This Little Piggy

For the Family Guy episode, see This Little Piggy (Family Guy).
"This Little Piggy"
Roud #19297

This Little Pig Went to Market by Lilly Martin Spencer, 1857
Song
Written England
Published 1760
Form Nursery rhyme
Writer Traditional
Language English

"This Little Piggy" or "This little pig" is an English language nursery rhyme and fingerplay. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19297.

Lyrics

Children playing This Little Pig.[1]

The most common modern version is:

WordsFingerplay

This little piggy went to market,
This little piggy stayed home,
This little piggy had roast beef,
This little piggy had none,
And this little piggy cried wee wee wee all the way home.[1]

  1. ^ Herman, D. (2007). The Cambridge Companion to Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 9. 

Wiggle the "big" toe
Wiggle the "long" toe
Wiggle the "middle" toe
Wiggle the "ring" toe
Wiggle the "pinky" and tickle the bottom of the foot

Another version often cited is:

This little piggy went to market,
This little piggy stayed home,
This little piggy had jam and bread,
This little piggy had none,
And this little piggy went crying all the way to town[2]

Another version widely used throughout Ireland and the UK:

This little piggy went to the market,
This little piggy stayed at home,
This little piggy had bread and butter,
This little piggy had none,
And this little piggy went wee wee wee, all the way home.

Another found native to Boston, MA:

This little piggy went to market,
This little piggy went to town,
This little piggy had roast beef,
This little piggy had clam chowder,
And this little piggy went wee wee wee all the way home.

Another verse from the "This Little Piggy Singing Bear" is:

This little piggy rode a bicycle,
This little piggy flew an airplane,
This little piggy drove a car,
This little piggy rode a train
And this little piggy went wee wee wee all the way home.

For the laugh and learn puppy is:

This little puppy went to market
This little puppy stayed home
This little puppy had a biscuit
This little puppy had a bone
And this little puppy said arf arf arf arf arf arf arf all the way home

Finger play

"... This little piggy had roast beef..."

The rhyme is usually counted out on a person's toes, each line corresponding to a different toe, usually starting with the big toe and ending with the little toe. A foot tickle is usually added during the "Wee...all the way home" section of the last line. The rhyme can also be seen as a counting rhyme, although the number of each toe (from 1 for the big toe to 5 for the little toe) is never stated.

Origins

In 1728, the first line of the rhyme appeared in a medley called "The Nurse's Song". The first known full version was recorded in The Famous Tommy Thumb's Little Story-Book, published in London about 1760.[3]

The full rhyme continued to appear, with slight variations, in many late 18th and early 19th century collections. Until the mid-20th century, the lines referred to "little pigs".[3]

Other versions

In 2014, Australian children's music group: The Wiggles wrote a song "This Little Piggy Went to Market" with the same lyrics as the original This Little Piggy with different background music. The song is on The Wiggles' 2014 release: Apples and Bananas DVD and CD and the song is sung with American journalist: Lee Hawkins.

In 2015, singer Christina Aguilera sang the rhyme in the voice of Britney Spears on "The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon".

References

  1. ↑ Wentworth. Work and Play with Numbers. p. 14.
  2. ↑ Rizzo, C. (1995). All the Ways Home: Parenting and Children in the Lesbian and Gay Communities. Norwich VT: New Victoria Publishers. p. 104.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Opie, I.; Opie, P. (1951). The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1997 ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 349–50.

Bibliography