Tongue-twister

Tongue-twisters may 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 of a spoken language in order to be difficult to articulate. For example, the following sentence was claimed as "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 expressions 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 folk etymology, it was said to be inspired by the life and work of Mary Anning, an early fossil collector.[3] However, Winick was unable to find direct evidence that Anning inspired the tongue-twister nor that Sullivan was aware of this.[4]

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

The most famous 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. An example of this is the song Betty Botter ( listen ):

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

There are also 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 catch a lot tongue twister is a great example of what anyone can think of when doing daily activities.

My friend Catchalot in his Cachalot,
Would Catch a lot of other Catchalots,
In their Cachalots,
Who would catch a lot,
Of Cachalots!

The following twister won the "grand prize" in a contest in Games Magazine in 1979:[5]

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!"). Some examples include:

• A Proper Copper Coffee Pot
• Yellow Lever, Red Lever.
• The sixth sitting sheet-slitter slit six sheets.
• Irish Wristwatch, Swiss Wristwatch.
• Pad kid poured curd pulled cold.[6]
  
• Peggy Badcock.

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

In 2013, a psychologist at an Acoustical Society of America conference claimed that “Pad kid poured curd pulled cod" is the trickiest twister to date.[7]

• In 1951 Danny Kaye recorded a Sylvia Fine song titled "Tongue Twisters".
• The children's books by Dr. Seuss contain a significant number of tongue-twisters, with Oh Say Can You Say?, and Fox in Socks being the most extreme cases.[11]
• In the 1952 film Singin' in the Rain, movie star Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) uses tongue-twisters, such as Peter Piper, while learning proper diction so he can make the transition from silent films to "talkies" in 1920s Hollywood. He also turns one of them ("Moses supposes his toeses are roses") into a song and dance number along with his best friend Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor).
• In 1968, Jack Webb guested on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and took part in a parody of Dragnet. The premise was Webb (as Sgt. Joe Friday) grilling Carson about "kleptomaniac Claude Cooper from Cleveland, who copped clean copper clappers kept in a closet." It became one of the most famous sketches in the show's history and was regularly shown on anniversary specials.
• In the cartoon episode "You Said a Mouseful" from Pinky and the Brain, both Pinky and Brain go through a collage of tongue-twisters that cover almost every category possible.
• The TV Show BoJack Horseman contains increasingly convoluted tongue-twisters as the show progresses. The lines are often delivered by Princess Caroline, and a notable set involves the actress 'Courtney Portnoy', for example: "How would you enjoy joining Portnoy for a scorched soy porterhouse pork four-courser at Koi?" followed by "Glorify your source, but don’t make it feel forced, of course. And try the borscht!" [12]
• The party game KAMBA presents illustrated tongue-twisters on cards and challenges players to repeat them faster and faster. Players also pass cards and simultaneously combine tongue twisters with "body twisters" (awkward physical actions) to create entertaining confusion. [13]
• In the 1991 film Oscar, gangster Snaps Provolone, failed to say a tongue-twister sentence, that not related to his criminal business, saying: "Round the rough and rugged rocks the ragged rascal rudely ran." Conversely, he could say with ease another one, that much related to his business, saying: "Rocco the rum-runner rubbed out Rico the Rat with his Rosco for robbing his rum-running receipts."

• Alliteration
• Announcer's test
• Malapropism
• Spoonerism
• Theophilus Thistle

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tongue twisters.

• Interview with MIT researcher Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel
• 3705 Tongue Twisters: the Largest International Collection

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