William Wallace Denslow's illustrations for Baa, Baa, Black Sheep, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose

The black sheep, according to Denslow

Baa Baa Black Sheep is a nursery rhyme, now sung to a variant of the 1761 French melody Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman. The original form of the tune is used for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the Alphabet song. Black Sheep may refer to: Black Sheep, a term for someone incurring family sanctions because of behavior(s) violating family codes or expectations Black Sheep (1996 film), a 1996 comedy film starring Chris Farley and David Spade. ... Image File history File links Baa,_Baa,_Black_Sheep_1_-_WW_Denslow_-_Project_Gutenberg_etext_18546. ... Image File history File links Baa,_Baa,_Black_Sheep_1_-_WW_Denslow_-_Project_Gutenberg_etext_18546. ... William Wallace Denslow Copyright notice from Denslows Mother Goose of 1901 - note the use of the word, Rex even at that date William Wallace Denslow (May 5, 1856–March 29, 1915) was an illustrator and caricaturist remembered for his work in collaboration with author L. Frank Baum, especially his... For other uses, see Mother Goose (disambiguation). ... Image File history File links Baa,_Baa,_Black_Sheep_2_-_WW_Denslow_-_Project_Gutenberg_etext_18546. ... Image File history File links Baa,_Baa,_Black_Sheep_2_-_WW_Denslow_-_Project_Gutenberg_etext_18546. ... A nursery rhyme is a traditional song or poem taught to young children, originally in the nursery. ... Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is one of the popular English nursery rhymes. ... The alphabet song is a popular tool used to help teach children the English alphabet, commonly known by children as the A-B-Cs. ...

Standard version

Baa, baa, black sheep,

Have you any wool?

Yes sir, yes sir,

Three bags full.

One for the master,

One for the dame,

And one for the little boy

Who lives down the lane.

For other uses, see Wool (disambiguation). ...

Variants

In Mother Goose's Melody (circa 1765) the last lines run:

But none for the little boy

Who cries in the lane.^[1]

An old variant of the ending runs:

Two for the master,

one for the dame,

but none for the little damn boy

who lives down the lane.

or similar.^[2] This referred to social inequalities that were common in the English countryside.^{[citation needed]} The equalized version is more recent.^{[citation needed]}

Reference in linguistics

The term 'Baa Baa Black Sheep dialect' has also been used informally in linguistics to describe varieties of English (such as British English) that allow the syntax "Have you any wool?" compared to others (such as American English) that prefer "Do you have any wool?" with the auxiliary verb 'do'.^[3] In the question 'Have you any wool?' the verb 'have' appears as a transitive verb with the sense of possession, however the only thing they possess is wool! But it also appears to behave like an auxiliary in the sense that it undergoes syntactic inversion.^[4] For dialects of programming languages, see Programming language dialect. ... British English (BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere in the Anglophone world. ... For other uses, see Syntax (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see American English (disambiguation). ... In linguistics, an auxiliary (also called helping verb, auxiliary verb, or verbal auxiliary) is a verb functioning to give further semantic or syntactic information about the main or full verb following it. ...

In other languages

Swedish version

The nursery rhyme is very common in Sweden.

Bää bää, vita lamm

Har du någon ull?

Ja, ja kära barn, jag har säcken full

Heldagsrock åt far,

och söndagskjol åt mor

Och två par strumpor åt lille, lillebror

Originally, translated from English by August Strindberg, this rhyme started with 'Bää bää, Svarta får' ('black sheep'), but Alice Tegnér changed it to 'vita lamm' ('white lamb').   (January 22, 1849 â€“ May 14, 1912) was a Swedish writer, playwright, and painter. ... Alice Tegnér, born 12 March 1864 in Karlshamn, Sweden, dead 26 May 1943, was a Swedish music teacher, composer and organist. ...

Translated into English the Swedish rhyme reads:

Baa, baa white lamb

Have you any wool?

Yes, yes dear child, I have the whole bag full

A holiday-robe for father,

and a Sunday-skirt for mother

And two pairs of socks for the little, little brother.

Dutch version

The dutch version of this common nursery rime goes:

Schaapje, schaapje, heb je witte wol?

Ja baas, ja baas, drie zakken vol.

Eén voor de meester en één voor zijn vrouw.

Eén voor het kindje, dat bibbert van de kou.

The English translation would be:

Little sheep, little sheep, do you have white wool?

Yes boss, Yes boss, three bags full.

One for the master, one for his wife.

One for the little child, that shivers from the barb

.

References

• Opie, Iona and Peter, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, Oxford University Press, 1951.

Footnotes

1. ^ Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes
2. ^ See entry at OldPoetry.com
3. ^ For example, Radford, Andrew, Syntactic Theory and the Structure of English: A Minimalist Approach pages 235 – 259 talks of 'Baa Baa Black Sheep varieties of English' Cambridge University Press, 1997. ISBN 0521477077.
4. ^ Radford, op. cit. page 235

See also

Nursery rhymes A nursery rhyme is a traditional song or poem taught to young children, originally in the nursery. ...

External links

• Rhyme and music
• The origin of the nursery rhyme Baa Baa Black Sheep
• The Origins of Nursery Rhymes
• Baa Baa Black Sheep at KidsBuilder.com w/music
• History and Origin of Mother Goose's Ba Ba Black Sheep rhyme