“Eniki-beniki...”: a counting rhyme with a complicated history. What secret is hidden in the “eniki-beniki” counting rhyme?

Counting, a bright and original genre of folklore, has always attracted children. After all, she not only organizes a children's game, but also allows the kids to throw out their emotions. It is not surprising that short poems are easily learned and passed on from generation to generation. Meanwhile, some texts are not so easy to understand, and perhaps they contain secret messages. One of these rhymes is the famous “Eniki-beniki”.

Counting rhyme options

The ancient rhyme "Eniki-beniki" has a number of variations. Some of them date back to the Soviet era, since they feature a “Soviet” sailor (the phrase is also found in variations of “drunken sailor” or “curly-haired sailor”).

Other versions contain fictitious words ("abstruse" counting), similar to spells. There is even a very long patter counting rhyme where, along with the notorious dumplings, almost all known food products are listed.

There are also options with “made up words”:


And here is the “translated into understandable language” version:

Eniki - beniks - brooms - brooms!
Boleks - leliki - sawdust - rollers!

Lolek and Bolek are characters from a Polish cartoon that first appeared in 1964

But the tongue twister mentioned above, of course, is no longer quite childish:


Video: children's karaoke song based on the famous rhyme

The mysterious story of the counting rhyme

In various versions of the children's rhyme, the mysterious combination “eniki-beniki” (or “eni-beni”) is invariably found. Due to their stability, these words are obviously not a random collection of sounds. Linguists have a number of versions on this matter.

Old Russian word

In Vladimir Dahl’s dictionary, the concept “benka” comes from the Yaroslavl province. It designates a piece of utensils - a fork. Then the initial sentence of the rhyme makes sense: with the help of beniki it is quite possible to eat dumplings. "Eniki" may be a corruption of the word "other", or it may simply be a made-up word to create rhyme and rhythm.

In V. Dahl’s explanatory dictionary, the word “benka” means fork (in the Yaroslavl province)

In the 60s 20th century Igor Tarabukin, a journalist and poet, an employee of the satirical magazine "Crocodile", thought about the interpretation of the counting rhyme and began to study dictionaries. Having discovered the word “benka”, he even wrote a poem “Eniki-beniki ate dumplings”...:

  • Who are Eniki?
    Who are the beniks?
    I asked about it
    But no one gave an answer.
    I dug through little by little
    Dictionaries-piggy banks
    And I found that the word “benki”
    It's simple - forks.
    Benki, or beniki,
    The saying to them is eniki!
    But a spoon can't
    Eat okroshka yourself!
    And bowls can't
    Eat a bunch of radishes!..
    Why beniki
    What if they eat dumplings?
    Because the word is
    Outdated, no matter how sorry it is,
    And one day from the buffet
    Moved to the counting room.
    And the counting is like this -
    It's a word game
    So, even beniki
    They can eat dumplings!

Having discovered the word “benka” in the dictionary, Igor Tarabukin even wrote a poem about it

By the way, the word “kletz”, which appears in the version about the sailor, is most likely derived from the word “dumplings” - pieces of dough cooked in boiling water, milk or broth. Thus, they were eaten along with dumplings.

Game of dice

Medieval German knights, when playing dice, uttered the words “Einec beinec doppelte,” which means “a single die has been doubled.” Over time, this saying penetrated into the Polish language, and then further to the east.

When playing dice, medieval knights often used an expression similar to the words “Eniki-beniki”

Prayer

The ancient prayer of the Turkic peoples began with the words “ennyke-bennyke” (“Mother Almighty”). This is how they addressed the female deity Umai. With the adoption of Christianity, the meaning of the words was lost, and they became nonsense, which migrated to children's rhymes.

The Turkic peoples had a deity, Umai, whose prayer began with words that sounded like “ennyke bennyke”

Numbers

The words “ene, bene, slave, kwinter, finter” may represent modified numerals. They are similar to the Anglo-Welsh account - the one that has been used since ancient times for trade (“aina, peina, para, peddera, pimp”).

There are many variants of this children's rhyme, but in any of them the mysterious “eniki” and “beniki” are invariably found. If these 2 words are so stable, then they are not a random set of sounds. So who or what were the “eniki-beniki” originally? There are several versions of the origin of this expression.

Fork

Perhaps the most common version of this rhyme is the one where “eniki-beniki ate dumplings.” It was he who, back in the 1960s, drew the attention of journalist, poet, satirist, and employee of the famous magazine “Crocodile” Igor Tarabukin. Tarabukin began his research by studying dictionaries and discovered that the compiler of one of them, the well-known Vladimir Dal, wrote that benechka is a word originally from the Yaroslavl province. There it meant an ordinary fork. If we take this interpretation into account, then the little counting takes on a certain meaning, because with the help of benikov it was really possible to eat dumplings. As for the beniks, they most likely simply paired the beniks for rhythm and rhyme. Igor Tarabukin even composed a whole poem about the origin of this expression.

