Tongue Twisters

Today is International Tongue Twister Day. Who knew? I have long known that there are tongue twisters in English, but for some odd reason it didn't occur to me that there would be tongue twisters in other languages. Silly me. 

So, in honor of my heritage, and of interest to few people other than me, let me share some tongue twisters from countries of which I'm fond. First there's Thailand, the country of my birth. The tongue twister is written like this:

ยักษ์ใหญ่ไล่ยักษ์เล็ก  ยักษ์เล็กไล่ยักษ์ใหญ่

I wish I could say that I can read that, but I can't. Spelled phonetically, it says this: 

"Yak yai lai yak lek; yak lek lai yak yai." 

Try saying that fast! Translated, it means, "A big demon chased a small demon; a small demon chased a big demon." Not terribly profound.

The next place I lived was Malaysia. They speak Malay there (naturally), and it's a language that lends itself nicely to tongue twisters like this:

"Kakak ku kata, kuku kaki ku kotor. Ku kikis kuku kotor kaki ku."

Translated, that means "My sister said my toenails are dirty. Then I shaped my dirty toenails." Now what could have provoked a villager to have ever thought up that sentence when he needed to be busy planting rice?

Singapore doesn't have its own language. There are three official languages there: English, Mandarin and Malay. So here's one for you in Mandarin:

"Xi Shi sishi sishisi."

Try that one. It's not as easy as it looks. And for your information, it's translated, "The useful lady of the West was 44 years old at the time of her death." Seriously? All that from those few words in Mandarin?

The United States primarily uses English. Although I love to listen to other languages, I am thankful that my native language is English. It's such a rich language, appropriating vocabulary from other languages to the point that you can articulate just what you want to say in nearly every circumstance. And English has no shortage of tongue twisters. Most of us know about Peter Piper picking pickled peppers, and woodchucks that are chucking all the wood they could. But there are obscure tongue twisters as well:

"The seething sea ceaseth; thus the seething sea sufficeth us."

Try saying that one a few times fast!

I have also spent some time living in Finland. where the language provides all kinds of fun sounds and tongue twisters. Here's a cute one:

"Vesihiisi sihisi hississä."

Entertainingly enough, that means, "The sea monster was hissing in the elevator." Don't you just wonder how someone thought that sentence up? Especially in a rather flat land like Finland?

So what are your favorite tongue twisters? Please share.