These guys also cracked up at bumfit. It's at around the 5-minute mark on the video.

Ten-year old girls love special clubs and secret languages. It often starts with Pig Latin and then moves on to sign language or ubbi dubbi. Boys seem more interested in written codes and symbols (in my experience, at least).

Could be, gangerh. A friend of mine who counsels deaf children believes that it's fairly common among (hearing) U.S. girls who are about Nicolina's age--something to do with having their own code of communication that adults can't understand. (Can't speak for boys that age, though.)

Yes! You're right, r_t! I hadn't seen it - Nicolina and her friends were all learning and using BSL earlier this year! Is this a universal phenomenon?

That makes me very happy, gangerh. I think the sheep counting words are my favorite discovery since joining Wordie.

That's great, gangerh! Girls that age love mysterious counting systems and languages, don't they? (I know several who use ASL as their own "secret" means of communicating.)

Having found time to understand this counting system I just shared it with Nicolina, my daughter, aged 10. She loves it, as do I, and she's just spent a whole 5 minutes learning up to jigget. She's now teaching me and insists that I print it off so she can share it with all her friends tomorrow. Ain't it great? Thanks for sharing, sionnach.

Why? Is Daffyd a malcountent?

But wait! Daffyd demands a recount!.

Based on this Wikipedia link, and others, I have changed the name of this list slightly, and added the 'Rathmell' counting numbers to the existing 'Swaledale' counts.

more delightful nonsense!!

music!!

pictures!!

llarfs!

yanajig, tanajig, tetherajig, metherajig, pastie, yanapest, tanapest, tetherapest, metherapest, crumpet, yanacrump, tanacrump ...

It's forbidden by law to own more than 32 sheep.

Why only 20? Surely flocks of sheep were bigger than that? Or is 20 just the number of words that have survived?

I seek higher realms, even beyond jigget.

Australia. But with my new-found prowess I should have been in New Zealand:
"In the Te Kuiti’s take on “running of the bulls” the main event of the day is at 2pm “The Running of the sheep”. Where thousands of wooly sheep scurry and make their way through the excited crowd down the main street of Te kuiti in the most wildest idea that has turned into the most recognizable event icon. Then test your sheep counting skills in The Count the Sheep Competition” by guessing the exact number of sheep running to win a huge cash prize." Err, all the thrilling details here .

bilby's in the Land of Nod, sionnach.

bilby: Are you still in Australia? Or are you in Europe again?

I'm trying so hard to learn all these words but I keep falling asleep ...

This is officially my favouritest list. In this life and all previous ones.

How many ways do I love Wordie? Let me count them:

yan, tan, tether .....

I trust that addresses bilby's question.

By the way, this counting scheme was found in the delightful book biting the wax tadpole : confessions of a language fanatic (elizabeth little).

Yes, and I suppose I must learn them too if I'm to be the Prothonotary of Fattiehead.

Wait...where is Fattiehead again? Oh, Scotland. Never mind. *stops counting in Welsh*

Do we count from the top of the list down or from the bottom up? I just want to be damn ready cometh the next ovine reckoning at Penrhyndeudraeth.

Oh, no. I have a ton of them. I even have lists of them. This very comment is filled with them.

Well, good for them, say I! Maybe they can write a song about the experience* so that sister Bronwen can teach it to the miners' chorus to sing at the Eistedfodd.

But, have you learned *nothing* from your experience here on Wordie, c_b? Surely, by now, the realization must have dawned that there is no such beast as a 'perfectly ordinary' word, in English, or any other language?

*: turn it into Eistedfodder, so to speak.

What if Welsh shepherds sit around reading perfectly ordinary English words and laughing about us? *looks around suspiciously*

How they ever got past bumfit I can't imagine.

I may have to adopt this system myself. If only so that I can guffaw like a buffoon when I reach tetheradick.

Chortle! Chortle! Chortle!