Tongue-twister - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaA tongue-twister is a phrase that is designed to be difficult to articulate properly. Tongue-twisters may rely on similar but distinct phonemes (e.g., s [s] and sh [ʃ]), unfamiliar constructs in loanwords, or other features of a language.
The hardest tongue-twister in the English language (according to Guinness World Records) is supposedly The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick. William Poundstone claims that the hardest English tongue twister is "The seething sea ceaseth and thus the seething sea sufficeth us."
Many tongue-twisters use a combination of alliteration and rhyme. They have two or three sequences of sounds, then the same sequences of sounds with some sounds exchanged. For example, She sells sea shells on the sea shore. The shells that she sells are sea shells I'm sure. or A black bug bit a big black bear, made a big black bear bleed blood.
Another example, Betty Botter ( listen (help·info)):
Betty Botter bought a bit of butter
The butter Betty Botter bought was a bit bitter
And made her batter bitter.
But a bit of better butter makes better batter.
So Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter
Making Betty Botter's bitter batter better.Two well-known such tongue-twisters are "Peter Piper":
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?":
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.This one won grand prize in a contest in Games Magazine in 1979[citation needed]: (Contest announced in issue of November/December 1979; results announced in issue of March/April 1980).
Shep Schwab shopped at Scott's Schnapps shop;
One shot of Scott's Schnapps stopped Schwab's watch.Some tongue-twisters are short words or phrases, which become tongue-twisters when repeated rapidly (often expressed as "Say this five (or three, ten, etc.) times fast!"). Examples include toy boat, Peggy Babcock, Irish wristwatch, and Red Leather, Yellow Leather. Big whip is another that is difficult for some people to say quickly, due to the lip movement required between the "g" and "wh" sounds.
Spoonerisms
Some tongue-twisters are specifically designed to cause the inadvertent pronunciation of a swearword if the speaker stumbles verbally (see spoonerism).
An example of this sort:
I'm not the pheasant plucker, I'm the pheasant plucker's mate,
And I'm only plucking pheasants 'cause the pheasant plucker's late.
I'm not the pheasant plucker, I'm the pheasant plucker's son,
And I'm only plucking pheasants till the pheasant pluckers come.Loanwords and other language elements
Certain loanwords contain unfamiliar constructs, which are used in tongue-twisters. For example, Finnish strutsin perhe (the family of an ostrich) has the consonant cluster "str", whereas such consonant clusters do not occur in native Finnish words. Repeated, this might be pronounced as "strutsin perse" ("ostrich's arse").
Other features of language can make for tongue-twisters; for instance, the Czech strč prst skrz krk (stick a finger through the throat) relies on the absence of vowels, although syllabic r is a normal Czech sound.
Something that might be regarded as a type of tongue-twister is a shibboleth, that is, a phrase in a language that is difficult for someone who is not a native speaker of that language to say.[citation needed] An example is Georgian baq'aq'i ts'q'alshi q'iq'inebs ("a frog croaks in the water"), in which "q" is a sort of gulping sound.
Non-English
There are tongue twisters in every language. One Japanese twister (attempted by child genius Chiyo Mihama in the Anime series Azumanga Daioh) is Basu Gasu Bakuhatsu, Busu Basu Gaido, meaning "Bus Gas Explosion, Ugly Bus Guide." Another (as heard on Please Come Home... Mr. Bulbous) is Tonari No Kyaku Wa Yoku Kaki Kuu Kyaku Da, meaning "The customer next to me eats a lot of persimmons (or oysters)". An example in Polish is "Król Karol kupił królowej Karolinie korale koloru koralowego". In Scouse, the dialect of the English city of Liverpool, it is common to say They do, though, don't they, though[citation needed]. In Scouse this is easy as all of the diagraphs 'th' are pronounced as a 'd'[citation needed], but saying it quickly in Standard RP or GA (hear GA) can be very difficult.
The sign language equivalent of a tongue twister is called a finger fumbler. According to Susan Fischer, the phrase Good blood, bad blood is a tongue-twister in English as well as a finger-fumbler in ASL.[2]
Literature
The children's book Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss consists almost entirely of densely rhyming tongue-twisters.
