Our own nat- and conlang tongue twisters

[Skomakar'n]

Torir tú tá týða tað, tá ið teir í Týri týða tað?
Dare you translate it, when the ones in Týr (the band) are translating it?
[ˈtoːrɪr ˈtʉu ˈtʊija tɛa tɛa ʊi tɔir ʊi ˈtʊirɪ tʊija tɛa]

Oh, how much I hate Icelandic/Faroese orthographies. Come on, people; if you're gonna use ð, at the very least you should pronounce it!

Huh? In Icelandic ‹ð› is /ð/ (can be [θ], and, very rarely [before stops] also /θ/)!

As for Færoese, it is pronounced in a lot of words! In ‹týða› it's /j/! In ‹maður›, it's /v/!

I wouldn't have been very interested in Færoese at all if it didn't have an etymologically correct orthography. It would've ruined it all. It's pretty consistent once you know the rules.

[Mr. Z]

Torir tú tá týða tað, tá ið teir í Týri týða tað?
Dare you translate it, when the ones in Týr (the band) are translating it?
[ˈtoːrɪr ˈtʉu ˈtʊija tɛa tɛa ʊi tɔir ʊi ˈtʊirɪ tʊija tɛa]

Oh, how much I hate Icelandic/Faroese orthographies. Come on, people; if you're gonna use ð, at the very least you should pronounce it!

Huh? In Icelandic ‹ð› is /ð/ (can be [θ], and, very rarely [before stops] also /θ/)!

As for Færoese, it is pronounced in a lot of words! In ‹týða› it's /j/! In ‹maður›, it's /v/!

I wouldn't have been very interested in Færoese at all if it didn't have an etymologically correct orthography. It would've ruined it all. It's pretty consistent once you know the rules.

Ok, so it is justified in Icelandic, I get it. But Faroese is just weird. We already have the more normal Icelandic for etymology stuff, so why do we need a bastard psycho sister?

[Skomakar'n]

Torir tú tá týða tað, tá ið teir í Týri týða tað?
Dare you translate it, when the ones in Týr (the band) are translating it?
[ˈtoːrɪr ˈtʉu ˈtʊija tɛa tɛa ʊi tɔir ʊi ˈtʊirɪ tʊija tɛa]

Oh, how much I hate Icelandic/Faroese orthographies. Come on, people; if you're gonna use ð, at the very least you should pronounce it!

Huh? In Icelandic ‹ð› is /ð/ (can be [θ], and, very rarely [before stops] also /θ/)!

As for Færoese, it is pronounced in a lot of words! In ‹týða› it's /j/! In ‹maður›, it's /v/!

I wouldn't have been very interested in Færoese at all if it didn't have an etymologically correct orthography. It would've ruined it all. It's pretty consistent once you know the rules.

Ok, so it is justified in Icelandic, I get it. But Faroese is just weird. We already have the more normal Icelandic for etymology stuff, so why do we need a bastard psycho sister?

I don't like non-etymological orthographies if I'm well-acquainted with sister languages that have them. I'm not interested in Romance languages that use ‹k› rather than ‹c› either. Depending on the dialect, Swedish and Norwegian have a lot of silent ‹d› and ‹t› that are direct counterparts of the Færoese ‹ð› too, and in my opinion, that's how it should be. I like the consistency between the related languages (although it could've been even better).

Elfdalian and Northern Swedish varietes have stupid, non-etymological orthographies at the moment, but last month, I was happy to find out about a guy ,natively speaking one of the Northern varieties himself, I believe, who was trying to create an etymologically correct orthography for the three dialects of that variety, for proposal. I think it's great. It just increases comprehension for other Northern Germanic speakers.

[finlay]

Torir tú tá týða tað, tá ið teir í Týri týða tað?
Dare you translate it, when the ones in Týr (the band) are translating it?
[ˈtoːrɪr ˈtʉu ˈtʊija tɛa tɛa ʊi tɔir ʊi ˈtʊirɪ tʊija tɛa]

Oh, how much I hate Icelandic/Faroese orthographies. Come on, people; if you're gonna use ð, at the very least you should pronounce it!

Huh? In Icelandic ‹ð› is /ð/ (can be [θ], and, very rarely [before stops] also /θ/)!

As for Færoese, it is pronounced in a lot of words! In ‹týða› it's /j/! In ‹maður›, it's /v/!

I wouldn't have been very interested in Færoese at all if it didn't have an etymologically correct orthography. It would've ruined it all. It's pretty consistent once you know the rules.

Ok, so it is justified in Icelandic, I get it. But Faroese is just weird. We already have the more normal Icelandic for etymology stuff, so why do we need a bastard psycho sister?

I don't like non-etymological orthographies if I'm well-acquainted with sister languages that have them. I'm not interested in Romance languages that use ‹k› rather than ‹c› either.

