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''How much wood would/could a woodchuck chuck'' is an American English-language tongue-twister.〔Thomas A. Green, ''Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Beliefs, Customs, Tales, Music'' (1997): "Sometimes, tongue twisters utilize elaborate sound inversions in complex juxtapositions—for example, "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" "〕〔Elizabeth Tucker Children's Folklore: A Handbook 2008 - Page 22 "Popular English tongue twisters include "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers," "She sells seashells by the seashore," and "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?."〕 The woodchuck ‒ from the Algonquian word, "wejack" ‒ is a kind of marmot regionally called a groundhog.〔Richard M. Hogg, Norman Francis Blake, Roger Lass, ''The Cambridge History of the English Language'' (1992), Vol. 6, p. 189 "The woodchuck, from Algonquian wejack, a marmot regionally called groundhog, has evoked in jocular folklore the unanswerable question: "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" "〕 The complete beginning of the tongue twister usually goes, "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"〔〔 The tongue-twister relies primarily on alliteration to achieve its effects, with five "w" sounds interspersed among five "ch" sounds.〔Sherrill B. Flora, ''Early Literacy Intervention Activities, Grades PK - K'' (2011), p. 79.〕 ==Answers== A traditional, if nonsensical, "response" to the question is: "A woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood".〔See, e.g., Florence Kingsland, ''In and Out Door Games: With Suggestions for Entertainments'' (1904), p. 250: "If a woodchuck could chuck, a woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood." Variations abound, as in, Edward W. Mumford, compiler, ''Smiles in Rime'' (1904): "Well, If a woodchuck could chuck wood, a woodchuck would chuck all the wood that a woodchuck could chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood!"; Helen Josephine Ferris, ''Favorite Poems Old and New: Selected for Boys and Girls'' (1957), p. 358:"He would chuck what wood a woodchuck would chuck, / If a woodchuck would chuck wood".〕 A 1957 Associated Press piece refers to the question as "a riddle which beats the Sphinx, since it's still unanswered".〔Dion Henderson, "Groundhog Has His Annual Day Saturday; Move Over Mr. Bacon", ''Sarasota Journal'' (January 31, 1957), p. 14.〕 A more concrete answer was published by the Associated Press in 1988, which reported that a New York fish and wildlife technician named Richard Thomas had calculated the volume of dirt in a typical long woodchuck burrow, and had determined that if the woodchuck had moved an equivalent volume of wood, it could move "about on a good day, with the wind at his back".〔"(How much wood would a woodchuck chuck? )", ''Spokane Chronicle'' (July 11, 1988), p. A9.〕 Another study, which considered "chuck" to be the opposite of upchucking, determined that a woodchuck could ingest of wood per day. Another proposed response comes from the parody-filled video game ''Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge'', where the protagonist asks a carpenter the question and gets the response: "A woodchuck would chuck no amount of wood since a woodchuck can’t chuck wood."〔Can be found transcribed in this list of quotes or in the game.en.wikiquote.org〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「How much wood would a woodchuck chuck」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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