Tongue Twisters

When most people think of tongue twisters a childhood image comes to mind: аttempting to recite a tricky rhyme or phrase as fast as possible without tripping over the verbal challenges and hurdles lurking within these tongue-tying sentences, such as Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers.

By combining the effects of alliteration (repetition of a sound), particularly of similar but not identical sounds, with a phrase designed such that it is made very easy to slip (perhaps making a Spoonerism) accidentally, these sentences and poems can be guaranteed to provide us with lots of fun and laughter.

But tongue twisters are not only for light-hearted linguistic fun and games. They serve a practical purpose in practicing pronunciation. English tongue twisters may be used by foreign students of English to improve their accent, actors who need to develop a certain accent, and by speech therapists to help those with speech difficulties.

When their use is for one of these more serious reasons, then tongue twisters are generally subdivided into categories classifying them by the particular vowel or consonant sounds they exercise. Welcome to the terrific, tantalizing, teasing, ticklish and testing world of tongue twisters.

Good, better, best,

Never let it rest,

Till your good is better and your better best.

Consonant drills

[p, b]

Definition. [p, b] are occlusive, plosive, bilabial; [p] is strong and voiceless, [b] is weak and voiced, in final position it is partly devoiced.

Articulation. 1. The lips are firmly kept together.

2. The soft palate is raised and the air coming into the mouth stops for some time and then breaks the obstruction with a slight explosion.

3. The vocal cords do not vibrate when [p] is produced. For [b] they are tense kept together and vibrate when [b] occurs be­fore vowels or in intervocalic positions, eg begin, rubber.

4. The breath effort is very strong for [p], for [b] it is weak.

Recommendations. 1. Press your lips together and push the air through the mouth breaking the obstruction made by the lips.

2. Make the sound [p] strong and aspirated. It means there is a little puff of breath, i.e. a slight [h] sound just after the ex­plosion, eg [p^hei]

Allophones. The partially devoiced weak [b] occurs in word final positions, eg cab, rib.

Possible Mistakes. 1. Russian learners of English often re­place the English [p, b] by the Russian [п, б]. This is a phonetic mistake. To avoid it the lips for the English consonants should be pressed together more energetically. When [p] is pronounced care should be taken to make it strong and aspirated.

2. Russian students can easily palatalize [p, b] before front or mixed close and mid-open vowels. This is also a phonetic mis­take. One must be careful to raise the front part of the tongue to the hard palate only after the articulation of [p, b] is accom­plished.

3. If Russians fully voice [b] in word final positions they should take care to make the sound rather weak. The mistake is phonetic.

4. To avoid the complete devoicing of the final [b] (a pho­nological mistake) care should be taken to make the sound par­tially voiced but still rather weak.

Word contrast practice is very useful here to show the dif­ference in meaning:

rip — rib, cap — cab, rope — robe, tap — tab

[p]

Pretty Pamela Parker picked pink petunia posies. (1)

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Did Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled peppers?

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,

Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked? (2)

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? The peck of pickled peppers that Peter Piper picked Is where Peter Piper put the peck of pickled peppers That Peter Piper picked. (3)

At present you can't marry a peasant however pleasant the peasant may be. (4)

Picky people pick Peter Pan Peanut Butter. Peter Pan Peanut is the peanut picky people pick. (5)

[b]

Billy’s big blue badly bleeding blister. (6)

The big bad baby brought the bought black blanket back (7)

Beautiful babbling brooks bubble between blossoming banks (8)

Billy Bolton buttoned his bright brown boots and blue coat before breakfast began.(9)

Our black bull bled black blood on our blackthorn flower. (10)

Bring back bright brand-new British brushes from breezy Bridlington. (11)

The busy bee buzzed busily around the busy beehive. (12)

A Box of Biscuits A Box of Mixed Biscuits And a Biscuit Mixer. (13)

There were two bootblacks,a white bootblack and a black bootblack and they were both busy blacking boots. The white bootblack told the black bootblack to blacken the white bootblack`s boots black. The black bootblack was taken aback and blackened the white bootblack`s face black. (14)

I was barbarously barbarized

By the barbarity of a barbarian barber

In a barber’s barbarizing shop. (15)