Finger play

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A finger game or finger theater is a game with or for children in which a small action is presented in such a way that the fingers of the hand, similar to puppets in a puppet theater, take on the role of people, animals or things. It is telling both linguistically from the presenter, descriptive or Demonstrate the dialogues, clear, often in the form of a nursery rhyme or sung nursery rhyme . The game can involve other parts of the body, including those of the watching children, or it can only be performed by grasping the child's fingers.

Simple shapes

Hand games

A simple form of finger play, still without assigning roles to individual fingers, is performed by gesturing with the hand. In the German-speaking world, the song Wie das Fähnlein auf dem Turm is widespread , in which the turning of the weather vane is visualized by turning the raised hand or hands , but also in connection with the text variant "should my darling turn" the child himself is turned in the dance can:

Like the flag on the tower
can turn in wind and storm,
so shall my little hand turn
that it's a pleasure to watch

A French song of this kind from Franche-Comté indicates the transition to finger theater by comparing fingers with marionettes, whereby marionnette in French also means “little girl, little marion”

Ainsi font, font [So do, do]
les petites marionnettes, [the little marionettes,]
ainsi font, font [do it, do it]
trois petits tours, [three small (dance) rounds,]
et puis s'en vont. [and then they disappear.]

That's the thumb

A simple form of finger play with role assignment, which is widespread in many countries, allows the fingers to perform part of a narrated action one after the other, the content of which is often focused on the topic of food. The best known finger song of this kind in the German-speaking world is Das ist der Thumb :

[Thumb] This is the thumb
[Index finger] he shakes the plums,
[Middle finger] he picks them up
[Ring finger] he'll carry her home
[Little finger] and the smallest one, he'll eat them all!

In France, on the other hand, the fingers go hunting, in a variant from Franche-Comté on the hare hunt:

[Thumb] C'est lui qui va à la chasse, [This is the one who goes hunting]
[Index finger] c'est lui qui à tué le lièvre, [this is the one who killed the hare]
[Middle finger] c'est lui qui l'a fait cuire, [that's the one who made it boil]
[Ring finger] c'est lui qui l'a mangé, [this is the one who ate it]
[Little finger] et le petit glin glin [and the rickety little one]
disait: Moi j'en veux, j'en veux, [said: I want some of it, I want some of it,]
j'en veux, j'en veux, j'en veux! [I want it, I want it, I want it!]

In a Venetian variant, however, an egg is prepared:

[Thumb] Questo gà fato'l vovo, [He laid the egg,]
[Index finger] questo l'à messo in fogo, [he put it on the fire]
[Middle finger] questo l'à cusinà, [he cooked it,]
[Ring finger] questo lo ga magnà, [he ate it]
[Little finger] e sto povareto no ghe n'à gnanca tocà! [and that poor little one didn't even touch it!]

And a Sardinian finger rhyme is about a pig whose role falls to the middle finger, traditionally considered lewd or impure :

[Thumbs] Cust 'e' su babbu, [This is the father,]
[ Index finger] cust 'e' su fizzu, [this is the son,]
[Middle finger] cust 'e' su porcu, [that's the pig,]
[Ring finger] cust 'e' su chi d'a mortu, [this is the one who slaughtered it]
[all four] impari si danti pappau, [they ate it together]
[Little finger] ea su pietiededdu non di d'anti donau! [and they didn't give anything to the little one!]

The English finger song This broke the barn is about breaking into a barn , in which grain is usually stolen and, in a Scottish variant, a cow is stolen instead:

[Thumbs] This is the man who broke the barn, [ This is the man who broke the barn ]
[Index finger] this is the man who stole the cow, [ this is the man who stole the cow ]
[Middle finger] this is the man who stood and saw, [ this is the man who stood by and watched (watched),]
[Ring finger] this is the man who ran awa ', [this is the man who ran away]
[Little finger] And wee peeriwinkie paid for a '! [and poor Peeriwinkie had to pay for everyone (s)!]

As far as theft, in German because of the initial rhyme thumb / plum, especially fruit theft, or forbidden snacking is the topic, the plot is sometimes continued in more detailed variants so that the "smallest" who gets nothing betrays the others and they then their punishment receive.

Little pimples and little pimples

A finger game known in Germany is Himpelchen and Pimpelchen in which two males are represented with the thumb or forefinger. The fingers are moved.

Anthologies

  • Marga Arndt / Waltraut Singer: That's the thumb knudeldick ... finger games and puzzles. Ravensburger Buchverlag, 12th edition 1995. ISBN 3-473-55056-6
  • Raimund Pousset: Finger games and other frills. Play fun with small children. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1983 (revised 24th edition, 2006), ISBN 978-3-499-60641-0
  • Petra Probst: That's the thumb. Popular finger games. ArsEd., Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-7607-7862-4

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wilhelm Scheffler : The French folk poetry and saga. A contribution to the intellectual and moral history of France. Volume 1. Bernhard Schlicke, Leipzig 1884, p. 240.
  2. ^ Wilhelm Scheffler: The French folk poetry and saga. A contribution to the intellectual and moral history of France. Volume 1. Bernhard Schlicke, Leipzig 1884, p. 241.
  3. ^ Hermann Heinrich Ploss : The child in custom and custom of the peoples. Anthropological Studies. Volume 2 August Auerbach, Stuttgart 1876, p. 228.
  4. ↑ Felix Karlinger: Das Sardische Volkslied: Attempt to determine its historical and geographical situation as a contribution to western Mediterranean folklore (= Sardìnnia. Vol. 3). Edited by Giovanni Masala. Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt 2004, ISBN 3-8334-0459-0 , p. 54.
  5. ↑ James Orchard Halliwell (Ed.): Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales. A Sequel to the Nursery Rhymes of England. John Russell Smith, London 1849, p. 105, online version .
  6. ^ JD Hutchison: Counting of fingers. In: Notes and Queries. Vol. 184, No. 5, February 27, 1943, ISSN  1471-6941 , p. 147, doi : 10.1093 / nq / 184.5.147 (currently unavailable) .

Web links

Wiktionary: Finger play  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations