Humpty Dumpty sits on a wall, prior to his fall.

Humpty Dumpty is a character in a nursery rhyme portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg. Most English-speaking children are familiar with the rhyme: Humpty Dumpty is a nursery rhyme and its principal character: Humpty Dumpty a pinball machine: Humpty Dumpty (pinball) a Canadian brand of snack foods: Humpty Dumpty Snack Foods, Inc. ... Image File history File links HumptyDumpty. ... Image File history File links HumptyDumpty. ... A nursery rhyme is a traditional song or poem taught to young children, originally in the nursery. ... An anthropomorphic character; a cat ascribed human characteristics. ... An egg is a body consisting of an ovum surrounded by layers of membranes and an outer casing of some type, which acts to nourish and protect a developing embryo. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king's horses and all the king's men

Couldn't put Humpty together again.

The fact that Humpty Dumpty is an egg is not actually stated in the rhyme. In its first printed form, in 1810, it is a riddle, and exploits for misdirection the fact that "humpty dumpty" was 18th-Century reduplicative slang for a short, clumsy person. Whereas a clumsy person falling off a wall would not be irreparably damaged, an egg would be. The rhyme is no longer posed as a riddle, since the answer is now so well known. Similar riddles have been recorded by folklorists in other languages, such as Boule Boule in French, or Lille Trille in Swedish & Norwegian; though none is as widely known as Humpty Dumpty is in English. A riddle is a statement or question having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. ... Misdirection is a form of deception in which the attention of an audience is focused on one thing in order to distract its attention from another. ... Reduplication, in linguistics, is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word, or only part of it, is repeated. ... Folkloristics is the formal academic study of folklore and mythology. ...

Origins

Previous to the "short, clumsy person" meaning, "humpty dumpty" referred to a drink of brandy boiled with ale. There are also various theories of an original "Humpty Dumpty", who was not an egg. Most, if not all, of these must be classified as false etymologies. For other uses, see Brandy (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Ale (disambiguation). ... A false etymology is an assumed or postulated etymology which is incorrect from the perspective of modern scholarly work in historical linguistics. ...

• According to an insert taken from the East Anglia Tourist Board in England, Humpty Dumpty was a powerful cannon used in the Siege of Colchester during the English Civil War. It was mounted on top of the St. Mary's at the Wall Church in Colchester defending the city against siege in the summer of 1648. Although Colchester was a Royalist stronghold, it was besieged by the Roundheads for 11 weeks before finally falling. The church tower was hit by enemy cannon fire and the top of the tower was blown off, sending "Humpty" tumbling to the ground. Naturally all the King's horses and all the King's men (Royalist cavalry and infantry respectively) tried to mend "him" but in vain. Other reports have Humpty Dumpty referring to a sniper nicknamed One-Eyed Thompson, who occupied the same church tower.

Visitors to Colchester can see the reconstructed Church tower as they reach the top of Balkerne Hill on the left hand side of the road. An extended version of the rhyme gives additional verses, including the following:

In Sixteen Hundred and Forty-Eight

When England suffered the pains of state

The Roundheads lay siege to Colchester town

Where the King's men still fought for the crown

There One-Eyed Thompson stood on the wall

A gunner of deadliest aim of all

From St. Mary's Tower his cannon he fired

Humpty-Dumpty was its name...

• In another theory, Humpty Dumpty referred to King Richard III of England, the hunchbacked monarch, the "Wall" being either the name of his horse (called "White Surrey" in Shakespeare's play), or a reference to the supporters who deserted him. During the battle of Bosworth Field, he fell off his steed and was said to have been "hacked into pieces". (However, although the play depicts Richard as a hunchback, other historical evidence suggests that he was not.)

• The story of Cardinal Wolsey's downfall is supposedly depicted in the children's nursery rhyme of Humpty Dumpty. At length Cawood Castle (Cawood, a village in Yorkshire, seven miles southwest of York) passed to Cardinal Wolsey, who let it fall into disrepair in the early part of his career (1514 – 1530), due to his residence at the Court, devotion to temporal affairs and his neglect of his diocesan duties. King Henry VIII sent Wolsey back home in 1523 after he failed to obtain a divorce from the Pope – a huge mistake on Wolsey’s part. Wolsey returned to the castle and began to restore it to its former grandeur. However, he was arrested for high treason in November, 1530 and ordered to London for trial. He left on 6 November, but took ill at Leicester and died in the Abbey there on 29 November.

• An explanation given on a British radio programme described Humpty Dumpty as a siege tower, used by the Cavaliers (King's Men) during the English civil war. Unfortunately, as it was poorly designed, the tower often toppled over when it was full of men and broke. Hence, "All the King's horses and all the King's men, couldn't put Humpty together again."

Norfolk and Suffolk, the core area of East Anglia. ... For other uses, see Cannon (disambiguation). ... The siege of Colchester occurred in the summer on 1648 when the English Civil War reignited in several areas of Britain. ... For other uses, see English Civil War (disambiguation). ... For other places with the same name, see Colchester (disambiguation). ... Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 1483 until his death. ... Frontispage of the First Quarto Richard The Third. ... Combatants King Richard III of England, Yorkist Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, Lancastrian Commanders Richard III of England† Earl of Richmond (nominally) Earl of Oxford (in practice) Strength 6,000 (king had 15,500 but Lord Stanley with 4,000 and his brother, Sir William Stanley with 2,500 betrayed... Cawood Castle was the palace for the Archbishop of York. ...

References in popular culture

Humpty Dumpty and Alice. From Through the Looking Glass. Illustration by John Tenniel.

Humpty Dumpty, shown as a riddle with answer, in a 1902 Mother Goose story book by William Wallace Denslow

Denslow shows the result of the fall

• Humpty appears in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, where he discusses semantics and pragmatics with Alice.

"I don't know what you mean by 'glory,' "Alice said. Image File history File links Illustration of Humpty Dumpty from Through the Looking Glass, by John Tenniel, 1871. ... Image File history File links Illustration of Humpty Dumpty from Through the Looking Glass, by John Tenniel, 1871. ... Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) is a work of childrens literature by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), and is the sequel to Alices Adventures in Wonderland. ... 1889 Self-portrait Sir John Tenniel (February 28, 1820 – February 25, 1914) was an English illustrator. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Humpty_Dumpty_1_-_WW_Denslow_-_Project_Gutenberg_etext_18546. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Humpty_Dumpty_1_-_WW_Denslow_-_Project_Gutenberg_etext_18546. ... A riddle is a statement or question having a double or veiled meaning, put forth as a puzzle to be solved. ... A page from a late 17th century handwritten and illustrated version of Charles Perraults Contes de ma mère lOye (Mother Goose Tales) depicting Puss in Boots. ... 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... Image File history File links Humpty_Dumpty_2_-_WW_Denslow_-_Project_Gutenberg_etext_18546. ... Image File history File links Humpty_Dumpty_2_-_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... Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (IPA: ) (January 27, 1832 – January 14, 1898), better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman and photographer. ... Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) is a work of childrens literature by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), generally categorized as literary nonsense. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... Pragmatics is the study of the ability of natural language speakers to communicate more than that which is explicitly stated. ... John Tenniel illustrated the first editions of the Alice books. ...

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't -- till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!'"

"But `glory' doesn't mean `a nice knock-down argument,'" Alice objected.

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in a rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master -- that's all."

Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again.

"They've a temper, some of them -- particularly verbs, they're the proudest -- adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs -- however, I can manage the whole lot! Impenetrability! That's what I say!"

Among other things, he (mis-)explains the difficult words from Jabberwocky. See Humpty Dumptyism. For other uses, see Jabberwocky (disambiguation). ...

• Throughout James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, the male protagonist, Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, is compared to Humpty Dumpty. One of many exegeses is that his subconscious, which he "breaks open" every night as he sleeps, contains all the fragments of history, which his wife collects and puts back together again in the morning (unlike the rhyme). Joyce explicitly refers to Humphrey as Humpty on page 12, line 12 of the Wake.

• "All the King's Men" is used as the title of Robert Penn Warnen's 1946 novel, depicting the events in the dramatic political rise and fall of Willie Stark, a populist southern governor in the American South during the 1930s.

• In L. Frank Baum's Mother Goose in Prose, the rhyming riddle is devised by the daughter of the King, having witnessed Humpty's "death" and her father's soldiers' efforts to save him.

• Tori Amos wrote a song named Humpty Dumpty which uses the poem as lyrics.

• Batman features a character based on Humpty Dumpty - most likely out of its tendency to base ideas on fairy tales and Alice and Wonderland (such as the Mad Hatter). He enjoys taking things apart to see if he can put them back together again and make them better - and was thus mislabeled as a terrorist.

• Counting Crows have a song called "Einstein on the Beach (For An Eggman)" in which the chorus references Humpty-Dumpty: "And all the king's men reappear / For an eggman, on and off the wall / Who'll never be together again..."

• A re-telling of the rhyme appeared in the TV show Lost In Space in the episode "Rocket To Earth". Dr. Smith is convinced he is seeing things. The Robot attempts to cheer him up by reciting the following:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Humpty Dumpty was two inches tall

He fell down and broke his shell

Poor little egg, I wish him well.

To which Smith responds: "I think I'm going to be violently ill". This article is about the writer and poet. ... For the street ballad which the novel is named after, see Finnegans Wake. ... Lyman Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author, actor, and independent filmmaker best known as the creator, along with illustrator W. W. Denslow, of one of the most popular books ever written in American childrens literature, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, better known today... Mother Goose in Prose is a collection of twenty-two childrens stories based on Mother Goose nursery rhymes written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by Maxfield Parrish. ... Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos on August 22, 1963) is an American pianist and singer-songwriter. ... Batman (originally referred to as the Bat-Man and still referred to at times as the Batman) is a DC Comics fictional superhero who first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. ... Counting Crows is an American Folk Rock band originating from Berkeley, California. ... For other uses, see Lost in Space (disambiguation). ...

• The title of Robert Penn Warren's novel All the King's Men derives from the nursery rhyme, as does the title of Woodward and Bernstein's Watergate memoir All the President's Men.

• All the King's Men is also the title of a children's opera by Richard Rodney Bennett. Set in the time of the English Civil War it describes the invention of a machine similar to the Roman testudo (see below) which the troops on both sides in the Gloucester siege christened "Humpty-Dumpty".

• Also, Aimee Mann wrote a song named "Humpty Dumpty", in which the last verses are a romantic adaptation of the original poem ("All the king horses and all the kings men/ Couldn't put baby together again").

• Neil Gaiman published in Knave, in 1984 a short story called 'The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds', which casts Humpty as a murder victim. The tone is that of hard boiled detective fiction and casts a number of nursery rhyme characters in various roles such as Jill from Jack and Jill as the femme fatale or Cock Robin as the underworld informant. It is now available to read from his website.

• Jasper Fforde includes Humpty Dumpty in two of his novels. One, The Well of Lost Plots, the third novel in his Thursday Next series, features Humpty as the ringleader of dissatisfied nursery rhyme characters threatening to strike. The other, The Big Over Easy sets Humpty as the victim of a murder under investigation by Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his partner Detective Sergeant Mary Mary.

• Robert Rankin includes Humpty Dumpty as one victim of a serial fairy tale character murderer investigated by Bill Winkie, Private Eye and sidekick Eddie Bear the Teddy Bear, in his novel "The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse"

• Humpty makes a cameo in American McGee's Alice, where he is half-broken and smoking a cigar. His role in the game is to point Alice to the location of the Blunderbuss.

• In Todd McFarlane's 'Twisted Fairy Tales' line, Humpty Dumpty is not an egg, but a huge fat creature wearing a propellor beanie, with entrails leaking from his body and stitches and staples to 'fix' him.

• Frank Beddor said in an interview that Humpty Dumpty will probably be in his third The Looking-Glass Wars book.

• Humpty Dumpty also appears in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake as a symbol of the fall of all men.

