Where the saying "how much would could a woodchuck chuck" came from.?

Answer 1

This is a good question. I've been searching for about half an hour because you've made me curious. Haha! I'm going to make a guess from what I've read that it must have originated from the settlers of the now American north and developed sometime soon after 1674.

Cuz that's what is says here (haha!):
"Settlers as long ago as 1674 referred to it [groundhog] as a woodchuck, borrowing the name from one of the Algonquian Indian languages but spelling it as a combination of two English words. This attempt to make sense of the borrowing resulted in such nonsense as the tongue twister, 'How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?'"
at this website:
http://www.answers.com/topic/groundhog