Twist Your Tongue Around This

Posted on | November 23, 2009 | No Comments

When was the last time you gave any consideration to tongue-twisters? Been a while? Yeah, me too. This laughter-inducing pastime, meant to sabotage the delicate relationship between your brain and tongue deserves some attention. Don’t you think?

Tongue-Twister Fun-Facts:
According to Guinness World Records, the hardest tongue-twister in the English language is: The sixth sick sheikh’s sixth sheep’s sick.

Author William Poundstone claims that the hardest English tongue-twister is: The seething sea ceaseth and thus the seething sea sufficeth us.

Tongue-twisters have two or three sequences of sounds, then the same sequences of sounds with some sounds exchanged. For example: She sells sea shells on the sea shore. The shells that she sells are sea shells I’m sure.

Here’s a grand prize winner, guaranteed to keep you warm: Shep Schwab shopped at Scott’s Schnapps shop; One shot of Scott’s Schnapps stopped Schwab’s watch.

Some tongue-twisters are short words or phrases, which become tongue-twisters when repeated rapidly: Toy boat, Peggy Babcock, Irish wristwatch, and Red Leather, Yellow Leather.

There are tongue twisters in every language. Check out Alpha Dictionaries Tongue-Twisters From Around the World.

The sign language equivalent of a tongue twister is called a finger fumbler.

Here are some more twisters:
I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish, but if you wish the wish the witch wishes, I won’t wish the wish you wish to wish.

I’m a sheet slitter;
I slit sheets.
If sheet need slitting,
Sheets I slit.

Betty Botter bought a bit of butter
The butter Betty Botter bought was a bit bitter
And made her batter bitter.
But a bit of better butter makes better batter.
So Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter
Making Betty Botter’s bitter batter better.

And we can’t forget about good old Peter Piper (I can never remember this one).

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

But if Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Were they pickled when he picked them from the vine?
Or was Peter Piper pickled when he picked the pickled peppers
Peppers picked from the pickled pepper vine?

Last But Not Least:
The word nerds (I say that with the absolute highest regard) at Fumbling Over Words, a site dedicated to tongue-twisters, have created a video project, celebrating tongue-twisters from around the world. Happy Twisting.

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Twist Your Tongue Around This

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