Our own nat- and conlang tongue twisters

[Šm Mepuyoš ab Duhen]

Croatian-srdačni pozdravi
Pronounced like /srdatʃni pozdraʋi/
Too much consonant clusters for me.

That's weak.

Try /'ɔpskr̂:bʎ/
Note: the /r̂:/ is the nucleus, not the vowel.
Serbocroatian is a tonguebutcherer.

Of course.
I can pronounce /'ɔpskr̂:bʎ/ because one supermarket was called Opskrbni centar(Center for supplying(Google translate says provision ))

[Mr. Z]

A few from Okinawan:

目屋ぬ新家や見物
miiyaa-nu miyaa-ya miimun
"The eye doctor's new house is quite the sight."

歌歌てぃうったてぃうたてぃ
'uta 'utati 'uttati 'utati
"sing a song and get tired on purpose."

菓子くゎっくゎちくゎっちいさびら
kwaashi kwakkwachi kwacchii sabira
"Let's hide the sweets and have a feast."

Okinawan's so cool! Where did you find information about it?

Bavarian

D’Kellnerin hats Bsteck zspät bstellt.
The waitress ordered the cutlery too late.
[d̥kœnɐrɪn hɒts b̥ʃtɛk t͡sʃpɛt b̥ʃtœt]*
~ MisterBernie

The Swabian version of this one how I would pronounce it:

Dr Baabschd had s Spätzlesbschdegg zschbääd bschdelld.
The pope ordered the cutlery for the Spätzle too late.
[d̥ˤɑ̆ˤ b̥ʌːb̥ʒ̥‿tʰad̥‿z̥ ˈʒ̥b̥ɛd̥͡z̥lɐz̥ˌb̥ʒ̥d̥ɛg̥ d̥͡z̥ʒ̥b̥ɛːd̥ b̥ʒ̥d̥ɛld̥]

That's plain weird.
And they say European languages are boring... It looks as horrible (in a good way) as Nort's langs.

[Herr Dunkel]

Bavarian

D’Kellnerin hats Bsteck zspät bstellt.
The waitress ordered the cutlery too late.
[d̥kœnɐrɪn hɒts b̥ʃtɛk t͡sʃpɛt b̥ʃtœt]*
~ MisterBernie

The Swabian version of this one how I would pronounce it:

Dr Baabschd had s Spätzlesbschdegg zschbääd bschdelld.
The pope ordered the cutlery for the Spätzle too late.
[d̥ˤɑ̆ˤ b̥ʌːb̥ʒ̥‿tʰad̥‿z̥ ˈʒ̥b̥ɛd̥͡z̥lɐz̥ˌb̥ʒ̥d̥ɛg̥ d̥͡z̥ʒ̥b̥ɛːd̥ b̥ʒ̥d̥ɛld̥]

That's plain weird.
And they say European languages are boring... It looks as horrible (in a good way) as Nort's langs.

Swabian's a dirty bastard of German while Bavaria is Schriftdeutsch's eldest and prettiest child, the heir apparent!
(cue my death at the hands of Swabians)

Croatian-srdačni pozdravi
Pronounced like /srdatʃni pozdraʋi/
Too much consonant clusters for me.

That's weak.

Try /'ɔpskr̂:bʎ/
Note: the /r̂:/ is the nucleus, not the vowel.
Serbocroatian is a tonguebutcherer.

Of course.
I can pronounce /'ɔpskr̂:bʎ/ because one supermarket was called Opskrbni centar(Center for supplying(Google translate says provision ))

Of what language are you a native?

[Rui]

The Swabian version of this one how I would pronounce it:

Dr Baabschd had s Spätzlesbschdegg zschbääd bschdelld.
The pope ordered the cutlery for the Spätzle too late.
[d̥ˤɑ̆ˤ b̥ʌːb̥ʒ̥‿tʰad̥‿z̥ ˈʒ̥b̥ɛd̥͡z̥lɐz̥ˌb̥ʒ̥d̥ɛg̥ d̥͡z̥ʒ̥b̥ɛːd̥ b̥ʒ̥d̥ɛld̥]

I wrote that one at the bottom of page 1 bisschen anders buchstabiert, aber auf jedem Fall hab ichs zuerst geschrieben!

