Tongue-twisters

[Particles the Greek]

Are there any languages in which these are quite rare? For that matter, is there any correlation between the number of possible tongue-twisters and attributes of the language itself - such as phonotactics or syllable structure?

[Radius Solis]

Languages with CV syllable structures and with small consonant inventories may, in general, be less conducive to tongue-twisters as we think of them. But they are more a cultural phenomenon than a trait of a language, and who's to say speakers of e.g. Hawaiian might not have things in their language they find comical to pronounce for one reason or another? And the reverse: who's to say that a rich potential for tongue-twisters in some other language might go unexplored because its speakers don't care or don't realize?

English itself has a richer tongue-twister potential than we normally make use of. Consider the classic "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" - repeating a basic stop over and over? Is that really the best English can offer? Hardly: there are some very nice fricative-confusion tongue-twisters, like "I slit a sheet / A sheet I slit / Upon the slitted sheet I sit". I made up a th-f confusion one that I'm proud of, too. Meanwhile Peter Piper is an example of the sort of tongue-twister that can be constructed in practically any language... you hardly need any phonology at all to just repeat a stop over and over.

[linguoboy]

Languages with CV syllable structures and with small consonant inventories may, in general, be less conducive to tongue-twisters as we think of them.

Some of the toughest English tongue-twisters I know of are also some of the simplest phonologically, e.g. "toy boat" (two syllables, two stops, two diphthongs) and "rubber baby buggy bumpers" (CVCVCVCVCVCVCVNCV).

[KathTheDragon]

"Red lorry, yellow lorry" = CVC CVCV CVCV CVCV

[Shrdlu]

Speaking of Hawaii'ian tounge-twisters, surnames:

http://originalityisnotdead.blogspot.se ... cence.html

excerpt

(Janice Lokelani's old driver licence)

This surrealistic combination of 35 letters means a lot to Janice Lokelani. After years of fight against the administration, this 54 years old Hawaiian was finally authorized to wear her entire name on her ID and driving license.

Her husband's name, too long to be fully written, was missing the final "e" and her first name had been deleted from the card (It would have taken too much space and other letters out). Icing on the cake, she got asked by a police officer her driving license and he pulled her over, report newspapers.

Moreover, Ms Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele arose a cultural problem. "it was a lack of respect for her Hawaiian Heritage" she said.

[linguoboy]

Speaking of Hawaii'ian tounge-twisters, surnames:

The question, though, is whether that's a tongue twister for Hawai'ian speakers or whether it's simply lengthy, like "John Portsmouth Football Club Westwood".

[Radius Solis]

Some of the toughest English tongue-twisters I know of are also some of the simplest phonologically, e.g. "toy boat" (two syllables, two stops, two diphthongs) and "rubber baby buggy bumpers" (CVCVCVCVCVCVCVNCV).

I guess YMMV. I have never gotten why either of those were supposed to be tongue twisters, let alone hard ones, whereas I find "she sells seashells" to be an oral trainwreck.

I tried to find the most challenging one I could think up, some time back, and came up with "Three free thin-finned fish think thick fresh fish guts stink" and "Seth soothes this thistle's sting".

[linguoboy]

I tried to find the most challenging one I could think up, some time back, and came up with "Three free thin-finned fish think thick fresh fish guts stink" and "Seth soothes this thistle's sting".

When I was in primary school, I came up with "Six sick chicks". (This was before I'd ever heard of that damn sheikh and his sheep.)

So does this mean you can reliably say "Rubber baby buggy bumpers" ten times fast?

[Whimemsz]

I think the reason "toy boat" is so hard to say a number of times quickly (for me, anyway), is that the stress goes on "boat," but I have a definite preference for avoiding having [oːɪ] in an unstressed position (and it's long because it's in an unchecked syllable, whereas "boat" ends in a voiceless stop, so the diphthong there is considerably shorter). So there's a natural urge to end up saying [tʰo 'boɪt] or the like. Although I think it's compounded because [o] serves as the nucleus of both [oɪ] and [oʊ]? MAYBE??

