"Don-yoh tenk-wah chee" (to the tune of "Bringing in the Sheaves")--is this anything?

Cafe Society
1

A friend of my parents asked about this… he said when he was young their grandmother taught them to sing this, claiming she had learned it from a “missionary to the Chinese,” but he has been told that it’s not really Chinese and he hasn’t been able to figure out what language it is (if it is indeed a real language!)

They learned the chorus like this:

“Don-yoh tenk-wah chee,
Don-yoh tenk-wah chee,
High-low ling-tum fye-low,
Don-yoh tenk-wah chee.”

I said I would ask you smart people!

2

I found the song in Mandarin here

I don’t speak the language, but the “bringing in the sheaves” line is “shōu hé kǔn huí jiā”, which is completely different from your friend’s song.

3

Too late to edit my last post, but the Mandarin word for “heaven” is “tiānguó”, which might be the “tenk-wah” in your lyrics.

4

Thanks! I’ll pass it on. :slight_smile: