h a l f b a k e r yWhat was the question again?
add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, random
news, help, about, links, report a problem
browse anonymously,
or get an account
and write.
register,
|
|
|
Please log in.
Before you can vote, you need to register.
Please log in or create an account.
|
Tongue twisters are great fun, and there are countless books full of different ones, each book with its 'most difficult' one.
What is needed is a scientific comparative system, such that different tongue twisters can be rated for difficulty. This would involve somehow measuring the mouth and tongue
movements involved, and transforming them back to a logarithmic scale. Also, there seems to be no scientific name for the study of tongue twisters ( any proposals welcome ), perhaps I'm wrong on this, but I can't find one, are there linguist or speech therapy halfbakers ?
[link]
|
| |
Yes. There is a pressing need for such a system. However I think a log-normal scale should be used. |
|
| |
I was thinking something more akin to the Richter scale, but lognormal would work to. You could also use the opposite side to rate rhymes etc as to how easy they are to say. |
|
| |
Battologists battologize battologisms. |
|
| |
rate on the number of times that the average tongued person can repeat the tt at a recommended words per minute before tripping on their tongue... thats one in itself. |
|
| |
[thumbwax] - 'Battologize - To keep repeating needlessly; to iterate' according to online dictionaries. Does it have another meaning ? |
|
| |
Which wristwatches are Swiss wristwatches, and which wristwatches are Irish wristwatches? |
|
| |
The Leith Police dismisseth us. |
|
| |
According to the late, great [no12pass]'s user page, the hardest tongue twister in the English language is "the sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick". |
|
| |
I'm sure other languages have tongue twisters. I wonder if some of these might be easier for people who are not native speakers of that language, because different languages put emphasis on different sounds. + for making me think about this. |
|
| |
I'm with Dr Seuss.
Three fleas flew through three cheese trees. |
|
| |
How about an obscenity rating for the outcome when you get one wrong. This might rank quite high: |
|
| |
I'm not the pheasant plucker
But the pheasant plucker's mate
I'm only plucking pheasants
'Cause the pheasant plucker's late. |
|
| |
The following is lifted straight from no12pass's user's profile page. |
|
| |
//The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.// |
|
| |
Seems somebody rated them somewhere. |
|
| |
//I'm sure other languages have tongue twisters.// |
|
| |
Do languages other than English create such twisters? The only other language I speak has "sayings" based on word plays/puns but, no twisters. |
|
| |
The word "sixth" alone is a tongue twister. I'd imagine that "sixth sixth sixth sixth sixth sixth sixth" is the hardest tongue twister imaginable. |
|
| |
There is a German tongue twister, something about Frisches Frisch Fisch... but we're halfbakers; what do we know about fish? |
|
| |
In Thai:
Kao gin khao khao bon khao Kao.
It's tonal, to make it more difficult. It means "He eats white rice on his knee"
Also,
Dtar Dtee dtok dton dtan dtor dtan dtam dtood dtar Dtee dtai dtai dton dtan
A man named Dtee fell from a Dton dtan tree on to a stump, it went up his bum, and he died under the Dton dtan tree.
Oh well, you have to hear it. |
|
| |
For the purpose of cosmopolitan edification we have the Swedish examples: |
|
| |
Sex laxar i en lax ask (Six salmon in a salmon box) |
|
| |
Packa pappa Peckas kappsäck (Pack Father Pecka’s knapsack) |
|
| |
Sju sjösjuka sjömän på det sjunkande skeppet Shanghai (Seven seasick seamen on the sinking ship Shanghai) |
|
| |
[phundug]
Fischer Fritz fischt frische Fische, frische Fische fischt Fischer Fritz. |
|
| |
This one's nearly as bad in translation. Fisherman Fritz fishes for fresh fish, for fresh físh fishes fisherman Fritz. |
|
| |
Another real bastard is - Blaukraut bleibt Blaukraut und Brautkleid bleibt Brautkleid. Roughly - red cabbage will always be red cabbage and wedding dresses will always be wedding dresses. |
|
| |
I love [grayure]'s translation of his. |
|
| |
I'm not the pheasant plucker
But the pheasant plucker's son
and I'm only plucking pheasants
'till the pheasant plucker comes.
you may find this has more depth than the plukers mate version. |
|
| |
Only if you think 'comes' and 'son' rhyme. Being a pedant, I don't. |
|
| |
+ from the days of good ideas. |
|
| |