Tongue twister

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A tongue twister is a phrase that is designed to be difficult to articulate properly, and can be used as a type of spoken (or sung) word game. Additionally, they can be used as exercises to improve pronunciation and fluency. Some tongue twisters produce results that are humorous (or humorously vulgar) when they are mispronounced, while others simply rely on the confusion and mistakes of the speaker for their amusement value.

Contents

Types of tongue twisters

Some tongue twisters rely on rapid alternation between similar but distinct phonemes (e.g., s[s] and sh[ʃ]), combining two different alternation patterns, [1] familiar constructs in loanwords, or other features[ which? ] of a spoken language in order to be difficult to articulate. [1] For example, the following sentence was said to be "the most difficult of common English-language tongue twisters" by William Poundstone. [2]

The seething sea ceaseth and thus the seething sea sufficeth us.

These deliberately difficult expressions were popular in the 19th century. The popular "she sells seashells" tongue twister was originally published in 1850 as a diction exercise. The term "tongue twister" was first applied to this kind of expression in 1895.

"She sells seashells" was turned into a popular song in 1908, with words by British songwriter Terry Sullivan and music by Harry Gifford. According to folklore, it was said to be inspired by the life and work of Mary Anning, an early fossil collector. [3] However, there is no evidence that Anning inspired either the tongue twister or the song. [4]

She sells sea-shells by the sea-shore.
The shells she sells are sea-shells, I'm sure.
For if she sells sea-shells by the sea-shore
Then I'm sure she sells sea-shore shells.

Another well-known tongue twister is "Peter Piper":

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
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked

Many tongue twisters use a combination of alliteration and rhyme. They have two or more sequences of sounds that require repositioning the tongue between syllables, then the same sounds are repeated in a different sequence.[ citation needed ] An example of this is the song "Betty Botter" ( listen ⓘ ), first published in 1899: [5]

Betty Botter bought a bit of butter. "But," she said, "this butter's bitter!
If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter!"
So she bought a bit of butter better than her bitter butter,
And she put it in her batter, and her batter was not bitter.
So 'twas better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter.

There are twisters that make use of compound words and their stems, for example:

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
A woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck
if a woodchuck would chuck wood.

The following twister entered a contest in Games Magazine on the November/December 1979 issue and was announced the winner on the March/April 1980 issue: [6] [7]

Shep Schwab shopped at Scott's Schnapps shop;
One shot of Scott's Schnapps stopped Schwab's watch.

Some tongue twisters take the form of words or short phrases which become tongue twisters when repeated rapidly (the game is often expressed in the form "Say this phrase three (or five, or ten, etc.) times as fast as you can!").[ citation needed ] Examples include:

Some tongue twisters are used for speech practice and vocal warmup: [8]

The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue,
the tip of the tongue, the teeth, the lips.

Tongue twisters are used to train pronunciation skills in non-native speakers: [9]

The sheep on the ship slipped on the sheet of sleet.

Other types of tongue twisters derive their humor from producing vulgar results only when performed incorrectly:

Old Mother Hunt had a rough cut punt
Not a punt cut rough,
But a rough cut punt.

One smart feller, he felt smart,
Two smart fellers, they both felt smart,
Three smart fellers, they all felt smart.

Some twisters are amusing because they sound incorrect even when pronounced correctly:

Are you copperbottoming those pans, my man?
No, I'm aluminiuming 'em Ma'am.

In 2013, MIT researchers claimed that this is the trickiest twister to date: [10] [11]

Pad kid poured curd pulled cold

Linguistics of tongue twisters

Phonemes

Based on the MIT confusion matrix of 1620 single phoneme errors, the phoneme with the greatest margin of speech error is l [l] mistaken for r [r]. Other phonemes that had a high level of speech error include s [s] mistaken for sh [ʃ], f [f] for p [p], r [r] for l [l], w [w] for r [r], and many more. [12] These sounds are most likely to transform to a similar sound when placed in near vicinity of each other. Most of these mix-ups can be attributed to the two phonemes having similar areas of articulation in the mouth. [13]

Pronunciation difficulty is also theorized to have an effect on tongue twisters. [12] For example, t [t] is thought to be easier to pronounce than ch [tʃ]. As a result, speakers may naturally transform ch [tʃ] to t [t] or when trying to pronounce certain tongue twisters.

Fortis and lenis

Fortis and lenis are the classification of strong and weak consonants.

Some characteristics of strong consonants include: [12]

It is common for more difficult sounds to be replaced with strong consonants in tongue twisters. [12] This is partially determinant of which sounds are most likely to transform to other sounds with linguistic confusion.

Other languages

Tongue twisters exist in many languages, such as Spanish : trabalenguas, lit.  'tongue jammer', and German : Zungenbrecher, lit.  'tongue breaker'.

The complexity of tongue twisters varies from language to language. For example, in Buganda vowels differ by length so tongue twisters exploit vowel length: "Akawala akaawa Kaawa kaawa akaawa ka wa?". Translation: "The girl who gave Kaawa bitter coffee, where is she from?" [14]

Shibboleths

Shibboleths, that is, phrases in a language that are difficult for someone who is not a native speaker of that language to say might be regarded as a type of tongue-twist.[ citation needed ] An example is Georgian baq'aq'i ts'q'alshi q'iq'inebs ("a frog croaks in the water"), in which q' is a uvular ejective. Another example, the Czech and Slovak strč prst skrz krk ("stick a finger through the throat") is difficult for a non-native speaker due to the absence of vowels, although syllabic r is a common sound in Czech, Slovak and some other Slavic languages.

Finger-fumblers

The sign language equivalent of a tongue twister is called a finger-fumbler. [15] [16] According to Susan Fischer, the phrase Good blood, bad blood is a tongue twister in English as well as a finger-fumbler in ASL. [17]

One-syllable article

One-syllable article is a form of Mandarin Chinese tongue twister, written in Classical Chinese. Due to Mandarin Chinese having only four tonal ranges (compared to nine in Cantonese, for example), these works sound like a work of one syllable in different tonal range when spoken in Mandarin, [18] but are far more comprehensible when spoken in another dialect.

See also

Related Research Articles

In phonetics, a phone is any distinct speech sound or gesture, regardless of whether the exact sound is critical to the meanings of words.

Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. The field of phonetics is traditionally divided into three sub-disciplines based on the research questions involved such as how humans plan and execute movements to produce speech, how various movements affect the properties of the resulting sound or how humans convert sound waves to linguistic information. Traditionally, the minimal linguistic unit of phonetics is the phone—a speech sound in a language which differs from the phonological unit of phoneme; the phoneme is an abstract categorization of phones and it is also defined as the smallest unit that discerns meaning between sounds in any given language.

In phonetics, rhotic consonants, or "R-like" sounds, are liquid consonants that are traditionally represented orthographically by symbols derived from the Greek letter rho, including ⟨R⟩, ⟨r⟩ in the Latin script and ⟨Р⟩, ⟨p⟩ in the Cyrillic script. They are transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet by upper- or lower-case variants of Roman ⟨R⟩, ⟨r⟩: ⟨r⟩, ⟨ɾ⟩, ⟨ɹ⟩, ⟨ɻ⟩, ⟨ʀ⟩, ⟨ʁ⟩, ⟨ɽ⟩, and ⟨ɺ⟩. Transcriptions for vocalic or semivocalic realisations of underlying rhotics include the ⟨ə̯⟩ and ⟨ɐ̯⟩.

A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (length). They are usually voiced and are closely involved in prosodic variation such as tone, intonation and stress.

Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. The two common labial articulations are bilabials, articulated using both lips, and labiodentals, articulated with the lower lip against the upper teeth, both of which are present in English. A third labial articulation is dentolabials, articulated with the upper lip against the lower teeth, normally only found in pathological speech. Generally precluded are linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue contacts the posterior side of the upper lip, making them coronals, though sometimes, they behave as labial consonants.

