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Yan Tan Tethera is a sheep-counting rhyme/system traditionally used by shepherds in Northern England and earlier in some other parts of England and the British Isles. Until the Industrial Revolution, the use of traditional number systems was common among shepherds, especially in the dales of the Lake District. The ''Yan Tan Tethera'' system was also used for counting stitches in knitting. The words derive from a Brythonic Celtic language. Though most of these number systems fell out of use by 1910, some are still in use. The word ''yan'' or ''yen'' for 'one' in some northern English dialects generally represents a regular development in Northern English in which the Old English long vowel /ɑː/ <ā> was broken into /ie/, /ia/ and so on in Northern English. This explains the shift to ''yan'' and ''ane'' from the Old English ''ān'', which is itself derived from the Proto-Germanic '' *ainaz''.〔Dick Leith: ''A Social History of English'', 1997, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-09797-5, ISBN 978-0-415-09797-0, p.45〕〔Bill Griffiths: ''A Dictionary of North East Dialect'', 2004, Northumbria University Press, ISBN 1-904794-16-5, p.191〕 Another example of this development is the Northern English word for "home", ''hame'', which has forms such as ''hyem, yem'' and ''yam'' all deriving from the Old English ''hām''.〔Bill Griffiths: ''A Dictionary of North East Dialect'', 2004, Northumbria University Press, ISBN 1-904794-16-5, p.79〕 == Importance of keeping count == In order to keep accurate records (e.g. of birth and death) and to alert instances of straying, shepherds must perform frequent head-counts of their flocks. Dating back at least to the medieval period, and continuing to the present in some areas like Slaidburn, farms were granted fell rights, allowing them access to common grazing land. To prevent overgrazing, it was vitally necessary for each farm to keep accurate, updated head-counts. Though fell rights are largely obsolete in modern agriculture except in upland areas, farms are often subsidised and taxed according to the quantity of their sheep. For this reason, accurate counts are still necessary, and must be performed frequently. Generally, a count is the first action performed in the morning and the last action performed at night. A count is made after moving the sheep from one pasture to another, and after any operation involving the sheep, such as shearing, tagging, foot-trimming, mulesing, etc., although sheep are far less likely to stray while being moved in a group than when grazing at large on open ground. 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「Yan tan tethera」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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