Who doesn’t like tongue twisters? I’m sure everyone of you have tried to speak at least one tongue twister in your life. Tongue twisters are a funny way to show our ability to pronounce difficult sounds fast. And, today I’ll tell you some of the most famous Italian tongue twisters.
Why are tongue twisters so difficult?
There have been different researches in the past about tongue twisters but the most recent one, is certainly the one done by Bouchard, Mesgarani, Johnson, and Chang, and published on Nature in 2013.
During this research, researchers collected data on neural codes that control the production of speech.
In fact, they could record brain activity in three people with epilepsy using the electrodes that these people already had in their cortices due to previous presurgical electrophysiological sessions.
Researchers asked participants to read some sentences and then waited to see what happened.
And they discovered that although we use the same parts of our vocal tract to speak, the areas that enlightened when they pronounced vowels where different from the ones that enlightened when they pronounced consonants.
Researchers could divide consonants in three categories and vowels in two categories, according to the areas in our brain involved in their production. Consonants were divided into: front-of-the-tongue sounds, such as “sa”, back-of-the-tongue sounds, such as “ga”, and lip sounds, such as “ma”.
By contrast, vowels were divided into those that required rounded lips, such as “u”, and those that didn’t require round lips, such as “e”.
It turned out that the most difficult sounds to pronounce in tongue twisters were the one that belonged in the same category, such as “p” and “b” because the brain kind of gets confused.
So, the problem with speaking tongue twisters seems to be actually connected to the brain telling the muscles how to generate sounds.
Famous Italian tongue twisters
Finally, let’s see some famous Italian tongue twisters you can try. Don’t get annoyed if you cannot pronounce them. Even native speakers sometimes cannot! Take it as a way to test your brain and tongue with sounds of another language!
1. Trentatrè trentini
Trentatré trentini entrarono in Trento, tutti e trentatré trotterellando.
2. La capra
Sopra la panca la capra campa, sotto la panca la capra crepa.
3. Tre tigri
Tre tigri contro tre tigri, tre tigri contro tre tigri.
4. Apelle
Apelle figlio di Apollo fece una palla di pelle di pollo. Tutti i pesci vennero a galla per vedere la palla di pelle di pollo fatta da Apelle figlio di Apollo.
5. Il questore
A quest’ora il questore in questura non c’è.
6. I kiwi
Li vuoi quei kiwi? E se non vuoi quei kiwi che kiwi vuoi?
7. La serva
A che serve che la serva si conservi la conserva se la serva quando serve non si serve di conserva?
8. Le tazze
Due tazze strette in due strette tazze.
9. Il pozzo dei pazzi
Al pozzo dei pazzi una pazza lavava le pezze. Andò un pazzo e buttò la pazza con tutte le pezze nel pozzo dei pazzi.
10. L’arcivescovo di Costantinopoli
Se l’arcivescovo di Costantinopoli
si disarcivescoviscostantinopolizzasse,
vi disarcivescoviscostantinopolizzereste voi
come si è disarcivescoviscostantinopolizzato
l’Arcivescovo di Costantinopoli?
11. Il cane
Dietro il palazzo c’è un povero cane pazzo,
date un pezzo di pane al povero pazzo cane.
12. L’aglio
Sul tagliere l’aglio taglia
non tagliare la tovaglia
la tovaglia non è aglio
se la tagli fai uno sbaglio
Good, now you can try to speak these Italian tongue twisters! Let me know which one is your favorite and which one is the most difficult for you!
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Original image by TawnyNina
Small non-Italian communities in Italy
