Peter Piper

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"Peter Piper"
Peter piper1836.jpg
Illustration from Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation (1836 American ed.)
Nursery rhyme
Published1813

"Peter Piper" is an English-language nursery rhyme and well-known alliteration tongue-twister. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19745. [1]

Contents

Lyrics

The traditional version, as published in John Harris' Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation in 1813, is:

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked;
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked? [2]

A common modern version is:

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick
if he picked a peck of pickled peppers?[ citation needed ]

A "peck" is a unit of dry volume, with the imperial peck equivalent to a quarter of a bushel. The term is, however, now obsolete in British English.

Origins

The earliest version of this tongue-twister was published in Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation by John Harris (1756–1846) in London in 1813, which includes a one-name tongue-twister for each letter of the alphabet in the same style. However, the rhyme was apparently known at least a generation earlier. [3] Some authors have identified the subject of the rhyme as Pierre Poivre, an eighteenth‑century French horticulturalist and government administrator of Mauritius, who once investigated the Seychelles' potential for spice cultivation. [4] [5]

Peter Piper Principle

The Peter Piper Principle is a cognitive error that people make, where they tend to confuse two words that resemble each other; in particular, when the first letter(s) are the same. Studies have shown that this applies when people confuse the names of other people (although other tendencies also apply). [6] [7]

Novelists are well aware of the peril of giving two characters names that start with the same letter, because readers have a tendency to get them confused. [8] [9] Names of medications also tend to be confused when they start with the same few letters. [10]

References

  1. ↑ "English Folk Dance and Song Society Song Index". Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  2. ↑ "Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Pepper nursery rhyme music and lyrics".
  3. ↑ H. Carpenter and M. Prichard, The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (Oxford University Press, 1984), p. 408.
  4. ↑ Hassall, S.; Hassall, P.J. (1988). "Exploration, Discovery and Settlement" . Seychelles. Places and People of the World. Chelsea House. p.  26. ISBN   0-7910-0104-0.
  5. ↑ Lionnet, Guy (1972). "Geography, Geology and Government" . The Seychelles. The Islands Series. Stackpole Books (U.S.)/David & Charles (UK). p.  28. ISBN   0-8117-1514-0.
  6. ↑ Deffler, Samantha A.; Fox, Cassidy; Ogle, Christin M.; Rubin, David C. (22 April 2016). "Table 3 Phonetic Similarity Between Correct Name and Misname". Memory & Cognition. 44 (7). Springer: 989–999. doi: 10.3758/s13421-016-0613-z . hdl: 10161/11918 . PMID   27106910. S2CID   26651199.
  7. ↑ Marissa Higgins, Marissa Higgins (19 May 2016). "This Is Why You Confuse People's Names Sometimes". Bustle. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  8. ↑ Weiland, K.M. (23 March 2011). "How to Avoid Confusing Readers With Similar Character Names". Helping Writers Become Authors. Retrieved 2 October 2022. When an author has given names beginning with the same letter to more than one character, this can confuse readers.
  9. ↑ Tunley, Alison (17 May 2022). "Alphabetic name confusion & failing to keep up with the Kardashians". Rosetta Translation. Retrieved 2 October 2022. Novelists are well aware of the peril of giving two characters names that start with the same letter because readers have a tendency to get them confused.
  10. ↑ "List of Confused Drug Names". Recommendations. Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP). 26 July 2023. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
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