You what? What language would that be then?

I think Faroese is alright, although I think I prefer Icelandic... but does Icelandic really have both /θ/ and /ð/? I thought that at least orthographically they were in complementary distribution...

Also please stop misusing æ.

[Skomakar'n]

I don't like non-etymological orthographies if I'm well-acquainted with sister languages that have them. I'm not interested in Romance languages that use ‹k› rather than ‹c› either.

You what? What language would that be then?

I've seen minority ones. Can't remember their names.

I think Faroese is alright, although I think I prefer Icelandic... but does Icelandic really have both /θ/ and /ð/? I thought that at least orthographically they were in complementary distribution...

Icelandic generally uses ‹ð› /ð/ and ‹þ› /θ/, but, say ‹maðkur› is /ˈmaθkʏr/, and in actual spoken Icelandic, /ð/ is often [θ] (especially finally) and /θ/ is often [ð]. Something like 'og þá baðstu um náð' ('and then you asked for mercy') could be realised as something like [ɔː ða͡u ˈpaːstʏ(ː)m na͡uθ] in more casual speech.

Also please stop misusing æ.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Faroese#Alternative_forms

[finlay]

a link to wiktionary doesn't make much of a difference. It's still misusing it as much as it is when eddy writes 'æsthetic'.

[Skomakar'n]

a link to wiktionary doesn't make much of a difference. It's still misusing it as much as it is when eddy writes 'æsthetic'.

If you give me proof that it's completely wrong, rather than providing your own opinion of disliking it, I might stop doing it.

[Amsel]

This one isn't hard to pronounce, necessarily, but I love it to teach the importance of vowel reduction in North American English:

Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?

[kənjəˈkænəˈkænəzəˈkænɚkənˈkænəˈkæn]

or, alternatively (with focus on “you”)

[kənˈjuːˈkænəˈkænəzəˈkænɚkənˈkænəˈkæn]

[Rui]

This one isn't hard to pronounce, necessarily, but I love it to teach the importance of vowel reduction in North American English:

Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?

[kənjəˈkænəˈkænəzəˈkænɚkənˈkænəˈkæn]

or, alternatively (with focus on “you”)

[kənˈjuːˈkænəˈkænəzəˈkænɚkənˈkænəˈkæn]

That reminds me of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_whil ... he_teacher

[Mr. Z]

This one isn't hard to pronounce, necessarily, but I love it to teach the importance of vowel reduction in North American English:

Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?

[kənjəˈkænəˈkænəzəˈkænɚkənˈkænəˈkæn]

or, alternatively (with focus on “you”)

[kənˈjuːˈkænəˈkænəzəˈkænɚkənˈkænəˈkæn]

That reminds me of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_whil ... he_teacher

Which reminds me of the following Hebrew tongue twister:
אישה נעלה נעלה נעלה נעלה את הדלת בפני בעלה
/iSa na?ala na?ala na?ala na?ala et hadelet bifnej ba?ala/
A respected woman put on hear shoe and locked the door to her husband.
נעלה can be parsed here as either:
na?ala - respected
na?al-a - past tense 3rd person feminine singular form of the verb "/na'?al/", from the root "n-?-l", pretaining to shoes; it roughly means "put on a shoe"
na?al-a - 3rd person feminine singular possessive of "/'na?al/", shoe, from the same root
na?al-a - past tense 3rd person feminine singular form of the verb "/na'?al/", from the root "n-?-l", pretaining to locking; it means "to lock".

[Skomakar'n]

Forgot to translate and put IPA for the first 'tá':

Torir tú tá týða tað, tá ið teir í Týri týða tað?
Dare you translate it then, when the ones in Týr (the band) are translating it?
[ˈtoːrɪr tʉu tɔa ˈtʊija tɛa tɛa ʊi tɔir ʊi ˈtʊirɪ tʊija tɛa]

There we go!

[finlay]

wikipedia says faroese has [ɹ] rather than [r]... true or not?

[----]

Here's a Vietnamese one:
Động đất đêm đông đến đổ đền đẹn đó.
[ɗò̰ŋ ɗə́t ɗem ɗoŋ ɗén ɗôw ɗèn ɗɛ̰̀n ɗɔ́]
The earthquake on that winter night collapsed that rickety temple.

[Skomakar'n]

Here's a Vietnamese one:
Động đất đêm đông đến đổ đền đẹn đó.
[ɗò̰ŋ ɗə́t ɗem ɗoŋ ɗén ɗôw ɗèn ɗɛ̰̀n ɗɔ́]
The earthquake on that winter night collapsed that rickety temple.

wikipedia says faroese has [ɹ] rather than [r]... true or not?