• There is also a song by Travis (Scottish band) which is called "The Humpty Dumpty Love Song". The first lines of it are "All of the king's horses and all of the king's men couldn't put my heart back together again". Taken from their third studio album The Invisible Band (2001). There is another Travis Song called "Coming Around". In the video, there is the singer Fran Healy in an egg and by the end of it he falls from a wall.

• In Fantasy Flight Games Grimm RPG of twisted fairy tales he features as Humpty Dumpty aka. "The Rotten King". A smelly ruler over an evil kingdom of monsters who enjoys nothing more than pitting children against each other in cruel games.

• The Prog rock band Genesis has a song named Squonk, from their 1976 album A Trick of the Tail, which features the line "All the king's horses and all the king's men could never put a smile on that face".

• Humpty Dumpty features prominently in City of Glass by Paul Auster. The character Peter Stillman, while cracking open a boiled egg, uses the example of Humpty Dumpty to explain his theories about language.

• Eggorny is a Colombian cartoon, which is about Humpty Dumpty. It takes place in a mediæval landscape. After his great fall, no one was able to put Humpty together again until some 1500 years later. A teenager named Rufus put him together again, and renamed him Eggorny. Eggorny now lives in the modern-day town of Someville.

• The British jazz-funk group Central Line name-checked Humpty Dumpty in their 1981 club hit "You Know You Can Do It" ("Not like Humpty / Don't come tumbling down / Into pieces on the ground")

• 60's rock band The Monkees has a song called "All The King's Horses" with the chorus singing "All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put my broken heart back together again."

• The rap group 2 Live Crew mentions Humpty Dumpty on their controversial album As Nasty As They Wanna Be (1989), on the song "Dirty Nursery Rhymes": "Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall / 'Cause a ho on the ave was sucking his balls / All the king's horses and all the king's men / Couldn't put that fat motherfucker back together again."

• In "All the King's horses" by Joss Stone there's a line in the chorus "All the king's horses, and all the king's men, couldn't put our two hearts, together again"

• Humpty Dumpty is also a minor character in the first story arc of the comic book Jack of Fables, in which he remembers the Battle at Colchester, and actually fires as a cannon once before cracking up.

• On November 6th, 2006, NPR's All Things Considered used the nursery rhyme to demonstrate the talents of voice-over artists Dennis Steele and Scott Sander. Their voices are both recognizeable as narrators for political season TV advertisements. In a "Dire and Disastrous" tone the rhyme was lampooned as, "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All our Federal Tax Dollars could not put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Humpty Dumpty...Wrong on wall-sitting."

• Ricky Gervais, comedian and producer of both the British and American versions of the television show "The Office", riffed about Humpty Dumpty in his stage show, "Politics."

• Boston-based band The Receiving End of Sirens uses the lyrics "Bring all the king's horses and all the king's men" in their song "The War of All Against All".

• The theme song of australian television show Round The Twist,used the line "If All the king's horses, and all the king's men, couldn't put me back together again I'd say...", the next line in the verse is the opening line of popular nursery rhyme Rain, Rain, Go Away.

• Olivier Blanchard and Michael Kremer close their 1997 paper in the Quarterly Journal of Economics entitled "Disorganization" with a phrase from the rhyme.

• In Cardcaptor Sakura Tomoyo is Humpty Dumpty during Sakura's trip into "Alice in Wonderland".

• Toast soldiers that are dipped in soft boiled eggs are believed to have been given the name from the rhyme.

• In the episode "Nursery Crimes" of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy Mandy tells a very sad Humpty Dumpty tale.

• The Stevie Nicks song "Fall From Grace" from her 2001 album Trouble in Shangri-La contains the line "Not all the king's horses / Not all the king's men / Could put it back together..."