Alliteration is the repetition of syllable-initial consonant sounds between nearby words, or of syllable-initial vowels, if the syllables in question do not start with a consonant. It is often used as a literary device. A common example is "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers," in which the "p" sound is repeated.

In phonetics, the airstream mechanism is the method by which airflow is created in the vocal tract. Along with phonation and articulation, it is one of three main components of speech production. The airstream mechanism is mandatory for most sound production and constitutes the first part of this process, which is called initiation.

Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds. Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless or voiced.

In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels are sonorants, as are semivowels like and, nasal consonants like and, and liquid consonants like and. This set of sounds contrasts with the obstruents.

Phonological awareness is an individual's awareness of the phonological structure, or sound structure, of words. Phonological awareness is an important and reliable predictor of later reading ability and has, therefore, been the focus of much research.

In linguistics, a distinctive feature is the most basic unit of phonological structure that distinguishes one sound from another within a language. For example, the feature [voice] distinguishes the two bilabial plosives: [p] and [b]. There are many different ways of defining and arranging features into feature systems: some deal with only one language while others are developed to apply to all languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Piper</span> Nursery rhyme

"Peter Piper" is an English-language nursery rhyme and well-known alliteration tongue-twister. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19745.

The Tawbuid language is a language spoken by Tawbuid Mangyans in the province of Mindoro in the Philippines. It is divided into eastern and western dialects. The Bangon Mangyans also speak the western dialect of Tawbuid.

Flapping or tapping, also known as alveolar flapping, intervocalic flapping, or t-voicing, is a phonological process involving a voiced alveolar tap or flap; it is found in many varieties of English, especially North American, Cardiff, Ulster, Australian and New Zealand English, where the voiceless alveolar stop consonant phoneme is pronounced as a voiced alveolar flap, a sound produced by briefly tapping the alveolar ridge with the tongue, when placed between vowels. In London English, the flapped is perceived as a casual pronunciation intermediate between the "posh" affricate and the "rough" glottal stop. In some varieties,, the voiced counterpart of, may also be frequently pronounced as a flap in such positions, making pairs of words like latter and ladder sound similar or identical. In similar positions, the combination may be pronounced as a nasalized flap, making winter sound similar or identical to winner.

Betty Botter is a tongue twister written by American author Carolyn Wells in her book "The Jingle Book" published in 1899. It was originally titled The Butter Betty Bought. By the middle of the 20th century, it had become part of the Mother Goose collection of nursery rhymes.

A speech sound disorder (SSD) is a speech disorder affecting the ability to pronounce speech sounds, which includes speech articulation disorders and phonemic disorders, the latter referring to some sounds (phonemes) not being produced or used correctly. The term "protracted phonological development" is sometimes preferred when describing children's speech, to emphasize the continuing development while acknowledging the delay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">How much wood would a woodchuck chuck?</span> American English language tongue-twister

"How much wood would a woodchuck chuck" is an American English-language tongue-twister. The woodchuck, a word originating from Algonquian "wejack", is a kind of marmot, regionally called a groundhog. The complete beginning of the tongue-twister usually goes: "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" The tongue-twister relies primarily on alliteration to achieve its effects, with five "w" sounds interspersed among five "ch" sounds, as well as 6 "ood" sounds.

In phonetics, ingressive sounds are sounds by which the airstream flows inward through the mouth or nose. The three types of ingressive sounds are lingual ingressive or velaric ingressive, glottalic ingressive, and pulmonic ingressive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Origin of speech</span>

The origin of speech differs from the origin of language because language is not necessarily spoken; it could equally be written or signed. Speech is a fundamental aspect of human communication and plays a vital role in the everyday lives of humans. It allows them to convey thoughts, emotions, and ideas, and providing the ability to connect with others and shape collective reality.