- ^ http://williampoundstone.net/Ultimate.html
- ^ http://www.umich.edu/~archive/linguistics/linguist.list/volume.2/no.251-300
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Tongue-twisters
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tongue twisters
- 1st International Collection of Tongue Twisters – 2712 examples in 107 languages as of September 4, 2006
- alphaDictionary's Tongue Twisters from Around the World
- Collection of Popular Tongue Twisters
- Fumbling Over Words That Rhyme - a film project documenting tongue twisters from around the world
- (Dutch) Weblog about and collection of tongue twisters
- http://www.ezaroorat.com/tongue-twisters.html Collection of tongue-twisters
@mrjyn
August 15, 2009
Tongue-twister - Wikipedia
Dead Piper Pilot Cat Call Crash + Gawker, Foster Can't Hear AP Tonguetwister Glee In Sibilance, Dumb Assonance! @mrjyn #youtube #video
RT @mrjyn http://bit.ly/10RpDP - #Dead Piper #Pilot #Cat #Call #Crash @gawker - GAWKY FOSTER KRAMER PREDICTS YOUTUBE, DR. SEUSS VIDEO! -- "Sadly, this presents another opportunity for a dumbass to make another dumb joke on YouTube"--Foster Kamer http://gawker.com/5338123/plane+helic...
Dear Foster: If you can't hear this AP reporter barely contain his tonguetwisting glee at the sibilance and dumb assonance with which he happily transforms into Dr. Seuss/Cronkite, then you, my gawky little Internet aggregator friend, are the dumbass.
~ nichopoulouzo
AND FOLLOW @mrjyn http://twitter.com/mrjyn OR @nichopoulouzo FOR MORE Dumbass YouTube Videos Like:
Plane-Helicopter Collision's Air Traffic Controller: On His Cell, Talking About Dead Cats
1:15 PM on Sat Aug 15 2009, 1,284 views
Morbid and sad: the NY Post reports that the air traffic controller responsible during last weekend's helicopter-plane crash was on his cell discussing dead cats when the crash occurred. Meanwhile, broken down footage is showing the plane clipping the chopper.
Per the Post, the guy who was supposed to be on watch from Teterboro was on his cell with a contractor, talking about a dead cat who was removed from the airport when the crash happened. The phone call, to an airport contractor, was a "silly conversation" concerning a dead cat that had been removed from the airport, a retired union official said, in an account supported by transportation officials also familiar with the contents of the call. The controller and his supervisor at Teterboro have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration. "He was on the phone, and we have made no determination about what role this may have played in the accident," said NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson. "It was a lot of things happening in just a few minutes."
To say both of them have probably had the worst week of their lives would be an understatement. If this is, in fact true, one guy's small mistake, not made, could've possibly prevented a collision where everyone in it ended up dead.
And now, footage taken by a tourist on a boat below the crash is circulating around the internet; it's been around for the last week, but a New York news station did a frame-by-frame of the crash; one wing goes spinning off of the body of the plane the moment it comes in contact with the helicopter. The FAA's using the footage for their investigation.
Surely, there's something trite to be said for representing yet another step in the progress of eyewitness accounts becoming even more readily available following tragic accidents, so we can learn from them and use them to prevent future instances as technology progresses forward.
Sadly, this presents another opportunity for a dumbass to make another dumb joke on YouTube:
You May Also Enjoy These Dumbass YouTube Videos:
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Foster Kamer
http://gawker.com/5338123/plane+helic...Tags:Piper Pilot Pilot Dead Cat Chat call Catcall helicopter crash Plane-Helicopter Whirlybird Teterboro Dr. Seuss Geisel YouTube gawker.com FAA @mrjyn dumbass dumb joke twitter.com/mrjyn footage NTSB tourist #video @nichopoulouzo nichopoulouzo #youtube #followfriday Foster Kamer helicopter-collisions air-traffic-controller cell talking-about-dead-cats gawker #Dead #Cat #Chat #Crash #Plane #Helicopter #Dumb #ass #OBITUTWEET OBITUARY #OBITUVIDEO OBIT death
Plane-Helicopter Collision's Air Traffic Controller: On His Cell, Talking About Dead Cats
Morbid and sad: the NY Post reports that the air traffic controller responsible during last weekend's helicopter-plane crash was on his cell discussing dead cats when the crash occurred. Meanwhile, broken down footage is showing the plane clipping the chopper.
