It happens to be quite entertaining to mock somebody because of a funny slip. Tongue twisters (in German called Zungenbrecher [tonuge breakers]) usually play with (un?)intentional slips. In today’s issue we’ll talk tongue-twisteria.

Notice that this entry is filed under English vs Deutsch, where Lingo Bingo is usually posted too.

Basically tongue twisters are entertainment, but considering the tongue-work-out, it will help you pronounce words (even in a foreign language, speech training) better since it trains your pronouncing muscles that articulate what you want to say (tongue, lips, throat etc) properly.

Pretty much any language around the globe has something like tongue twisters. Generally a slip of the tongue consists of uneasily pronounced syllables that cause our speech center to end up in confusion. Sometimes, it happens that you say a phrase and mess it up. For a couple of seconds you are incapable of repeating the phrase without making the same mistake over and over again. It seems like there is a blockage in our brain that causes those funny moments.

English Tongue Twisters

English tongue twisters can be rather depressing for people who speak it as a second language since they lack of knowledge of how to get past of tricky parts of a sentence. For example, there is an articulation tip that everybody should know: If you say “the elephant”, you make the “e” of “the” sound like the “e” of “elephant” so you can articulate more quickly and properly. Same with “an apple”, because the articulation of “a apple” requires repeating the vowel “a” twice. Tips like these can get you past difficult parts. Have fun with these:

• Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper. But where is the pick of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked?
• How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? He would chuck, he would, as much wood as he could, and chuck as much wood as a woodchuck would chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
• I saw Susie sitting in a shoe shine shop. Where she sits she shines, and where she shines she sits.
• A big black bug bit a big black bear, made the big black bear bleed blood.
• Six sick hicks nick six slick bricks with picks and sticks.
• Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore.

Spoonerism

Higher Level of Tongue Twisters

So you just read some pretty ordinary tongue twisters, but it wouldn’t be philsblogging.com if there was something to take on a “higher level”. In addition to normal linguistic plays, there are phrases that would be filed under spoonerism. Spoonerisms are certain phrases with swapped sounds, which give them a completely new — mostly funny — meaning. Sometimes it can make you trip over a swearword — unintentionally. Those kinds of spoonerisms are more fun. We agree on that one, right? Enjoy and watch yourself slip over some words that I’d cross out to keep my blog PG13:

• I’m not the pheasant plucker, I’m the pheasant plucker’s mate, and I’m only plucking pheasants ’cause the pheasant plucker’s late. (pheasant = Fasan, plucker = Pflücker, Rupfer, ähnlich wie “to pick”)
• What am I to tell this audience of beery wenches? — What am I to tell this audience of weary benches? (beery, wench = prostitute, weary = exhausted, hardly motivated [pronounced like w-ee-ry -- ee as in beer])

A rather harmless spoonerism would be “Go and shake a tower” instead of “Go and take a shower” or “know your blose” instead of “blow your nose”. Here is an more detailed information page about spoonerisms: fun-with-words.com.

Zungenbrecher

Now, let’s “break” our German tongues with Zungenbrecher (literally translated tongue breakers):

• Fischers Fritz(e) fischt frische Fische. Frische Fische fischt Fischers Fritz(e). — By rearranging the sentence structure, you can repeat various versions of the sentence. Most people end up mixing the vowels of the upcoming words.
• Zwischen zwei Zwetschgenzweigen sitzen zwei zwitschernde Schwalben. — Zw- and Tz-words cause confusing when the upcoming word is so similar.
• Blaukraut bleibt Blaukraut und Brautkleid bleibt Brautkleid. — One of the first tongue twisters I was taught when being in kindergarten.

Here some German spoonerisms:

• Im dichten Fichtendickicht wachsen dicke Fichten dicht an dicht. — You might end up saying things you didn’t wanted. Dirty bouncy-bouncy things. Same for the next one.
• Der Whiskeymixer mixt whiskey. Whiskey mixt der Whiskey Mixer.

As you might have assumed, there are typical accents in any kind of dialect. Austrian tongue twisters can be a b!%@ for foreigners, because the sounds that you articulate are hard to imitate. Here are examples:

• Der Ober hat das Besteck zu spät bestellt (rather easy in Hochdeutsch; The waiter has ordered the silverwear too late), but not so in Austrian dialect: Da Oba hot es B’steck z’spot b’stöt. [tha ob-uh hot bsh-tag tsh-boat bsh-öt] — Repeating that over and over, will make you stumble. I bet it will.
• Wonn i kemma ko, kimm i, i wia owa koam kemma kinna. (Wenn ich kommen kann, komm ich, ich werde aber kaum kommen können: If I can come, I come, but I will hardly be able to make it) — This is hard-core-dialect to me. I do not speak like that. Thankfully.
• Oachkatzerlschwoaf (the tale of a squirrel) — Probably the most common tongue twister that has been exported from Austria to all sorts of places. Yet, nobody can really say it the way Austrians do. A quality that you can be proud of. Yeah. I am Austrian. I can say Oachkatzerlschwoaf.

Other Languages

As I said earlier before, there are tongue twisters in pretty much any kind of language. So tongue twisters do not stop at sign language. When saying “good blood, bad blood” you end up knotting your fingers. That’s what sign language people call finger fumblers.

For my french speaking visitors : Un chasseur sachant chasser sans son chien est un bon chasseur.(A hunter, who knows how to hunt without his dog, is a good hunter)

This entry covers 4 languages. English, German, French and Sign Language. Wow. If you are interested in more tongue twisters in “any other” language: Uebersetzung.at/twister is your page. If you feel like contributing on that topic, please comment. Besides, here is a video of international tongue twisters (fumbling over words that rhyme).

Here my final recommendation: After having spoken all these tongue breaks, do yourself a favor and clean up the keyboard and screen in front of you.