Robert Penn Warren Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic, and was one of the founders of The New Criticism. ... This article is about the book. ... Bob Woodward signs his book State of Denial after a talk in March 2007. ... Carl Bernstein (left) and Bob Woodward (right)This image is pending deletion. ... “Watergate” redirects here. ... All the Presidents Men is a 1974 non-fiction book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, the two journalists investigating the Watergate first break-in and ensuing Watergate scandal for the Washington Post. ... Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (born March 29, 1936) is a British composer. ... For other uses, see English Civil War (disambiguation). ... Testudo may refer to: Testudo, a genus of tortoises. ... This article is about the city of Gloucester in England; for other uses see Gloucester (disambiguation). ... Aimee Mann (born September 8, 1960) is an American rock guitarist, bassist, singer, and noted songwriter. ... Neil Richard Gaiman () (born November 10, 1960) is an English author of science fiction and fantasy short stories and novels, graphic novels, comics, and films. ... Knave magazine is a long-established British pornographic magazine, published by Galaxy Publications. ... Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes Detective fiction is a branch of crime fiction that centers upon the investigation of a crime, usually murder, by a detective, either professional or amateur. ... A nursery rhyme is a traditional song or poem taught to young children, originally in the nursery. ... William Wallace Denslows illustrations for Jack and Jill, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose Jack & Jill in the act of tumbling down, according to Denslow Jack and Jill is a classic nursery rhyme of Western culture. ... Convicted spy Mata Hari made her name synonymous with femme fatale during WWI. A femme fatale (plural: femmes fatales) is an alluring and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Who Killed Cock Robin. ... Jasper Fforde (born in London on 11 January 1961) is a novelist and aviator living in Wales. ... The Well of Lost Plots is the third book by Jasper Fforde and the continuation of the adventures of literary detective Thursday Next from The Eyre Affair and Lost In A Good Book. ... Thursday Next is the protagonist in the series of novels by Jasper Fforde. ... The Big Over Easy is a novel written by Jasper Fforde and published in 2005. ... Robert Rankin Robert Fleming Rankin (born July 27, 1949) is a prolific British humorous novelist. ... The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies Of The Apocalypse is a novel by the British author Robert Rankin. ... American McGees Alice is a third-person shooter computer game released on October 6, 2000. ... For other uses, see Cigar (disambiguation). ... An English flintlock blunderbuss A blunderbuss is a muzzle-loading firearm with a flared, trumpet-like barrel and is the predecessor to the shotgun. ... Frank Beddor is a former World champion freestyle skier, a film producer, actor, stuntman, and author. ... The Looking Glass Wars is a novel written by Frank Beddor. ... This article is about the writer and poet. ... For the street ballad which the novel is named after, see Finnegans Wake. ... The Invisible Band is the third studio album by the Scottish rock band Travis, first released in 2001. ... Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) is a Roseville, Minnesota-based game company that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games. ... Genesis is an English rock band formed in 1967. ... A Trick of the Tail was the seventh studio album by progressive rock band Genesis and the first to feature Phil Collins as full-time lead vocalist following the departure of original vocalist Peter Gabriel. ... The New York Trilogy is a series of novels or long stories by Paul Auster. ... Paul Auster Paul Benjamin Auster (born February 3, 1947, Newark, New Jersey) is a Brooklyn-based author. ... Jazz-funk is a sub-genre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat, electrified sounds. ... London Transport Portal The Central Line is a line of the London Underground and coloured red on the tube map. ... Year 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981 Gregorian calendar). ... The Monkees were a pop-rock quartet created and based in Los Angeles in 1965 for an NBC American television series of the same name. ... 2 Live Crew is a rap group. ... As Nasty As They Wanna Be is 2 Live Crews third album which was released in 1989. ... Jack of Fables is a spin off of the comic Fables. ... NPR logo For other meanings of NPR see NPR (disambiguation) National Public Radio (NPR) is a private, not-for-profit corporation that sells programming to member radio stations; together they are a loosely organized public radio network in the United States. ... All Things Considered (ATC) is a news radio program in the United States, broadcast on the National Public Radio network. ... Ricky Dene Gervais (IPA: ) (born June 25, 1961) is an Emmy, Golden Globe and BAFTA award-winning English comic writer and performer from Reading, Berkshire. ... This article is about the various versions of the television series The Office, comparing the UK, US, French, German, and French Canadian versions. ... The Receiving End of Sirens (often abbreviated TREOS) are a post-hardcore/experimental[1][2] band from Boston, Massachusetts who originally formed in 2003. ... Round the Bend is an unrelated British television series. ... Rain, Rain, Go Away is a short childrens rhyme: Rain, rain, go away. ... Olivier J. Blanchard Olivier J. Blanchard (born December 27, 1948, Amiens, France) [1] is currently the Class of 1941 Professor of Economics at MIT. Blanchard earned his Ph. ... Michael Kremer is a development economist and is currently the Gates Professor of Developing Societies at Harvard University. ... The Quarterly Journal of Economics, or QJE, is an economics journal published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ... Serialized in Nakayoshi Original run 1996 – 2000 Volumes 12 TV anime Director Morio Asaka Studio Madhouse Licensor Bandai Visual Geneon Nelvana Network NHK, Animax Original run April 7, 1998 – March 21, 2000 Episodes 70 Movie: Cardcaptor Sakura the Movie Director Morio Asaka Composer Takayuki Negishi Studio Madhouse Licensor Bandai Visual... A soldier is a British term that refers to a piece of toast cut into thin strips reminiscent of the formation of soldiers on parade. ... The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (Sometimes shortened as Billy & Mandy or Grim Adventures), created by Maxwell Atoms, is an American animated television series aired on Cartoon Network. ... Stephanie Lynn Stevie Nicks (born May 26, 1948) is an American singer and songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and a long solo career, which collectively have produced over twenty Top 40 hits. ... Trouble in Shangri-La is the sixth album by American singer/songwriter and Fleetwood Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks. ...

