What is your counting-out rhyme?

[u/DoomstalkerUser]

In German-speaking Switzerland, the one I've heard the most is "Azelle, bölle schele, chatz god uf Walliselle, chond si weder häi, hed si chrommi bäi, piff paff puff ond du bisch ehr- ond redlech doss", which roughly translates to "Counting up, peeling onions, cat goes to Wallisellen, she comes home again, she has crooked legs, piff paff puff and you're out frankly and honestly".

[u/Captain_Grammaticus]

I have a theory that many counting rhymes start out with a very corrupted way of saying "one-two-(three)" in a Indoeuropean language, or maybe something else too. As if children start out counting but either don't remember the correct words or find them boring. Or they tried counting in a foreign language.

A-zele (Iknoiknow, aazähle is an actual word)

Am-stram-dram

Am-dam-des

Eci-peci (from egy-kettö?)

En-ten-tini

Entten-tennten

And once it is forgotten that they are numbers, they are free to transform even more.

I also think that the underlying metre is often very similar: We see one foot with three accented syllables, then the same repeated, then a variation that is longer and with quicker syllables, and finally the last again.

×(-)×(-)×(-)|×⏑×⏑×|×⏑⏑⏑×⏑⏑⏑|×××

As if the sequence one-two-three, that in European languages are all one or two syllables, defines the overall metrical shape. I can't explain it well in English and I would have to make some diagrams.

[u/agrammatic → u/Captain_Grammaticus]

Username checks out.

[u/carlosdsf → u/agrammatic]

So... "Am stram gram" (which is used in french) would come from german "eins zwei drei"?