Swabian's a dirty bastard of German while Bavaria is Schriftdeutsch's eldest and prettiest child, the heir apparent!
(cue my death at the hands of Swabians)

LOLZ@ Bayrisch being the "heir apparent" of Schriftdeutsch

[Šm Mepuyoš ab Duhen]

I am native speaker of Croatian.

Croatian-srdačni pozdravi
Pronounced like /srdatʃni pozdraʋi/
Too much consonant clusters for me.

That's weak.

Try /'ɔpskr̂:bʎ/
Note: the /r̂:/ is the nucleus, not the vowel.
Serbocroatian is a tonguebutcherer.

Of course.
I can pronounce /'ɔpskr̂:bʎ/ because one supermarket was called Opskrbni centar(Center for supplying(Google translate says provision ))

Of what language are you a native?[/quote]

[Nortaneous]

Dr Baabschd had s Spätzlesbschdegg zschbääd bschdelld.
The pope ordered the cutlery for the Spätzle too late.
[d̥ˤɑ̆ˤ b̥ʌːb̥ʒ̥‿tʰad̥‿z̥ ˈʒ̥b̥ɛd̥͡z̥lɐz̥ˌb̥ʒ̥d̥ɛg̥ d̥͡z̥ʒ̥b̥ɛːd̥ b̥ʒ̥d̥ɛld̥]

That's plain weird.
And they say European languages are boring... It looks as horrible (in a good way) as Nort's langs.

I think a lot of the weirdness here comes from the peculiarities of dialectal German transcription. [tˤɑˤ̆ pʌːpʃ‿tʰat‿s ˈʃpɛt͡slɐsˌpʃtɛk t͡sʃpɛːt pʃtɛlt] looks a lot less odd, although I'll admit that /t͡sʃp/ is one hell of an initial cluster.

Also, this:

Hoanu:
Jöjöiñöh tsjħötsawh.
[χʷχʷiɴʷˀ t͡sχxʷt͡sawˀ]
"The angry man got killed on me."

would, I think, be pronounced [χʷʊ̆ˈχʷeɴʷˀ t͡sχoˈt͡sawˀ] in the lower registers, and perhaps be written Jöujöíñöh tsjutsáwh. (Actually, I might do that; would definitely make it easier to develop contrastive stress. But eh, less interesting. Probably just do the register thing. Would still be consonant clusters on an underlying level either way, since epenthetic vowels don't harmonize and there'd be alternation.)

[Jashan]

I just found a tonguetwister in Etora:

Azhi azhe shinan ozh azhozhash asha asha ocha.

/a'ʒi a'ʒɛ ʃɪ'nã oʒ a'ʒoʒaʃ 'aʃa a'ʃa 'otʃa/

"My mind is wittier than all of your beloved little games."

[Herr Dunkel]

I am native speaker of Croatian.

TEACH ME GOD DAMN YOU TEACH ME I'M GERMAN MY VIRGIN TONGUE HANGED ITSELF FROM MY UVULA TRYING TO PRONOUNCE SERBOCROATIAN'S "Good welcomes, dear mr."

[caedes]

Dr Baabschd had s Spätzlesbschdegg zschbääd bschdelld.
The pope ordered the cutlery for the Spätzle too late.
[d̥ˤɑ̆ˤ b̥ʌːb̥ʒ̥‿tʰad̥‿z̥ ˈʒ̥b̥ɛd̥͡z̥lɐz̥ˌb̥ʒ̥d̥ɛg̥ d̥͡z̥ʒ̥b̥ɛːd̥ b̥ʒ̥d̥ɛld̥]

That's plain weird.
And they say European languages are boring... It looks as horrible (in a good way) as Nort's langs.

I think a lot of the weirdness here comes from the peculiarities of dialectal German transcription. [tˤɑˤ̆ pʌːpʃ‿tʰat‿s ˈʃpɛt͡slɐsˌpʃtɛk t͡sʃpɛːt pʃtɛlt] looks a lot less odd, although I'll admit that /t͡sʃp/ is one hell of an initial cluster.

It's a fortis/lenis distinction with the fortis plosives always aspirated and the fricatives/affricates with allophonic fortis/lenis assimilation. The grammars of alemannic dialects I have read so far use [p] vs [b̥] etc., so I just used it here as well.

[Herr Dunkel]

Dr Baabschd had s Spätzlesbschdegg zschbääd bschdelld.
The pope ordered the cutlery for the Spätzle too late.
[d̥ˤɑ̆ˤ b̥ʌːb̥ʒ̥‿tʰad̥‿z̥ ˈʒ̥b̥ɛd̥͡z̥lɐz̥ˌb̥ʒ̥d̥ɛg̥ d̥͡z̥ʒ̥b̥ɛːd̥ b̥ʒ̥d̥ɛld̥]

That's plain weird.
And they say European languages are boring... It looks as horrible (in a good way) as Nort's langs.

I think a lot of the weirdness here comes from the peculiarities of dialectal German transcription. [tˤɑˤ̆ pʌːpʃ‿tʰat‿s ˈʃpɛt͡slɐsˌpʃtɛk t͡sʃpɛːt pʃtɛlt] looks a lot less odd, although I'll admit that /t͡sʃp/ is one hell of an initial cluster.

It's a fortis/lenis distinction with the fortis plosives always aspirated and the fricatives/affricates with allophonic fortis/lenis assimilation. The grammars of alemannic dialects I have read so far use [p] vs [b̥] etc., so I just used it here as well.

I'd say the fortis/lenis is present in other Hochdeutsch languages as well

[caedes]

Dr Baabschd had s Spätzlesbschdegg zschbääd bschdelld.
The pope ordered the cutlery for the Spätzle too late.
[d̥ˤɑ̆ˤ b̥ʌːb̥ʒ̥‿tʰad̥‿z̥ ˈʒ̥b̥ɛd̥͡z̥lɐz̥ˌb̥ʒ̥d̥ɛg̥ d̥͡z̥ʒ̥b̥ɛːd̥ b̥ʒ̥d̥ɛld̥]

That's plain weird.
And they say European languages are boring... It looks as horrible (in a good way) as Nort's langs.

I think a lot of the weirdness here comes from the peculiarities of dialectal German transcription. [tˤɑˤ̆ pʌːpʃ‿tʰat‿s ˈʃpɛt͡slɐsˌpʃtɛk t͡sʃpɛːt pʃtɛlt] looks a lot less odd, although I'll admit that /t͡sʃp/ is one hell of an initial cluster.

It's a fortis/lenis distinction with the fortis plosives always aspirated and the fricatives/affricates with allophonic fortis/lenis assimilation. The grammars of alemannic dialects I have read so far use [p] vs [b̥] etc., so I just used it here as well.

I'd say the fortis/lenis is present in other Hochdeutsch languages as well

Not only there.
EDIT: Eh, yeah, you're right. I just confused Upper with High German =/

[Herr Dunkel]

Even that high up?
Huh, that's nice, I suppose

[sirdanilot]

Dutch:

"De postkoetskoetsier poetst de bekotste postkoets met postkoetspoets."
[də pɔstkutskutsiːr putst də bəkɔtstə pɔstkuts mɛt pɔstkutsputs]
The post carriage driver cleans the post carriage, that is covered with vomit, with post carriage cleaning agent.

"Op de Oegstgeestse Abtspoelweg klinken in de herfst de sterkste angstschreeuwen, moet ik vaststellen."
[ɔp də uχstχeːstsə ɑptspulweχ klɪŋkən ɪn də hɛrfst də stɛrkstə ɑŋstsχrɪ͡uːʋə mut ɪk vɑststɛllə]
On Abtspoel road in Oegstgeest, the strongest cries of fear sound in autumn, I must conclude.