Game of dice

Soviet linguist, philologist and translator Vladimir Orel, who was the compiler of several etymological dictionaries, also investigated the mystery of “eniki-beniki”. Orel assumed that this saying appeared in our speech thanks to the German language. Even in Medieval Germany, similar words were spoken by knights when playing dice. They said: Einec beinec doppelte,” which meant “a single bone doubled.” Later, “eniki-beniki” began to be used by the Poles, and then by residents of other countries. In Russia, the sentence “ate dumplings” was added to “eniki-beniki” only because these phrases turned out to be consonant.

Prayer

Some modern researchers believe that “eniki-beniki” is nothing more than an ancient prayer addressed to one of the female deities of the Turkic peoples named Umai. Marina Reznikova also writes about this in her work “Ethnographic Sketches on the South Russian Cossacks.” Reznikova claims that it was with these words that the Polovtsians began their prayer. The fact is that in those days “Ennyke-bennyke” meant “Mother Almighty.” Gradually, with the adoption of Christianity, the original meaning of the prayer and many of its other words were forgotten and became a kind of nonsense that migrated to the category of children's rhymes.

Numbers

One of the variants of the counting rhyme sounds like “ene, bene, slave, quinter, finter” and so on. Many linguistic scholars suggest that these mysterious spells are ordinary, but slightly modified numerals. Efim Shchup, in a text posted on the “LIVEJOURNAL” resource, writes that he discovered some similarities between the so-called “English-Welsh account”, which was used in trade between the Welsh and the English, and the words from the counting rhyme. With references to foreign researchers of the past Ellis and Bolton, Shchup suggests that “ene, bene, slave, quinter, finter” are the English-Welsh numerals “aina, peina, para, peddera, pimp,” only very distorted.

Song in Latin

Another variation of the nursery rhyme sounds like “eni-beni-riki-faki.” According to translator Ilya Nakhmanson, this text was most likely borrowed from the Latin poem “Aeneas bene rem publicam facit...”. The song talks about Aeneas, who “created the state,” and praises the god Bacchus. At that time, many people in Europe knew Latin. Even teaching in universities was conducted in this language. However, over time, the Latin poem and its original meaning were forgotten, but the little rhyme remained.

Counting tables are a deeply pagan invention. Our ancient ancestors believed that if we simply counted the trophies obtained during the hunt, then the next game hunt would not be successful. Therefore, all sorts of linguistic tricks were used: for example, words like “Eni-beni-slave” were considered non-existent.
In general, counting rhymes have been studied quite deeply by philologists and linguists. A detailed classification has been applied: what, where, why, for what reason, etc. I won't go into such details. But all this is not without reason and carries a deep meaning, just like Russian folk tales, for example.
In addition to the purely utilitarian role of choosing a leader in the game, counting rhymes also have a lot of advantages of a purely psychological nature. At a minimum, they train their memory.
The youngest children learn to speak and count using counting rhymes.
Counting books give a child a correct understanding of justice: you got it, everything is fair, you have to drive, but arguing with this is stupid and not comradely. They teach reasonable obedience to rules for the sake of a common cause.
In addition, a simple touch to the chest, taken during the “calculation”, carries a deep psychotherapeutic meaning: it is like a sign of trust, a symbol of friendship, involvement in a small society.

I’m writing a post, my daughter (4 years old) comes up to me and tells me a little rhyme that I’m hearing for the first time:

The puppy was sitting on a bench
Counted my pins:
One two Three -
You will be the queen!

Come on, if anyone remembers anything or hears anything from the children, write here if you’re not too lazy!
It will be cool to see how different the rhymes from different times are.

Well, I’ll write rhymes from the 80s and 90s (although maybe they existed before? Most likely):


On the golden porch sat:
Tsar—prince—king—prince,
Shoemaker-tailor
Who will you be?

Come out (speak)—quickly—don’t delay
Good—and honest (wise)—people!

A version of this rhyme from the 90s:

They sat on the golden porch,
Gummi bears, Tom and Jerry,
Scrooge McDuck and 3 ducklings,
come out you will be Ponca!

Sitting on the golden porch:
Winnie the Pooh and Tom and Jerry,
Mickey Mouse, three ducklings.
Come out, you'll be Ponca!
If Ponca doesn't come,
Scrooge McDuck will go crazy.


