International Tongue Twister Day!

I love browsing on the internet and one of my favourite topics is ‘World Days’ or ‘International Days’. According to my research, today is International Tongue Twister Day! However, because the dates seem to vary, some sites said 4 November, some had it as 7 November, one mentioned the second Sunday in November, and the one I chose listed it as today, 13 November, maybe it should be called ‘International Confusion Day’!

I remember hearing them when I was very young. This must be among the most popular and well known: 'Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled peppers. How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?' To me it was just a series of words to get my tongue round, but did you know that it is based on a true story! Apparently a French horticulturalist and pirate called Pierre Poivre, was known to raid spice stores and to steal the ‘peppers’! Isn’t ‘poivre’ the French word for ‘pepper’ anyway? As usual, I digress!

Another one based on truth is ‘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.’ This one is based on a girl called Mary Anning, who in the 1800’s, together with her father, dug up seashells as well as dinosaur fossils and would then sell them. Even as an adult, Mary continued to dig and it is said that she unearthed complete dinosaur skeletons!

Tongue twisters are series of words or lighthearted phrases that seem simple enough - that is until you say them. The combination of the words and repetition of sounds make it nearly impossible to properly pronounce the entire phrase, especially when you repeat it over and over very quickly. Tongue twisters are not confined to the English language only though! Have a look at these:

Finnish: Mustan kissan paksut posket.
Black cat's fat cheeks

German: Fischers Fritz fischt frische Fische
The Fischer’s son Fritz is fishing for fresh fish (That’s quite twiddly in English too!)

Navajo: Dii dii thii Billy Lee bilii
These four horses are Billy Lee’s horses

Portuguese: O rato roeu a rolha da garrafa de rum do rei da Russia
The rat nibbled the cork of the bottle of rum of the king of Russia

Spanish: Mi mama me mima mucho
Mum spoils me a lot

One of the longest tongue twisters is this one: ‘Betty Botter bought some butter but, she said, the butter's bitter. If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter. But a bit of better butter will make my bitter batter better. So she bought some better butter, better than the bitter butter, put it in her bitter batter, made her bitter batter better. So 'twas better Betty Botter bought some better butter.’ 

One of the shortest is ‘Irish wristwatch’, try saying that after a glass of wine or two!

And, according to the Guinness Book of Records, the most difficult tongue twister is: ‘The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick’

Personally, I disagree. Try this one and let me know!!

Red lorry yellow lorry.