And one in my own dialect, Zeeuws (or Zeelandic, I guess)

"Zou je 't ôuwn hôuwn ên a je 't ôuwn hôan oa?"
[z̥aʊ jəta͡ʊːn ha͡ʊːn ɛ̃n ɑjəta͡ʊːn hɔːn ɔː]
Would you have kept the old if you had had the old?

[Hakaku]

The only one in French that I can remember is this one and its variants:

Ces six saucissons-ci sont six cents soixante six sous.
"These six sausages are six hundred and sixty six cents"

Ces six saucissons-ci sont si secs qu'on ne sait si c'en sont!
"These six sausages are so dry that you can barely consider them sausages at all"

Ces six saucissons-ci sont six sous.
"These six sausages are six cents"

Okinawan's so cool! Where did you find information about it?

I've been gradually collecting documentation here. Those specific examples come from the Haisai.co.jp website.

[Šm Mepuyoš ab Duhen]

I am native speaker of Croatian.

TEACH ME GOD DAMN YOU TEACH ME I'M GERMAN MY VIRGIN TONGUE HANGED ITSELF FROM MY UVULA TRYING TO PRONOUNCE SERBOCROATIAN'S "Good welcomes, dear mr."

Ok,I'll start the toppic named Croatian/Serbocroatian lessons.

[----]

Czech:
Plch pln skvrn prch skrz drn prv zhlt čtvrt hrst zrn
[pl̩x pl̩n skvɾ̩n pɾ̩x skɾ̩s dɾ̩n pɾ̩f zɦl̩t tʃtvɾ̩t ɦɾ̩st zɾ̩n]
A dormouse full of stains escaped through the grass after first eating a quarter of a handful of grain

[Jipí]

Plch pln skvrn prch skrz drn prv zhlt čtvrt hrst zrn

I've read before that /r/ may be classified as a vowel in Czech, so …

Oh sh— I wonder how you'd write that in my conscript. Either you'd get an awful lot of no-vowel signs (like the virama) or you might ad-hoc diacriticize the characters for ‹la› and ‹ra›. That would at least make things slightly less awkward.

EDIT:


And only now that I've closed the program (and didn't save the file) I remember that there's a diacritic for retroflexes that's actually derived from ‹ra› that you could use, so you wouldn't need to write all those ‹ra›s over or under other consonants. The diacritic would instead look like ə (i.e. like ‹ra› without the stem thing) written in front of the respective consonant it belongs to, so it'd look kinda like əปฺɀ̇ /dr̩n/. (Also, skrz reads *sakrz in the bottom line accidentally.)

Now imagine all the fun conjuncts you'd get in Devanāgarī ...

[Ser]

Here's my personal version of my favourite tongue twister in Spanish (or family of tongue twisters, considering the great amount of variation):

Tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo en un trigal en tres tristes platos.
Tras tus tres tristes tigres la triste tribu tiene el tributo tricolor.
La trigeña Trinidad tenía trillizos trigueños gruñendo en una tienda trivial,
tras tus tres tristes tigres qué triste estás Trinidad,
¿es que el trabalenguas trinimil trabas te da?

[ˈtɾes ˈtɾistes ˈtiɣɾes tɾaˈɣaβan ˈtɾiɣo̯e nun tɾiɣˈalen ˈtɾes ˈtɾistes ˈplatos
tɾas tus ˈtɾes ˈtɾistes ˈtiɣɾes la ˈtɾiste ˈtribu ˈti̯enel tɾiˈβuto tɾikoˈloɾ
la tɾiˈɣeɲa tɾiniˈðað teˈni.a tɾiˈjisos tɾiˈɣeɲos ɣɾuˈɲendo̯e nuna ˈti̯enda tɾiˈβi̯al
tɾas tus ˈtɾes ˈtɾistes ˈtiɣɾes ˈke tɾistes ˈtas tɾiniˈðað,
ˈes kel tɾaβaˈleŋgu̯as tɾiniˈmil ˈtɾaβas te ˈða]