Another topic:

Aty-bats-went-soldiers,
Aty-baty-to-bazaar.
Did you—baht—bought what?
Aty-baty-samo-var.
How much does it cost?
Aty-baht-three-ruble
What are you-bats-he-what?
Aty-baht-gold-toy.

a hedgehog came out of the fog
drank half a glass of juice
looked—into an empty—glass
and—again—went—into the fog

Eniki—Benik—ate—dumplings
Eniki-Beniki-kletz!
A Soviet sailor came out.

Eniki—Benik—ate—dumplings,
Eniki-beniki-klos
A cheerful sailor came out.

Eniki-beniki-brooms-brooms!
Boliki—leliki—sawdust—rollers!

Here are some of my favorites:

The carriage drove through the dark forest
For some interest
Inte inte interest
Come out with the letter "es".

similar:

A cuckoo walked past the forest
For some interest.
Inti-inti-intires,
Choose the letter "s".
The letter "s" didn't fit
Choose the letter "a".


You remember such rhymes for the rest of your life)):

The month has emerged from the fog,
He took a knife out of his pocket:
I will cut, I will beat -
You won't live anyway!

(Or a softer version of “You still have to drive!”)

And by the way, it was invented quite recently and the meaning is most direct. This poem goes back to the real story of a certain Bandera member named Mesyats, who was fierce in Western Ukraine during the Great Patriotic War. The children reflected on historical events in their own way and preserved them in the people’s memory in such an original way...

Well, in this counting rhyme you need to know the rhythm (tempo) with which to tell it. If you haven't heard it, it's hard to repeat it properly. It's not even clear how to place punctuation marks.

on balcony number 8 oh her we sat with my brother bones
ugh, you're a sin, what fun it was for us paririrors, they divided everything in half, really, yes, yes
repeat

we flew off the balcony oh she hit the young lady with her elbow
repeat

we got to the police, oh, they broke all the bars
repeat

we ended up in the hospital and they pressed the nurse at the door
repeat

we ended up at the cemetery and counted the dead
repeat paririroma everyone was divided in half the truth NO NO ahaaaaah

This is how I found it on the Internet, but this is how I remember it, my older sister told me about it:

on balcony number 8 - oh to her - we sat with my brother bones,

We flew off the balcony - oh her, we hit the young lady with our elbow
Ugh, what a sin you are. We had fun tumba-oriram. They divided everything in half right? - yeah

We ended up in the police - oh my gosh - they broke all the bars
Ugh, what a sin you are. We had fun tumba-oriram. They divided everything in half right? - yeah

We ended up in the hospital - oh my gosh - the nurse was pressed at the door
Ugh, what a sin you are. We had fun tumba-oriram. They divided everything in half right? - yeah

We ended up at the cemetery - oh well - and we counted the dead
Ugh, what a sin you are. We had fun tumba-oriram. They divided everything in half right? - NO NO

although I still don’t remember all the words exactly...

One two three four five,
The bunny went out for a walk,
Suddenly—the hunter—runs out,
Shoots straight at the hare
Bang-bang-oh-oh-oh
My little bunny is dying.
They brought—him—to the hospital,
He refused to undergo treatment,
brought—him—home,
It turned out that he was alive.

Ours—Masha
Got up early
Dolls - all
Re-counted:
Two matryoshka dolls
On the window,
Two—Arinka
On the feather bed,
Two—Tanyushka
On—the pillow,
A—Petrushka
In-cap
On oak
Sunduch!

The month has emerged from the fog,
He took the knife out of his pocket
I will cut, I will beat,
You still have to bare.
And behind the month is the moon.
The devil hanged the sorcerer.
And the sorcerer hung, hung
And flew into the trash heap.
And Boris lived in a trash heap -
Chairman of dead rats.
And his wife - Larisa -
Wonderful rat.
He fell in love with someone else
He took an ax and hacked him to death.
But the wife did not die,
She took the money and left.
He fell in love with someone else
He took the perfume and gave it to her.

The ending is really kind of incoherent...

And a few more:

Do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si
The cat got into a taxi.
And the kittens clung
And we had a free ride.

Tsikal-tsikal, motorcycle,
All tracks were recycled
And he came to Leningrad,
Choose your outfit:
Red, blue, light blue -
Choose any one for yourself.

Helicopter, helicopter,
Take me on a flight.
And in flight it’s empty,
Cabbage has grown.
And there's a worm in the cabbage,
Vanya the Fool came out.

Aye, zwein,
Chukate me,
Abel - fabel,
De me ne.
X, pix,
Bullet - punch,
Naupux!