Application in cognitive science

A phonetic variation composed of near-sounding French words of the rhyme is also used in the fields of systems analysis, knowledge management, and requirements management in software development to illustrate the complexity of human communications. It is useful in bilingual or near-bilingual environments to show the issues involved in crossing over from the oral world typical of implicit knowledge to the written world of explicit knowledge. Systems analysis is the interdisciplinary branch of science, dealing with analysis of systems, often prior to their automation as computer systems, and the interactions within those systems. ... Knowledge Management (KM) comprises a range of practices used by organisations to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge for reuse, awareness and learning. ... “Software development” redirects here. ...

One of the many variations is thus:

Homme petit d'homme petit, s'attend, n'avale

Homme petit d'homme petit, à degrés de bègues folles

Anal deux qui noeuds ours, anal deux qui noeuds s'y mènent

Coup d'un poux tome petit tout guetteur à gaine

If this is read out slowly (by somebody who has a good enough knowledge of French to pronounce it properly, but has not been told a nursery rhyme is involved) to an audience of persons who have been warned a nursery rhyme is involved, the reader would be rather bemused and the listeners would very rapidly recognize the nursery rhyme. Reading the passage aloud will make the effect clear.

A literal translation of the French words (by somebody with a good knowledge of French, and a moderate knowledge of English but no knowledge of the nursery rhyme) would come out thus:

Little man of little man, waits for himself, does not swallow

Little man of little man, by degrees of stuttering madwomen

Anal two that knots bears, anal two that leads

Strike from a louse small volume any watchman with a fish

See also: Mondegreen and Animutation

A mondegreen is the mishearing (usually accidental) of a phrase as a homophone or near-homophone in such a way that it acquires a new meaning. ... A screenshot from Hyakugojyuuichi!!, an early example of Animutation Animutation or fanimutation is a form of web-based computer animation, typically created in Adobe Flash and characterized by unpredictable montages of pop-culture images set to music, often in a foreign (to the intended viewers) language. ...

External links

• Why is Humpty Dumpty portrayed as an egg? — from The Straight Dope
• Humpty Dumpty — Various suggested origins
• The Canon of the Cannon
• Humpty Dumpty at KidsBuilder.com
• Humpty Dumpty Illustrations and the Reality of Text — Paper discussing the emergence of the "egg" interpretation
• Eggorny, a colombian cartoon about Humpty Dumpty Spanish page
• Humpty Dumpty and the fall of Colchester An Animated and Narrated version of the Origins of the Humpty Dumpty
• Humpty Dumpty Heart by Hank Thompson Humpty Dumpty Heart by Hank Thompson. Lyrics by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen