nyaa nyaa/ naa naa

[Joel S. Berson]

At 2/14/2012 11:54 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>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!"

Essentially my hypothesis too.  "All ye out, in free", when the
phrase had become very slurred and the collective memory of its
meaning had faded, became "ollie oxen in free"  ("ollie ox'n free"
being to weird to survive).

My personal recollection of text and pronunciation is "ollie ollie in
free", which as soon as I learned about Ye Olde Shoppe made perfect
sense to me -- "all ye, all ye, in free" -- the Town Crier calling out.

Joel


>Could have happened.
>
>JL
>
>On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 11:43 AM, Laurence Horn
><laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > 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:
> >>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> >>> 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:
> >>>
> >>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>>> -----------------------
> >>>> 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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