[Rui]

English itself has a richer tongue-twister potential than we normally make use of. Consider the classic "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" - repeating a basic stop over and over? Is that really the best English can offer? Hardly: there are some very nice fricative-confusion tongue-twisters, like "I slit a sheet / A sheet I slit / Upon the slitted sheet I sit". I made up a th-f confusion one that I'm proud of, too. Meanwhile Peter Piper is an example of the sort of tongue-twister that can be constructed in practically any language... you hardly need any phonology at all to just repeat a stop over and over.

I'm a mother pheasant plucker, I pluck mother pheasants, I'm the most pleasant mother pheasant plucker that ever plucked a mother pheasant.

Tongue twisters don't just have to be phrases that are hard to say, but ones that involve switching back and forth between similar sounds to try to get you to say dirty words, too, like your sheet-slit one. That's probably possible in most languages regardless of phonotactics or inventory, I think? Maybe not.

[Radius Solis]

So does this mean you can reliably say "Rubber baby buggy bumpers" ten times fast?

I just tried it - the first time I did screw up with a "bumpy buggers" somewhere in the middle, but ran out of breath before reaching ten. The second time I took a deeper breath and finished ten without an error, which pharazon witnessed (as he couldn't escape hearing it anyway).

That's probably possible in most languages regardless of phonotactics or inventory, I think? Maybe not.

I can't really think of a way for phonotactics to affect it, except at the other end of the scale - with really complex phonotactics and a very large sound inventory, it's conceivable there may not be enough words that sound sufficiently alike. But I have no idea if that's actually the case for anyone.

[clawgrip]

The most complex English tongue twister I've found is one that seems impossible to say quickly while still enunciating clearly:

Plymouth sleuths thwart Luther's slithering.

You've got /θsl/ and /θsθw/ in this one.

[Nortaneous]

The most complex English tongue twister I've found is one that seems impossible to say quickly while still enunciating clearly:

Plymouth sleuths thwart Luther's slithering.

You've got /θsl/ and /θsθw/ in this one.

great now work 'sixths' into that

[Radius Solis]

Sure.

With swizzle sticks and thistle sixths with widths this thick, Luther's sleuths thwart Seth's sixth sick sphynx.

[ObsequiousNewt]

Speaking of Hawaii'ian tounge-twisters, surnames:

Still got nothing on Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfe­schlegelstein­hausenberger­dorffvoraltern­waren­gewissenhaft­schaferswessen­schafewaren­wohlgepflege­und­sorgfaltigkeit­beschutzen­von­angreifen­durch­ihrraubgierigfeinde­welche­voraltern­zwolftausend­jahres­vorandieerscheinen­wander­ersteer­dem­enschderraumschiff­gebrauchlicht­als­sein­ursprung­von­kraftgestart­sein­lange­fahrt­hinzwischen­sternartigraum­auf­der­suchenach­diestern­welche­gehabt­bewohnbar­planeten­kreise­drehen­sich­und­wohin­der­neurasse­von­verstandigmen­schlichkeit­konnte­fortplanzen­und­sicher­freuen­anlebens­langlich­freude­und­ruhe­mit­nicht­ein­furcht­vor­angreifen­von­anderer­intelligent­geschopfs­von­hinzwischen­sternartigraum, Senior.

[----]

But what an interesting story to have as a surname. Mine seems so disappointing by comparison, it apparently just derives from some place name in Scotland.