Per the Post, the guy who was supposed to be on watch from Teterboro was on his cell with a contractor, talking about a dead cat who was removed from the airport when the crash happened.
The phone call, to an airport contractor, was a "silly conversation" concerning a dead cat that had been removed from the airport, a retired union official said, in an account supported by transportation officials also familiar with the contents of the call. The controller and his supervisor at Teterboro have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration. "He was on the phone, and we have made no determination about what role this may have played in the accident," said NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson. "It was a lot of things happening in just a few minutes."
To say both of them have probably had the worst week of their lives would be an understatement. If this is, in fact true, one guy's small mistake, not made, could've possibly prevented a collision where everyone in it ended up dead.
And now, footage taken by a tourist on a boat below the crash is circulating around the internet; it's been around for the last week, but a New York news station did a frame-by-frame of the crash; one wing goes spinning off of the body of the plane the moment it comes in contact with the helicopter. The FAA's using the footage for their investigation.
Surely, there's something trite to be said for representing yet another step in the progress of eyewitness accounts becoming even more readily available following tragic accidents, so we can learn from them and use them to prevent future instances as technology progresses forward. Sadly, this is the last thing that'd occur to some people, as it mostly just presents another opportunity for a dumbass to make another dumb joke on YouTube:
Plane-Helicopter Collision's Air Traffic Controller: On His Cell, Talking About Dead Cats - Crashes - GawkerDrag queen bank robber Huy Trong Luong sentenced to prison term for nine bank robberies
Drag queen bank robber Huy Trong Luong sentenced to prison term for nine bank robberies
AP Photo/Sang TanHuy Trong Luong of Jersey City, New Jersey, was sentenced on August 12 for a series of bank robberies and attempted bank robberies committed in New Jersey and Connecticut. Over a five-month period in 2008, Luong robbed or attempted to rob nine different banks and stole more than $39,000. Each robbery was committed while Luong was disguised as a woman. U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Simandle sentenced Luong to twelve years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $39,067 in restitution.
Luong entered a guilty plea to two counts of bank robbery on March 31, 2009. The two bank robberies which were the basis for the plea were the Commerce Bank in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and a Wachovia branch in Greenwich, Connecticut. As part of the plea, Luong also admitted to the other seven robberies, which were also considered at sentencing. Luong was indicted in both New Jersey and in Connecticut, and the cases were consolidated in New Jersey for purposes of the guilty plea and sentencing.
Luong's cross-dressing disguise failed to protect him during his failed robbery attempt of a bank in Chatham, New Jersey, on May 5, 2008. Police found a black wig, a black Dolce & Gabbana hat, a woman's make-up kit, and a black jacket inside his getaway minivan. His minivan also contained Roman candle fireworks disguised as dynamite. Luong admitted that he made death threats or threats of violence to the bank tellers during the robberies, and during the three Connecticut bank robberies he passed the tellers a note that he had a bomb.
During his plea hearing, Luong admitted to a total of nine robberies. On January 11. 2008, Luong robbed a Wachovia Bank in Greenwich, Connecticut, of $2,000. On January 13, 2008, he robbed $2,000 from Commerce Bank in Westport, Connecticut. On January 22, 2008, Luong robbed Provident Bank in Toms River, New Jersey, of $11,109. On April 20, 2008, he robbed the Commerce Bank in New Canaan, Connecticut, of $3,600. On April 26, 2008, he attempted to rob the Wachovia Bank in Highland Park, N.J.. On April 28, 2008, he robbed Commerce Bank in Stafford Twp., N.J., of $5,388. On April 30, 2008, he robbed the Commerce Bank in Bergenfield, N.J., of $12,020. Luong robbed Commerce Bank in Mahwah, N.J., of $2,950 on May 4, 2008, and on May 5, 2008, he attempted to rob the Commerce Bank in Chatham, N.J. The final failed robbery of the Commerce Bank resulted in his arrest.