A lisp is a speech impairment in which a person misarticulates sibilants. These misarticulations often result in unclear speech in languages with phonemic sibilants.

References

  1. 1 2 "Speech Science: Tongue Twisters and Valley Girls". NPR . Archived from the original on 2018-04-02. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  2. ↑ Poundstone, William. "The Ultimate". williampoundstone.net. Archived from the original on 21 May 2009. Retrieved 13 March 2010.
  3. ↑ Shelley Emmling. "The Fossil Hunter". Archived from the original on 24 March 2012. Retrieved 9 December 2010.
  4. ↑ Stephen Winick (26 July 2017). "She Sells Seashells and Mary Anning: Metafolklore with a Twist". Archived from the original on 29 June 2018. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  5. ↑ Wells, Carolyn (1899). "The Jingle Book". Project Gutenberg . Archived from the original on 2014-11-12. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  6. ↑ "New Twist on Tongue Twisters". Games Magazine . 3 (14): 92. 1979 – via Internet Archive.
  7. ↑ "Contest Results". Games Magazine . 4 (16): 64. 1980 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ↑ Gordon, David. "David Gordon's Favorite Vocal Warmup Tongue Twisters". Archived from the original on 9 October 2021. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  9. ↑ Mu’in, Fatchul; Amrina, Rosyi; Amelia, Rizky (2017-12-04). "Tongue Twister, Students' Pronunciation Ability, and Learning Styles". Arab World English Journal. 8 (4): 365–383. doi: 10.24093/awej/vol8no4.25 . ISSN   2229-9327. Archived from the original on 2021-06-25 – via SocArXiv.
  10. ↑ Annear, Steve (5 December 2013). "MIT Researchers Say They Have Created The Trickiest Tongue Twister To Date". Boston . Archived from the original on 8 April 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  11. ↑ Grossman, Samantha (2013-12-05). "Can You Tackle the World's Trickiest Tongue Twister?". TIME . Archived from the original on 2020-09-29. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Shattuck-Hufnagel, Stefanie; Klatt, Dennis H. (1979-02-01). "The limited use of distinctive features and markedness in speech production: evidence from speech error data". Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior. 18 (1): 41–55. doi:10.1016/S0022-5371(79)90554-1. ISSN   0022-5371. Archived from the original on 2022-05-10. Retrieved 2020-10-10.
  13. ↑ Acheson, Daniel J.; MacDonald, Maryellen C. (April 2009). "Twisting tongues and memories: Explorations of the relationship between language production and verbal working memory". Journal of Memory and Language. 60 (3): 329–350. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2008.12.002. ISSN   0749-596X. PMC   3001594 . PMID   21165150.
  14. ↑ Wainaina, Michael. Peek, Philip; Yankah, Kwesi (eds.). "Tongue Twisters in East Africa". Encyclopedia of African Folklore. Routledge: 947–949.
  15. ↑ Hanson, Vicki (1991). "Tongue-Twister Effects in the Silent Reading of Hearing and Deaf College Students" (PDF). Journal of Memory and Language. 30 (3): 319–330. doi:10.1016/0749-596X(91)90039-M. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-11-11. Retrieved 2019-01-28– via Google Scholar.
  16. ↑ Roper, Jonathan (2011). Alliteration in Culture. Springer. p. 8. ISBN   9780230305878.
  17. ↑ Aristar, Anthony; Dry, Helen (27 May 1991). "Linguist List, Vol. 2". University of Michigan. Archived from the original on 4 July 2010. Retrieved 13 March 2010.
  18. ↑ "15 Chinese Tongue Twisters". maayot. September 2020. Archived from the original on 25 October 2020. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
  19. ↑ Nel, Philip (2005). Dr. Seuss: American Icon. New York City: Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 27. ISBN   9780826417084.
  20. ↑ Caroline Framke (14 September 2017). "BoJack Horseman is famous for being emotionally wrenching. But it's also ridiculously funny". Vox. Archived from the original on 21 September 2019. Retrieved September 26, 2019.
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