"Mother
Goose"
in Several Languages
The legend
of Mother Goose is known in many countries.
In 1697 Charles Perrault used the phrase in a published collection
of eight fairy tales. Although the book was titled, (translated from French)
Histories
and Tales of Long Ago, with Morals, the frontispiece showed an old
woman spinning and telling stories, with a placard on the page which bore
the words Contes de la Mere l'Oye ("Tales of My Mother the Goose").
Perrault thereby set the stage for the name to become a household word.
The single most important promoter of the designation of Mother Goose
as writer of children's rhymes was John Newbery. With his adoption of her
name for a collection of mostly traditional rhymes, he usurped her former
alliance with the tales. The date for publication of this important little
edition is agreed by scholars to be about 1765 (1760-1766). Mother Goose's
Melody: or Sonnets for the Cradle gave us the designation "Mother Goose
Rhymes" which took a firm hold.
For more about these publications and just who Mother Goose was (and
was not) see Who Was Mother Goose?
Finnish: Hanhiemo
French: Oie de Mere; me Mere l'Oye
German: Mama Gansa; Mutter Gans;
die Gänsamutter (the mother of the geese)
Hungarian: Lud Anyó
Italian: Oca di Madre
Portuguese: Mamã Ganso;
Gánso de Mãre
Spanish: Ganso de Madre
Swedish: Gåsmer
Esperanto (the world language):
Patrino Anser; Patrino Anserino
A page from a late Seventeenth Century
handwritten and illustrated version of
Charles Perrault's Contes de ma mère l'Oye
(Mother Goose Tales)
depicting "Puss in Boots."
