The tongue twister is a text that is difficult to pronounce because it has alliteration and rhymes.
A tongue twister is a phrase or term whose pronunciation is very complicated (and, therefore, "ties" the tongue of the person trying to express it). It is usually used as a game or as an exercise to achieve a clear expression or way of speaking.
The tongue twister, therefore, must be a text that, when pronounced out loud, is difficult to articulate. Its difficulty lies in the presence of rhymes and alliterations based on the use of phonemes that are very similar.
Regional differences in tongue twisters
All languages have their own tongue twisters, which are usually part of the town's literature and oral stories. In many cases, they are transmitted generationally since their main recipient audience is children.
Many tongue twisters present slight differences from one country to another. For example: «Pablito nailed a little nail. What little nail did Pablito nail?” It can also be found as «Pablito nailed a little nail into a bald man's bald head. “In the bald head of a bald man, Pablito nailed a little nail.”
Tongue twisters usually include non-existent words that, in any case, can be understood within the framework of the text in question. A famous tongue twister speaks of a sky that is "bricked" and that needs to be "unbricked."
Each language has its own tongue twisters.
oral entertainment
The challenge when pronouncing a tongue twister is to do it without mistakes, with clear diction and quickly. The faster the speed, the greater the difficulty in expressing the words and rhymes of the tongue twister.
Riddles , riddles , proverbs and jokes often appear alongside tongue twisters in children's oral literature . Its presence in books, however, is less frequent.
In everyday speech, the term is usually used to indicate a concept that is very difficult to understand, either due to lack of technical knowledge or due to the complexity of the topic in question. In the same way, it is often said that something seems "Chinese", assuming that the Eastern language presents a similar difficulty, even when one does not have a precise, even remote, idea of its characteristics . For a person born in China, surely something complicated can be compared to the Spanish language, which shows the absurdity of the expression.
Tongue twisters as an exercise
Tongue twisters are usually very useful to improve diction and even to solve certain pronunciation problems. It is very common for them to be used, along with other types of exercises , in theater groups and in singing lessons , as a warm-up. In popular music there are usually not many technical challenges related to phonetics, since it is usually sung in the native language and at a speed similar to that used in speaking, or even slower.
However, in baroque or classical operatic compositions that make intensive use of ornaments and require the voice to travel from one end to the other in a few seconds, taking a single breath, even the pronunciation of a simple word can become the object of months. of training . Added to this is the difficulty of singing in foreign languages and, in many cases, very different from each other, as is the case of the contrast between Italian and German. Whether by the sound of a vowel exclusive to a language, or by the indication to quickly repeat a syllable such as "pa" or "la" while singing a melody, the tongue and the rest of the speech apparatus must be constantly retrained to acquire new ones. skills.
Behind a soprano with makeup, hair and a dress in accordance with the fashion of the 18th century, there is a woman who probably spent months, sometimes years, studying a role that requires singing and reciting, correctly articulating the sounds, moving fluidly through the stage, act and, in many cases, dance. In the preparation process, there is a person in casual clothing who exercises his facial muscles and his cords using gestures that he would surely not do in public and tongue twisters, among other methods that are as useful as they are embarrassing.