint Louis, I knew this game as "jon kane pone." I'm
> not sure about the spelling, but that's what it sounded like. Since no
> one knew that this name was in a foreign language, it made the game
> quite mysterious, especially since the gestures had ranks, but no
> names. Hence, they were not connected to anything in our reality.
>
> I'm fairly sure that the game was played in the usual manner. Two
> people made fists and made three hammering motions, chanting "Jon,"
> then "Kane," then "Pone" with each motion. After saying "pone," the
> players maintained the fist, opened the fist with the hand palm down,
> or spread only the first two fingers. Two fingers beat open hand; open
> hand beat fist; fist beat two fingers.
>
> -Wilson
>

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