[Rui]

Monty Python did a skit like that

[Particles the Greek]

Speaking of Hawaii'ian tounge-twisters, surnames:

Still got nothing on Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfe­schlegelstein­hausenberger­dorffvoraltern­waren­gewissenhaft­schaferswessen­schafewaren­wohlgepflege­und­sorgfaltigkeit­beschutzen­von­angreifen­durch­ihrraubgierigfeinde­welche­voraltern­zwolftausend­jahres­vorandieerscheinen­wander­ersteer­dem­enschderraumschiff­gebrauchlicht­als­sein­ursprung­von­kraftgestart­sein­lange­fahrt­hinzwischen­sternartigraum­auf­der­suchenach­diestern­welche­gehabt­bewohnbar­planeten­kreise­drehen­sich­und­wohin­der­neurasse­von­verstandigmen­schlichkeit­konnte­fortplanzen­und­sicher­freuen­anlebens­langlich­freude­und­ruhe­mit­nicht­ein­furcht­vor­angreifen­von­anderer­intelligent­geschopfs­von­hinzwischen­sternartigraum, Senior.

I bet his friends called him "Bob".

[Rhetorica]

I think the reason "toy boat" is so hard to say a number of times quickly (for me, anyway), is that the stress goes on "boat," but I have a definite preference for avoiding having [oːɪ] in an unstressed position (and it's long because it's in an unchecked syllable, whereas "boat" ends in a voiceless stop, so the diphthong there is considerably shorter). So there's a natural urge to end up saying [tʰo 'boɪt] or the like. Although I think it's compounded because [o] serves as the nucleus of both [oɪ] and [oʊ]? MAYBE??

I tried fiddling with this one and I ended up with /tʰəɘiː 'bʏʔ/ (except it's not a pure /i/, I'm not sure what it is)... So... I sort of agree? [tʰo 'boit] is definitely easy to repeat quickly.

[zompist]

Possibly relevant: http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog ... st-to-say/

The MIT tongue-twister is "pad kid poured curd pulled cod", which I don't find all that difficult... maybe it's harder for Bostonians...?

[Whimemsz]

Really? I find it almost impossible :\

To be more specific, the first couple times I tried were a total disaster that sounded like "sdklsakfjdljgporegjfg." Then I started to get the hang of it and each subsequent attempt was a little closer to correct - but I think that made me start getting cocky, because the success rate began to fall again. I don't know what exactly happened, though. (Maybe I subconsciously started speeding up a little as I got more comfortable with it? I dunno...)

[Radagast revived]

For some reason everyday salutations in Nahuatl seem to be almost consciously constructed as tongue twisters in the region where I am working now. Every town has its own way of greeting, and some really go out of their way. Yesterday I wrecked my tongue trying to say "ken onimotiotlakiltitzinohkeh". And yes it seems that they are also laborious for the native speakers, since apparently some abbreviate it to simply "tzinohkeh". I am almost thinking that people here use the tongue twisting greetings as ethnic boundary markers.

[Vijay]

Sorry for necroposting, but I just remembered a Malayalam tongue-twister today (which I learned from a movie song lol).

It begins with:
കളകളം ഇളകും ഒരരുവിയിലെ അലകളിൽ ഒരു കുളിർ, ഒരു പുളകം.
[kəˈɭəgəɭəm iˈɭəgum ɔɾəɾuˈʋiːl əˈləgəɭil ɔˈɾu kuˈɭir], [ɔˈɾu puˈɭəgəm].
'A chill, a rapturous shuddering stirs through the waves in a stream, murmuring.'

But the second half is even harder:
കരളിലും മലരിതളുതിരുമുരളികുലം, ഇളകിയ ചുരുളളകം.
[kəˈɾəɭilum məˈləɾid̪əɭɯd̪iɾumuɾəɭiguləm], [iˈɭəgijə t͡ʃuˈɾuɭəɭəgəm].
'So does the clan of the holy flute of flower petals(?), the rounded curl of a woman's hair that stirred, in [my?] heart [literally 'liver'].'

I'm not sure I got that second part right.

[Jonlang]

I'm not sure this is really a tongue-twister but I saw this a couple of days ago on a Welsh-learners Facebook group:

Ydy dy dad du di yn dy dŷ du di?

And from what I gather it means "Is your black father in your black house?" Pretty meaningless in itself but it appears to be grammatically sound and sounds hilarious if you say it aloud.

[Buran]

Try saying "complex clusters of consonants" ten times fast.