(All [β ð ɣ] should be approximants, they appear as fricatives for convenience... I've taken the freedom to write the vowel(s) of a vowel-initial word attached to the closest consonant before, to avoid the typical over-use/abuse of hiatuses that non-natives tend to produce when reading Spanish—and to avoid using ‹‿›, which I really don't like. =p The transcription uses some pretty formal form of Salvadoran Spanish, the relevant phones for other dialects shouldn't be hard to figure out from the orthography, e.g. if you're doing Madrid dialect, trillizos would be [tɾiˈʝiθos̺], and Trinidad would be [tɾiniˈðaθ] or [tɾiniˈðað].)

Translation:

Three sad tigers swallowed three sad dishes in a sad wheat field.
After your three sad tigers the tribe has the tricoloured tribute.
The olive-skinned Trinidad had olive-skinned triplets grumbling in a trivial store.
After your three sad tigers, Trinidad, you look so sad,
is it that the tongue twister's giving you a gazillion problems?

The Swabian version of this one how I would pronounce it:

Dr Baabschd had s Spätzlesbschdegg zschbääd bschdelld.
The pope ordered the cutlery for the Spätzle too late.
[d̥ˤɑ̆ˤ b̥ʌːb̥ʒ̥‿tʰad̥‿z̥ ˈʒ̥b̥ɛd̥͡z̥lɐz̥ˌb̥ʒ̥d̥ɛg̥ d̥͡z̥ʒ̥b̥ɛːd̥ b̥ʒ̥d̥ɛld̥]

That's plain weird.
And they say European languages are boring... It looks as horrible (in a good way) as Nort's langs.

Would it seem less weird to you if I transcribed the voiceless voiced consonants as just voiceless?

[tˤɑˤ pʌːpʃ‿tʰat‿s ʃpɛt͡slɐs pʃtɛk t͡sʃpɛːd pʃtɛlt]

@caedes: why would you choose the glyphs for IPA voiced consonants if you're gonna add the voiceless diacritic to all of them?

[Skomakar'n]

Plch pln skvrn prch skrz drn prv zhlt čtvrt hrst zrn

I've read before that /r/ may be classified as a vowel in Czech, so …

Plus, in a lot of Czech I've heard, these "syllabic" consonants get a full epenthetic vowel (not just a hint of one) stuck in, as in 'klesl' (spelling?) being pronounced indubitably as 'klesel'.

[caedes]

The Swabian version of this one how I would pronounce it:

Dr Baabschd had s Spätzlesbschdegg zschbääd bschdelld.
The pope ordered the cutlery for the Spätzle too late.
[d̥ˤɑ̆ˤ b̥ʌːb̥ʒ̥‿tʰad̥‿z̥ ˈʒ̥b̥ɛd̥͡z̥lɐz̥ˌb̥ʒ̥d̥ɛg̥ d̥͡z̥ʒ̥b̥ɛːd̥ b̥ʒ̥d̥ɛld̥]

That's plain weird.
And they say European languages are boring... It looks as horrible (in a good way) as Nort's langs.

Would it seem less weird to you if I transcribed the voiceless voiced consonants as just voiceless?

[tˤɑˤ pʌːpʃ‿tʰat‿s ʃpɛt͡slɐs pʃtɛk t͡sʃpɛːd pʃtɛlt]

@caedes: why would you choose the glyphs for IPA voiced consonants if you're gonna add the voiceless diacritic to all of them?

As I already said above, that's the most common way I know to describe the lenis/fortis distinction in alemannic dialects.

Read this article about Zurich German as an example.

