nyaa nyaa/ naa naa (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Jonathan Lighter]

My first encounter with either phrase was in a Peanuts cartoon of the
late '50s. Linus tells the players something like, "The correct phrase
is 'All, all who are out are in free!'!

I'd revise that (too much education) to "All ye, all ye..." which was
then shortened to "All ye, all ye out are in free!" and then "...All
ye, all ye outs (are) in free!"

Could have happened.

JL

On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 11:43 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: nyaa nyaa/ naa naa (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Feb 14, 2012, at 11:19 AM, Herb Stahlke wrote:
>
>> Does the distribution of "Olly Olly Oxen--Free" vs. "Allee allee outs
>> in free," the formula we used in SE Michigan sixty years ago,
>
> Hey, that actually makes sense, the outs being allowed safe passage to come in.  I always wondered about the oxen.  As mentioned, our version was just "All-y all-y in free", which also made sense to us.  (The "in" was stressed for us, but presumably not for the "oxen" and "outs in" folks, so we employed a nice iambic trimeter.)
>
> LH
>
>> correspond in any way to the distribution of the low back merger?
>>
>> Herb
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 5:02 AM, Eric Nielsen <ericbarnak at gmail.com> wrote:
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>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Eric Nielsen <ericbarnak at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      Re: nyaa nyaa/ naa naa (UNCLASSIFIED)
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> I remember "Olly Olly Oxen--Free Free Free " as the all clear call to
>>> the uncaptured in Hide and Seek.
>>>
>>> Eric
>>> On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 8:42 PM, Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at wmich.edu>wrote:
>>>
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>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>> Poster:       Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at WMICH.EDU>
>>>> Subject:      Re: nyaa nyaa/ naa naa (UNCLASSIFIED)
>>>>
>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> Olly-olly oxen free was fine for Hinsdale, IL in 1956.  My wife, from
>>>> Cleveland, knows olly-olly-umfree (also 1950's)
>>>>
>>>> Paul Johnston
>>>>
>>>
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