Tongue Twisters

As their name implies, tongue twisters are phrases meant to be difficult to articulate. The phrases often involve similar but distinct phonemes, such as the "s" and "sh" sounds. Alliteration and rhyme are other commonly used tools.

According to Guinness World Records, the hardest tongue twister in the English language is "The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick."

Other popular favourites include:

"She sells sea shells by the seashore"

"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,
How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

But if Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Were they pickled when he picked them from the vine?
Or was Peter Piper pickled when he picked the pickled peppers
Peppers picked from the pickled pepper vine?"

And

"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."

Other tongue twisters become such through constant repetition of the phrase, such as "toy boat" and "unique, New York".

One particular variation on the tongue twister is a spoonerism, which is designed to make the speaker inadvertently say a profanity if they stumble.

Tongue twisters exist in all languages, relying on the same tools of similar phonemes, alliteration, and repetition. In sign language, tongue twisters are referred to as finger fumblers. Tongue twisters can be passed on for generations, cementing their places in various cultures' folklore.

Tongue twisters are often used in speech therapy - for hiccups, lisps, and other speech defects, and as a tool to help young people master the phonemes of their language. In My Fair Lady, Eliza is instructed to repeat the tongue twister "In Hertford, Hereford, and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen" as she works to improve her English diction.