Eastern African countries turned up as my topic yesterday. In it, I mentioned the “country” of Seychelles. Seychelles truly looks like an island paradise. In fact, there are a lot of islands to choose from, as Seychelles, located in the western Indian Ocean, is made up of 115 islands.
At any rate. I wanted to know how it was pronounced.
Seychelles = Say Shells
And from there, “say shells” reminded me of
“She sells sea shells by the sea shore.”
And that, of course, is a tongue twister. They weren’t always around, so I wondered when they first began. Our “say shells” / “she sells” example seems to have started things rolling. The popular “she sells seashells” tongue twister was originally published in 1850. In its early going, it was used as a diction exercise.
Diction exercise or not, tongue twisters even have a National Day (like everything else under the sun). And that falls on November 8, 2018. Be sure to mark National Tongue Twister Day on your handy wall calendar.
But there is the thing. According to many experts, tongue twisters have loads of benefits.
• Tongue twisters have been proven to clarify the pronunciation of words.
• Tongue twisters also stretch and strengthen the muscles which we use to speak.
• Tongue twisters warm up our speaking ability. Performers and public speakers often speak tongue twisters before they go out on stage.
Nobody knows for sure who created them. I’m guessing it was some drunk guy at a tavern on his fifth stein of mead. There are other theories though. Like parents of children who were looking for a way to entertain and teach their children. Or perhaps it was scholars who created tongue twisters for their students. I’m sticking with my version of the story.
We’ll never be sure. But there are a lot of tongue twisters out there.
Like saying, 10 times really fast: “Toy boat, toy boat, toy boat.”
Or what about good old “Rubber baby buggy bumpers.”
Then there are the classics.
… 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, Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?”
Peter and his famous pickled peppers first appeared in print in 1813 in John Harris’s Peter Piper’s Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect Pronunciation.
… Woodchuck ….
“How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, If a woodchuck could chuck wood?”
While it likely predates her, Vaudeville performer Fay Templeton is credited with putting the woodchucking woodchuck on the map. “How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?” was the chorus of a number Templeton sang in 1903 in the Broadway musical The Runaways.
Uh. By the way. A woodchuck can’t actually chuck wood.
… She Sells Seashells ….
“She sells seashells on the seashore. The shells she sells are seashells, I’m sure. And if she sells seashells on the seashore, Then I’m sure she sells seashore shells.”
The story behind “She Sells Seashells” has gotten some attention in recent years. The experts on these sorts of things say that the rhyme is a tribute to 19th-century English paleontologist Mary Anning.
Apparently, Anning was an impressive fossil hunter. She is said to have discovered the first “articulated plesiosaur.” (For those who don’t know — a plesiosaur is a reptile that lived 203 million years ago. It looks a lot like a gigantic scary eel.) She was also among the first to identify fossilized poop. But her male contemporaries had a way of swiping the credit from her. But, at least she is getting some recognition with the sea shells, I suppose.
So there it is. We should all go forth and tongue twist, I think.
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t very fuzzy, was he?
Or perhaps, more fitting for my readers?
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!
With sprinkles on top.
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Communication works for those who work at it.” – John Powell
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“Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.” – Plato
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“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw
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Come on baby. Let’s do the twist.
