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Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 11:29 am
by aardwolf
The Irish for "high" as in "high in the sky" is go hard. :roll:

Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 11:50 am
by insumaro
I've heard the name Kennedy comes from the Irish Gaelic meaning "ugly head."

Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 1:04 pm
by Noriega
Swedish syllable of the day: Ernstskts = ”of an Ernst-ian one”

This one, comparing Italian and Latin, is fabulous:
http://caelestis.info/sauvagenoble/2004/11/italian-linguists.html wrote:It. I vitelli dei romani sono belli.
The calves of the Romans are beautiful.

L Ī, Vitellī, deī Rōmānī sonō bellī.
Go, Vitellius, with the sound of the Roman god of war.

or ... of the beautiful Roman god.

or even
Ī vitellī deī Rōmānī sonō bellī
Go with the sound of the Roman god’s beautiful calf.
or ... of the beautiful Roman god’s calf.
or ... of the calf of the Roman god of war.

Etc. etc. Wow!

Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 5:31 pm
by Varamannato
One from Icelandic:
Aki á Á á á á Á. (Aki on farm Á has an ewe on Á.)

Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 2:04 pm
by Klaivas
I take it Á is a river? IIRC it is.

Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 8:02 am
by rob n
[quote="Matt"]Two tongue-twisters from Bella Coola of the Salishan Family:

[size=18]xɬp?χʷɬtɬpɬɬs kʷc?[/size] 'then he had in his possession a bunchberry plant'

[size=18]c?ktskʷc?[/size] 'he arrived'[/quote]

From another Amerindian language, Quiotepec Chinantec:
[m?1] 'ant'
[m:23] ‘sandal’
[hm?3] ‘tomato’
[?m:3m?4] ‘you pinch’
[m:42m?m24] ‘we (exc) pinch’

Posted: Thu Jul 06, 2006 5:53 pm
by Imralu
German

Bismarck biss Mark, bis Mark Bismarck biss.
/"bIsma:6k bIs "ma:6k bIs "ma:6k "bIsma:6k "bIs/
Bismarck (possible dog's name) bit Mark, until Mark bit Bismarck.

Wenn hinter Fliegen Fliegen fliegen, fliegen Fliegen Fliegen hinterher.
/vEn "hInt6 "fli:gn= "fli:gn= "fli:gn= "fli:gn= "fli:gn= "fli:gn= "hInt6"he:6/
When flies fly behind flies, flies fly after flies.

Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 4:22 pm
by insumaro
This website wrote:


Buffalo.
"Engage in bamboozlement."

Buffalo buffalo.
"American bison are characteristically given to engaging in bambloozlement."

Buffalo buffalo buffalo.
"American bison are characteristically given to bamboozling other members of their species."

Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.
"American bison habitually bamboozled by members of their own species (that is, buffalo whom other buffalo regularly buffalo) characteristically engage in bamboozlement."

Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.
"American bison habitually bamboozled by members of their own species (that is, buffalo whom other buffalo regularly buffalo) tend to return the compliment by bamboozling in turn yet other members of the species."

Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.
"American bison habitually bamboozled by members of their own species that have themselves been bamboozled by others of their ilk (that is, buffalo whom other buffalo who have themselves been buffaloed by buffalo regularly buffalo) tend to engage in bamboozlement."

Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 5:52 pm
by Klaivas
Matt wrote:Two tongue-twisters from Bella Coola of the Salishan Family:

xɬp?χʷɬtɬpɬɬs kʷc? 'then he had in his possession a bunchberry plant'

c?ktskʷc? 'he arrived'
I know I'm quoting an old post here but...

Hell, I almost suffocated when trying to pronounce them.

Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 6:58 am
by aardwolf
Welcome to a world where the term "syllable" is meaningless. Ish.

Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2006 1:02 am
by Turtlehead
Saethodd y saethwr y saith saeth. - The archer shot seven arrows.

Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2006 12:18 pm
by Whimemsz
-Klaivas- wrote:
Matt wrote:Two tongue-twisters from Bella Coola of the Salishan Family:

xɬp'χʷɬtɬpɬɬs kʷc' 'then he had in his possession a bunchberry plant'

cktskʷc 'he arrived'
I know I'm quoting an old post here but...

Hell, I almost suffocated when trying to pronounce them.
I tried to read those to my dad yesterday. It's insane. Also, how are you supposed to say those loudly? What if someone's far away from you, but you need to tell them right now that he had in his possession a bunchberry plant? It's impossible to shout it!

Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2006 12:37 pm
by aardwolf
Maybe they can have non-phonemic epenthetic schwas.

Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2006 1:03 pm
by Kereb
Pentekonter wrote:Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.
"American bison habitually bamboozled by members of their own species that have themselves been bamboozled by others of their ilk (that is, buffalo whom other buffalo who have themselves been buffaloed by buffalo regularly buffalo) tend to engage in bamboozlement."
I've seen a longer one... if you replace "buffalo" where it refers to "American bison" with "Buffalo buffalo" (ie, a buffalo from Buffalo, N.Y.), you get:

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

M

Think of it like "Buffalo-buffalo (that) Buffalo-buffalo buffalo (in turn) buffalo (other) Buffalo-buffalo.

Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 1:41 am
by FTF
Circ?us wrote:
Trebor wrote:
garrett wrote:I always that that this french form of the verb "louer" was crazy: loueait.
orthographically, yes, but not phonetically. not sure how to pronounce it, though...
An impossible form: it'd had to be "louerait" (conditional) or (louait)

You can have all 5 vowels with less letters: oiseau (/wazo/, bird)
For all five in a row though, louaient works...

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 1:35 pm
by Ancenande
Spanish:
-¿Cómo comes?
-¿Cómo cómo como? ¡Como como como!
/"komo "komes/
/"komo "komo "komo/ /"komo "komo "komo/

-How do you eat?
-How "how do I eat"? I eat as I eat!

Also Farmacéutico and Murciélago have all five vowels.

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 2:48 pm
by Jipí
The encoding of this page is seriously fucked up. I can see Georgian, I can see Cyrillic, I can see IPA, but not á, é, í, ó, ú, ç, å, ä, ö, ü and ß for some reason.

Back on topic: The German word Herkunftswörterbuch is quite nifty as well (5 consonants in a row). So is Swedish Ernstkts (6 consonants in a row). The longest official word in German by the way is Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz according to Wikipedia. According to this page, some examples for German words with the most consonants in a row are Geschichtsschreiber ("historian", 8 letters, but only 5 phonemes), Glückwunschschreiben ("congratulations letter", 8 letters, but only 4 phonemes), Angstschweiß ("cold sweat", 8 letters, 5 phonemes) and Herbstpflanze ("autumn plant", 7 letters, 7 phonemes).
aardwolf wrote:Maybe they can have non-phonemic epenthetic schwas.
I have downloaded a recording of Bella Coola once, and no, they don't insert schwas. Bella Coola doesn't sound harsh actually when spoken and in context in my opinion. It's astonishingly 'fluid'.

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 2:51 pm
by Nuntarin
Because the thread contains posts from before the board's server move.

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:22 pm
by Salmoneus
My least favourite German cluster: /nfstf/, as in "Zukunfstsphilogie"

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:31 pm
by Nuntarin
I'm waiting for a native speaker to correct me, but if the first element is the word for "future", I think it's Zukunft without the /s/.

Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 3:21 am
by Sander
Dutch has:
angstschreeuw
cry of fear
[ "aNst.sx4e:w ]

...and used to have:
papegaaieëieren
parrot eggs
[ "pa.p@."Ga.j@.?E\.j@.4@n ]

until some dimwits decided there needed to be an -n- in there, so now it's papegaaieneieren.

Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 7:14 pm
by Rui
Nuntarin wrote:I'm waiting for a native speaker to correct me, but if the first element is the word for "future", I think it's Zukunft without the /s/.
True, Zunkunft is German for "future", but when combining words together, the first word generally gets an ending, such as -s or -n (if it ends in e), or something that I may have left out.

However, I am also not a native German speaker.

Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 7:18 pm
by Chengjiang
Chibi wrote:
Nuntarin wrote:I'm waiting for a native speaker to correct me, but if the first element is the word for "future", I think it's Zukunft without the /s/.
True, Zunkunft is German for "future", but when combining words together, the first word generally gets an ending, such as -s or -n (if it ends in e), or something that I may have left out.

However, I am also not a native German speaker.
I believe Nuntar was referring not to this <s>,
Zukunfstsphilogie
but to this one:
Zukunfstsphilogie

Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 8:33 pm
by Starsinger
For contrast to the Salish and German - no consonants in the Hawaiian phrase:
E i ae oe iaia.
Speak thou to him there.

Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 9:27 pm
by Rui
Primordial Soup wrote:I believe Nuntar was referring not to this <s>,
Zukunfstsphilogie
but to this one:
Zukunfstsphilogie
Wow, I definitely skipped over that s :oops: