Peter Piper
{{short description|Nursery rhyme}}
{{other uses}}{{Redirect|Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers|what the sentence is a popular example of|Alliteration}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox song
| name = Peter Piper
| cover = Peter piper1836.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Illustration from Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation (1836 American ed.)
| type = Nursery rhyme
| written =
| published = 1813
| writer =
| composer =
| lyricist =
}}
"Peter Piper" is an English-language nursery rhyme and well-known alliteration tongue-twister. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19745.{{cite web |title=English Folk Dance and Song Society Song Index |url=https://www.vwml.org/roudnumber/19745 |website=Vaughan Williams Memorial Library |access-date=15 September 2020}}
Lyrics
The traditional version, as published in John Harris' Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation in 1813, is:
: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
: A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked;
: If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
: Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?{{Cite web|url=https://wordsforlife.org.uk/activities/peter-piper-picked-a-peck-of-pickled-pepper/|title = Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Pepper nursery rhyme music and lyrics}}
Common modern versions include:
: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
: If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
: How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick
: if he picked a peck of pickled peppers?{{cite needed|date=January 2024}}
A "peck" is a unit of dry volume, with the imperial peck equivalent to a quarter of a bushel. The term is, however, now obsolete in British English.
Origins
The earliest version of this tongue-twister was published in Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation by John Harris (1756–1846) in London in 1813, which includes a one-name tongue-twister for each letter of the alphabet in the same style. However, the rhyme was apparently known at least a generation earlier.H. Carpenter and M. Prichard, The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (Oxford University Press, 1984), p. 408. Some authors have identified the subject of the rhyme as Pierre Poivre, an eighteenth{{nbhyph}}century French horticulturalist and government administrator of Mauritius, who once investigated the Seychelles' potential for spice cultivation.{{cite book |last1=Hassall |first1=S. |last2=Hassall |first2=P.J. |title=Seychelles |series=Places and People of the World |chapter=Exploration, Discovery and Settlement |page=[https://archive.org/details/seychelles00hass/page/26 26] |isbn=0-7910-0104-0 |year=1988 |publisher=Chelsea House |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/seychelles00hass/page/26 }}{{cite book|last=Lionnet|first=Guy|title=The Seychelles|series=The Islands Series|chapter=Geography, Geology and Government|page=[https://archive.org/details/seychelles0000lion/page/28 28]|isbn=0-8117-1514-0|year=1972|publisher=Stackpole Books (U.S.)/David & Charles (UK)|chapter-url-access=registration|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/seychelles0000lion/page/28}}
Peter Piper Principle
The Peter Piper Principle is a cognitive error that people make, where they tend to confuse two words that resemble each other; in particular, when the first letter(s) are the same. Studies have shown that this applies when people confuse the names of other people (although other tendencies also apply).{{cite journal
|title=Table 3 Phonetic Similarity Between Correct Name and Misname
|last1=Deffler
|first1=Samantha A.
|last2=Fox
|first2=Cassidy
|last3=Ogle
|first3=Christin M.
|last4=Rubin
|first4=David C.
|date=22 April 2016
|publisher=Springer
|journal=Memory & Cognition
|volume=44
|issue=7
|pages=989–999
|doi=10.3758/s13421-016-0613-z
|pmid=27106910
|s2cid=26651199
|doi-access=free
|hdl=10161/11918
|hdl-access=free
|url=https://www.bustle.com/articles/161876-why-do-i-confuse-peoples-names-here-are-3-possible-explanations-according-to-science
|title=This Is Why You Confuse People's Names Sometimes
|last=Marissa Higgins
|first=Marissa Higgins
|date=May 19, 2016
|website=Bustle
|publisher=
|access-date=October 2, 2022
}}
Novelists are well aware of the peril of giving two characters names that start with the same letter, because readers have a tendency to get them confused.{{cite web
|url=https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/dont-confuse-readers-with-similar
|title=How to Avoid Confusing Readers With Similar Character Names
|last=Weiland
|first=K.M.
|date=March 23, 2011
|website=Helping Writers Become Authors
|publisher=
|access-date=October 2, 2022
|quote=When an author has given names beginning with the same letter to more than one character, this can confuse readers.
|url=https://www.rosettatranslation.com/alphabetic-name-confusion-failing-to-keep-up-with-the-kardashians
|title=Alphabetic name confusion & failing to keep up with the Kardashians
|last=Tunley
|first=Alison
|date=May 17, 2022
|website=Rosetta Translation
|access-date=October 2, 2022
|quote=Novelists are well aware of the peril of giving two characters names that start with the same letter because readers have a tendency to get them confused.
}}
Names of medications also tend to be confused when they start with the same few letters.{{cite web
|url=https://www.ismp.org/recommendations/confused-drug-names-list
|title=List of Confused Drug Names
|date=July 26, 2023
|website=Recommendations
|publisher=Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP)
|access-date=2024-05-03
}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Portal|Children's literature}}
- [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25027 Text of Peter Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation] at Project Gutenberg
- {{librivox book | title=Peter Piper}}
Category:English nursery rhymes
Category:English children's songs
Category:Traditional children's songs
Category:Nursery rhymes of uncertain origin