I know in another version:

Ecota Pekota Chukota Ma
Abul fabul del mana
Ex pex bullet pux naus
- My daughter learned this with pleasure)) and taught others

Monkey Chi-chi-chi
sold bricks
didn't have time to sell
flew under the bed.
It's empty under the bed -
cabbage has grown
grapes on cabbage
it turned out to be an automatic machine
.
(there is still a not quite decent option)

Eniki-beniki ate dumplings...
Draniki, dates, muffins and gingerbreads,
Donuts and buns, and all sorts of donuts,
Dumplings, cakes, marshmallows and bars,
Peppers, salads, tomatoes, potatoes,
Cabbage, mustard, mushrooms and okroshka.
Radish, matzo, mayonnaise and cutlets,
Eggs, beets, bishbarmak and rolls.
Lard, peas, dill and cheesecakes,
Bananas, coconuts, carrots and parsley,
Butter, shish kebab, artichokes, brisket,
Onions, tomatoes, beans and tartines.
Pancakes, marmalade, cottage cheese, beer, stewed meat,
Coffee, cookies, sour cream, condensed milk,
Apples, fish, cocoa, solyanka,
Jelly, wild garlic, sausage, casserole.
Shrimp, lemons, nuts and plums,
Jam, black bread, white bread, gravy,
Sugar, lobster, liver, candy,
Cheese, vinegar, lobsters, wine, tea, pates,
Salt, chips, cakes, rice, chops,
Straws, cognac, jellied tongues,
Melons, fillets, pasties, splints,
Semolina, pearl barley, caviar, vinaigrettes,
Zrazy, sausages, garlic, entrecotes,
Horseradish, chocolate, pasta and sprats.
brawn, whiting, zucchini, zeppelin,
Peaches, sorrel, chickens and olives.
Kiwi, herring, pork, gooseberries,
Oysters, pumpkins, pomegranates, rose hips,
Cream, truffles, waffles, drying and rutabaga,
Lamb, croutons, currants, cranberries.
Crabs, compote, ham, cabbage rolls,
Kefir, mineral water and cucumbers,
Blueberries, puree, squash, strawberries,
Molasses, cracklings and strawberries,
Rhubarb, raisins, meatballs, halva,
Pilaf, chakhokhbili, spinach and quince,
Spaghetti, almonds, honey, dumplings, rump steaks,
Toasts, roast beef, beans and steaks...
We took a light bite and poured it again!

(With such a counting rhyme you will definitely train your memory))

Well, this is true, it’s not a counting rhyme, but it’s very popular among children, which is interesting for my generation and my daughter too:

Make up, make up, make up,
and don't fight anymore.
And if you fight -
then I will bite,
and biting has nothing to do with it,
I (will) have to fight with a brick.
And the brick will break -
friendship begins.

Who knows what, join us!

Since childhood, we remember this strange little rhyme: Eniki-beniki ate dumplings, Eniki-beniki ate dumplings, a drunken sailor came out on deck!
But we don’t even think about the meaning hidden behind these words. Meanwhile, counting rhymes are the oldest form of art and often carry secret and sacred knowledge. Linguists have been trying to unravel the message for many years. Here are three versions of the origin of the saying eniki-beniki.

One two three four five

One of the main ones is the version that the account is encrypted in eniki-beniki. Researcher Efim Shchup found that ene, bene, slave, kwinter, finter are close in sound to the numerals aina, peina, para, peddera, pimp. These numbers were used in the language of trade, which was invented by the Celts and the visiting Englishmen. However, it's not that simple...

Game of dice

According to linguist Orel, eniki-beniki came to us from the Middle Ages. They could have been invented by German knights, who, when playing dice, liked to say Einec beinec doppelte, which translated into Russian means the only bone doubled. Over time, this saying passed into the Polish language, and then moved further to the east.

There is another theory that takes us further into the past, to the mysterious Greek mythology. If you follow the version of mythological origin, rhymes like ene-bene, ricky-taki, bull-bul-bul, karaki-shmaki, eus-deus-kosmodeus, bam, grew out of a Greek poem telling the story of Aeneas. The hero of the Trojan War, who founded the city on the banks of the Tiber, was immortalized in this Latin poem:

Aeneas bene rem publicam facit,
In turbo urbem sene Tiberi jacit.
Deus, deus, crassus deus,
Bacchus!"

The children's world is mysterious and difficult to understand. How did a Latin poem or a saying of German knights form the basis of children's rhymes? How do they cross country borders? For now these are unanswered questions. All three versions seem quite tempting, but we still don’t know the final answer. What if there is something else hidden behind the nursery rhyme?