True, but I believe there to be some dialectal variation, and since it's always /r/ between slashes, it seems a little safer to use it between brackets too. The approximant is definitely by far the most common realisation, no matter if there is dialectal variation, though. I don't know if the guys of Týr use [r] in some of their songs just to sound more archæic, or if that's actually part of their dialect (which is otherwise quite distinctive in some other ways), but I've heard them use [ɹ] in other songs too.

[Amsel]

That reminds me of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_whil ... he_teacher

Ha. I've actually used a slightly shorter version of that one in class. It reminds me this one in German:

Die, die die, die die Silben zählan, töricht nennen, mögen wohl recht haben.

"Those who call those who count the syllables stupid may well be right."

[Jipí]

Die, die die, die die Silben zählen, töricht nennen, mögen wohl recht haben.

[ʦ(e|ɛ)ːln̩] (or /ʦɛːlən/, if you will), not [-lan]. Unless that was just a typo.

[Astraios]

archæic

Aha! This is a misuse, which is proof you should just use the proper spelling without æs.

[Amsel]

Die, die die, die die Silben zählen, töricht nennen, mögen wohl recht haben.

[ʦ(e|ɛ)ːln̩] (or /ʦɛːlən/, if you will), not [-lan]. Unless that was just a typo.

Sorry, typo. Thanks for the correction. And in the same vein as the above:

Wenn Fliegen hinter Fliegen fliegen, dann fliegen Fliegen Fliegen nach.

[Skomakar'n]

archæic

Aha! This is a misuse, which is proof you should just use the proper spelling without æs.

No, it just means that English is stupid for letting me write archæologist but not archæic (even though that's probably etymologically justified), and that I am still learning things about this godforsaken black tongue.

[finlay]

seriously, here's one thing you need to know about English: using <æ>, at all, makes you look like a dick, with absolutely no exceptions. It's just worse when you use it 'incorrectly'.

[Radius Solis]

Popular when my parents were kids, as messing up at the end causes you to swear:

I slit a sheet; a sheet I slit. Upon the slitted sheet I sit.


And just to make this a value-added post, let's invent a new one:

Three free thin-finned fish think thick fresh fish guts stink.

I've noted for some time that there's good and poorly explored tongue-twister potential in confusions of /T/ and /f/, and I've tried constructing some before. It's not impossible that i've posted one in the past containing similar words.

[Amsel]

Popular when my parents were kids, as messing up at the end causes you to swear:

I slit a sheet; a sheet I slit. Upon the slitted sheet I sit.

And just to make this a value-added post, let's invent a new one:

Three free thin-finned fish think thick fresh fish guts stink.

Thanks! I've added both to my list of teaching twisters. The first one will be hell for my Korean students, and I love the second one. I had a student from Rio who invariably used /f/ for /T/. I can hear her now...

Free free finned-finned fish fink fick fresh fish guts stink.
*The sheet/shit, beach/bitch, can't/cunt phenomena (i.e. hilarity when you explain it) will doubtless be familiar to any ESL teacher who's had a diverse student population.

For the value add, here's Dr. Suess (from Fox in Sox):

Through three cheese trees three free fleas flew.
While these fleas flew, freezy breeze blew.
Freezy breeze made these three trees freeze.
Freezy trees made these trees' cheese freeze.
That's what made these three free fleas sneeze.

{EDIT: Damn typos.}

[Nortaneous]

Conlang tongue twisters? /points to sig

Although it's actually surprisingly hard to come up with tongue twisters in Kannow. The best I can do now is [tʰpʰpʰɨʈ͡ʂʰɨmpʰtʼ ʂpʼɨtʰt͡ɬu tʰqʷʰɔtʰqʷɔtʰ], and that's not much worse than an ordinary sentence.

Die, die die, die die Silben zählen, töricht nennen, mögen wohl recht haben.

[ʦ(e|ɛ)ːln̩] (or /ʦɛːlən/, if you will), not [-lan]. Unless that was just a typo.

Sorry, typo. Thanks for the correction. And in the same vein as the above:

Wenn Fliegen hinter Fliegen fliegen, dann fliegen Fliegen Fliegen nach.

Except the second one is much easier to parse.

[the duke of nuke]

From Ishoʻu ʻOhu, one of my Akanaran conlangs:

Zípe zíde débazide pa nèmá iʻizazézídatagé.
[ts)í.p_he ts)í.te té.pa.ts)i.te p_ha nè.má ?i.?i.ts)a.ts)é.ts)í.ta.t_ha.ké]
"The ebbing tide pulls at all the boats."

[Jipí]

Through three cheese trees three free fleas flew.
While these fleas flew, freezy breeze blew.
Freezy breeze made these three trees freeze.
Freezy trees made these trees' cheese freeze.
That's what made these three free fleas sneeze.

Three free thin-finned fish think thick fresh fish guts stink.

I surrender, in spite of not being unable to pronounce [T D] and [s] vs. [z].

Anyvone have vone viss [v w] to confuse ziss Cherman shpeaker for goot?