Akka bakka bonka rakka is a Norwegian nursery rhyme of mostly nonsense words used to select or point out a participant in children's games, such as who will be "it" in a game like hide-and-seek (Norwegian: gjemsel) or tag (Norwegian: sisten).
[1][2] It is classified as a counting rhyme in Nora Kobberstad's Norsk Lekebok (Book of Norwegian Games) from 1901.
[3] There are different versions of the rhyme.
The following version was recorded in Elverum in the early 1920s by Sigurd Nergaard:[4] In 1936, it was included in a collection of children's rhymes published by Rikka Deinboll:[5] Finn Myrvang reproduced it in 1964 in a version from Andøya:[6] A later version, published by the Children's Book Club (Bokklubbens barn), has the following form:[7]