THOUGHTS FROM THE FIELD
Believed to derive from ancient Celtic, the language used for counting sheep, sometimes called ‘yan tan tethera’, varies from region to region yet is most usually associated with northern England. It goes in scores — that is, up to 20 — with each score noted by a stone placed in the pocket.
Although now a largely arable county, Suffolk was once the wool capital of Britain. Isolated from Brythonic Celtic languages, the East Anglians developed their own sheep-counting lingo. Here, the count from one to 10 goes: ‘Hanst, tant, tethery, futhery, fant, sarny, darny, dorny, downy and dick’. Once dick is reached, the suffix ‘disc’ is used.
A few Suffolk shepherds still use this method, which they insist is far less complicated than using modern numbers.…