[richard1631978]

Here's my personal version of my favourite tongue twister in Spanish (or family of tongue twisters, considering the great amount of variation):

Tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo en un trigal en tres tristes platos.
Tras tus tres tristes tigres la triste tribu tiene el tributo tricolor.
La trigeña Trinidad tenía trillizos trigueños gruñendo en una tienda trivial,
tras tus tres tristes tigres qué triste estás Trinidad,
¿es que el trabalenguas trinimil trabas te da?

[ˈtɾes ˈtɾistes ˈtiɣɾes tɾaˈɣaβan ˈtɾiɣo̯e nun tɾiɣˈalen ˈtɾes ˈtɾistes ˈplatos
tɾas tus ˈtɾes ˈtɾistes ˈtiɣɾes la ˈtɾiste ˈtribu ˈti̯enel tɾiˈβuto tɾikoˈloɾ
la tɾiˈɣeɲa tɾiniˈðað teˈni.a tɾiˈjisos tɾiˈɣeɲos ɣɾuˈɲendo̯e nuna ˈti̯enda tɾiˈβi̯al
tɾas tus ˈtɾes ˈtɾistes ˈtiɣɾes ˈke tɾistes ˈtas tɾiniˈðað,
ˈes kel tɾaβaˈleŋgu̯as tɾiniˈmil tɾaβas te ˈða]

(All [β ð ɣ] should be approximants, they appear as fricatives for convenience... I've taken the freedom to write the vowel(s) of a vowel-initial word attached to the closest consonant before, to avoid the typical over-use/abuse of hiatuses that non-natives tend to produce when reading Spanish—and to avoid using ‹‿›, which I really don't like. =p The transcription uses some pretty formal form of Salvadoran Spanish, the relevant phones for other dialects shouldn't be hard to figure out from the orthography, e.g. if you're doing Madrid dialect, trillizos would be [tɾiˈʝiθos̺], and Trinidad would be [tɾiniˈðaθ] or [tɾiniˈðað].)

Translation:

Three sad tigers swallowed three sad dishes in a sad wheat field.
After your three sad tigers the tribe has the tricoloured tribute.
The olive-skinned Trinidad had olive-skinned triplets grumbling in a trivial store.
After your three sad tigers, Trinidad you look so sad,
is it that the tongue twisters give you a gazillion problems?

I've heard a contracted version of this that translated as "Three sad tigers eat wheat in a wheat field".

I once got my Cousin's ex-girlfriend (who grew up in Utah) to say "I keep herbs in an aluminium vase at my leisure" in a British accent. Not exactly a tounge twister but a challenge to say if you're not used to it.

[Ser]

As I already said above, that's the most common way I know to describe the lenis/fortis distinction in alemannic dialects.

Yes, I later realized you had posted about it. Somehow, I had skipped over your post when I posted mine.

Tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo en un trigal en tres tristes platos.
Tras tus tres tristes tigres la triste tribu tiene el tributo tricolor.
La trigeña Trinidad tenía trillizos trigueños gruñendo en una tienda trivial,
tras tus tres tristes tigres qué triste estás Trinidad,

I've heard a contracted version of this that translated as "Three sad tigers eat wheat in a wheat field".

As said before, there's a great amount of variation. The one you mention, tres tristes tigres comen trigo en tres tristes platos, is just one among many.

[----]

Plch pln skvrn prch skrz drn prv zhlt čtvrt hrst zrn

I've read before that /r/ may be classified as a vowel in Czech, so …

Plus, in a lot of Czech I've heard, these "syllabic" consonants get a full epenthetic vowel (not just a hint of one) stuck in, as in 'klesl' (spelling?) being pronounced indubitably as 'klesel'.

Sure, but that makes it so much less fun!

[Herr Dunkel]

Skrob opskrbi opskrbu opskrbljenu opskrbom opskrbe opskrbljenog opskrbljivača

Holy fuck

/skrɔb ɔpskrbi ɔpskrbu ɔpskrbʎɛnu ɔpskrbɔm ɔpskrbɛ ɔpskrbʎɛnɔɡ ɔpskrbʎivat͡ʃa/

[sirdanilot]

^that's not that bad, is it?