Federal Bureau of Investigation - The Newark Division: Department of Justice Press Release
Federal Bureau of Investigation - The Newark Division: Department of Justice Press ReleaseDepartment of Justice Press Release
Top ten similarities between Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson
Top ten similarities between Elvis Presley and Michael JacksonComparing Elvis Presley & Michael Jackson
Part 3 in a series for Elvis Presley Week
Although the differences between the careers and lives of Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson are distinct and varied, since August marks the anniversary month of the death of Elvis Presley as well as the presumed secret burial month of Michael Jackson, this article will examine ten similarities between Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson:
Top Ten Similarities Between Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson
1. Poverty to Wealth
Both Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson were born into relatively poor circumstances and not only reached musical super-stardom during their lifetimes, but achieved great financial wealth.
2. Families & Relationships with Parents
Both Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson had some problems in their childhoods resulting from issues with their fathers which affected them in their adult years, and both Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley maintained strong relationships with their mothers. Both families were musical and attended church services regularly.
3. Gospel Music Ties
Elvis Presley wrote more than 50 gospel songs and recorded many classic hymns in his career. Elvis Presley frequently used gospel groups as background singers including: the Imperials, The Jordanaires, and J.D. Sumner and the Stamps Quartet. (see The Gospel according to Elvis Presley)
Michael Jackson wrote and recorded several songs that are listed as gospel including "Cry" and "Will You Be There." (see The gospel according to Michael Jackson) Michael Jackson frequently used gospel groups as background singers including the Andrae Crouch Choir. (see Michael Jackson's gospel music ties). Both men recorded Christmas albums.
4. Striking Costumes and Dance Movies
Both Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson wore striking, flashy costumes which were often sparkly and frequently tight-fitting and usually memorable. Both artists incorporated controversial dance moves on stage.
5. Graceland/Neverland
In 1957, Elvis Presley purchased an estate with a mansion which became his home, and he personalized it with over-the-top special theme rooms. Graceland became synonymous with Elvis Presley.
In 1988, Michael Jackson purchased the property which became Neverland Ranch, and he personalized it with a theme park, zoo and other over-the-top extensions of his personality. Neverland Ranch became synonymous with Michael Jackson.
6. Lisa Marie Presley
Elvis Presley was the father of Lisa Marie Presley. Michael Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley.
7. Became Reclusive and Distrustful
Towards the end of their lives, both Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson became somewhat reclusive, depressed, distrustful and and overly-obsessed with germs.
8. Health Issues and Drug Abuse
Elvis Presley died of health issues combined with drug issues on August 16, 1977.
Michael Jackson died of health issues combined with drug issues on June 25, 2009.
Both men's deaths were attributed to heart attacks at some point.
9. Died Young and Unexpectedly
Both celebrities died young and unexpectedly, Elvis at 42 and Michael at 50.
10. Kings of Music & Pop Culture
Elvis Presley was called the "King of Rock 'n Roll."
Michael Jackson was crowned the "King of Pop."
Feel free to add your own comparisons between Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley in the comments below.
Part 1: Gospel Music 101: Who was Elvis Presley?
Part 2: The Gospel according to Elvis Presley (gospel videos included)
Part 4: Elvis Presley: the 'King of Rock 'n Roll' and a real doll (with slideshow of Elvis dolls)
For more info:The gospel according to Michael Jackson ('Will You Be There?' and 'Heal the World' videos included)
Michael Jackson King of Pop Dead at 50
Michael Jackson's gospel music ties
Did Michael Jackson become a Christian right before he died?
Musical guests, participants announced for Michael Jackson memorial service
Jennifer Hudson performs Michael Jackson's 'Will You Be There' at memorial service (video included)
The Gospel according to Elvis Presley: Elvis' gospel recordings (gospel videos included)
Also see:
Gospel Music 101: Who was Elvis Presley? Gospel singer, music icon and more
Gospel Music 101: What is gospel music?
Gospel Music 101: Which gospel artists got their start in Nashville?
iLike Artist Dashboard - Stats
iLike Artist Dashboard - StatsSong stats: Life to Date
Full songs Profile adds Dedications
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