Akka bakka bonka rakka is a Norwegian nursery rhyme of mostly nonsense words used to select or point out a participant in children's games, such as who will be "it" in a game like hide-and-seek (Norwegian : gjemsel) or tag (Norwegian : sisten). [1] [2]
It is classified as a counting rhyme in Nora Kobberstad's Norsk Lekebok (Book of Norwegian Games) from 1901. [3]
There are different versions of the rhyme. The following version was recorded in Elverum in the early 1920s by Sigurd Nergaard: [4]
In 1936, it was included in a collection of children's rhymes published by Rikka Deinboll: [5]
Finn Myrvang reproduced it in 1964 in a version from Andøya: [6]
A later version, published by the Children's Book Club (Bokklubbens barn), has the following form: [7]