LINGUIST List 2.222

Monday, 13 May 1991

Disc: More Tongue Twisters

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Dominique Estival, French Tongue Twisters
2. Bill Eldridge, Czech Tongue Twisters

Here are a few :

(1) Un chasseur sachant chasser doit savoir chasser sans son chien.
(a hunter who knows how to hunt must know how to hunt without his dog)

(2) Si six scies scient six cypres, six cent scies scient six cent six cypres.
(if six saws saw six cypress trees, six hundred and six saws saw six
hundred and six cypress trees)

(3) Les chaussettes de l'archi-duchesse sont-elles seches, archi-seches?
(are the archi-duchess' socks dry, extra-dry?)

(4) Tonton, ton the t'a-t-i(l) ote ta toux?
(uncle, has your tea stopped your coughing?)

(5) Ta tante t'attend dans ta tente.
(your aunt is witing for you in your tent)

Here's a Czech tongue twister:
 "Tristatricettri stribrnych strikacek strikalo pres tristatricettri
stribrnych strech."
 This translates as: "Three hundred and thirty three silver firehoses
sprayed over three hundred and thirty three silver roofs."
 Unfortunately I can't print the "r with carat" mark, because all the
r's in this sentence (except the second r in "stribrnych") are this second
kind of r pronounced more like "rdz". The c is pronounced "ts" and the
ch is pronounced like in the Scottish "loch". There is another cute one:
 "Marenko, rekni "r"|" -- "Nereknu, ty by se me rechtala|"
which means: "Marenko, say "r" (with carat)" -- "I won't say it, you'll
laugh at me|"
 This sound is very hard for children to say, but Marenka uses it twice
in saying she won't say it. There are many words that children do avoid
so as not to say this letter, and apparently even Vaclav Havel doesn't
pronounce it quite correctly.
 Bill Eldridge
 Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences

[End Linguist List, Vol. 2, No. 222]