We like to play with language

Linguist Katarina Colomo on the difficult syllable sequence of the tongue twister

Fischers Fritze fishes fresh fish. Fischers Fritze fishes fresh fish. Who doesn't know this well-known German tongue twister, whose difficulty lies in the repeated alternation between the sounds [f] and [ʃ] ("sch"). This year, 9 November is International Tongue Twister Day, which aims to improve speaking skills and, of course, have fun playing with words. At the University of Wuppertal, linguist Dr Katarina Colomo has studied the subject and says: "It's impossible to say when the first tongue twister was created. Tongue twisters have probably not only been around since we started writing - our oral culture is much older than our written culture. It is part of our cultural memory. If you want to pass on knowledge orally, it is helpful to use poems or songs. Linguistic devices such as alliteration (a linguistic stylistic device in which two or more consecutive words have the same initial letter or the same initial sound, editor's note) or rhymes are important because they help us to memorise texts." Unfortunately, not much is learnt by heart these days, even though it promotes many skills, explains Colomo. Only songs are still often memorised. "Most people can sing along to some songs, but very few people can still recite poetry today."

Form before meaning

Tongue twisters are short sentences or word sequences that are difficult to pronounce due to their sound combinations, especially if they are repeated in quick succession. Their meaning is completely irrelevant, says the expert, explaining: "It's all about the form. It has to be a grammatically correct sentence, and you can usually understand it, but the meaning doesn't matter at all." Colomo illustrates this with another well-known example: "Blue cabbage remains blue cabbage and wedding dress remains wedding dress: these are two tautological sentences. I don't see any hidden meaning there either, it's just about the form. Tautological sentences can certainly have a meaning. Let's take 'war is war' as an example. On the surface, this sentence is just as uninformative, but it has an underlying meaning: certain things are typical in war, it's just not revealed what exactly is meant. Or 'Love is love', it works the same way. But 'Blaukraut bleibt Blaukraut' is probably not about the properties of red cabbage."

Tongue acrobatics in the mouth

In English, tongue twisters are called 'tongue twisters'. A surprising amount happens in the mouth when we speak, says the linguist. "Firstly, we produce a vocal tone, i.e. we press air through our vocal cords with the right amount of pressure to produce a vocal tone. And then it depends on what we do with it in our mouth. This is articulation. We articulate with the tongue, the jaw, the soft palate and the lips." In phonetics, a distinction is made between consonants and vowels as two essentially different types of sound. "Vowels are relatively simple in terms of articulation. It's all about: how high is the tongue, how far forward is it, do we round the lips? That's almost everything. When we say [i], the tongue is very far forward and up. If we leave the tongue there and round the lips, the sound automatically becomes a [y] ("üh"). All we have changed is to round the lips." However, the situation is completely different with consonants. "With consonants, we create a kind of obstruction for the airflow. This makes them very different from the vowels. We do this in different places and in different ways, often with the tongue, but also with the lips. The combination of place and manner is fundamental to which consonant is produced.

The tongue muscle can be trained

Tongue twisters are also used in speech therapy. The tongue is a complicated muscle that can be trained. "Sport is about strength, flexibility, endurance and coordination," explains Colomo, "and the same applies to articulation. Speech exercises are articulation exercises. Tongue twisters are particularly difficult exercises in which very complex movement sequences are practised." These are difficult combinations of consonants in quick succession with similar but different combinations. "In 'Blaukraut', both syllables start in a very similar way: first comes a closing sound, then a relatively sonorous consonant. But the articulation takes place in completely different places: The first syllable onset [bl] is produced far in front, with the lips and then the tip of the tongue. With the second syllable onset [kʀ], we start again with a closing sound, the [k], but this time it is produced far back with the back of the tongue. With [ʀ], we let the tongue vibrate even further back. If we have to switch between these combinations in quick succession, it's difficult. In 'Brautkleid', the syllable onsets consist of the same consonants, only swapped: now we have to jump from front to back [bʀ] or vice versa [kl] within the onset. And then the whole thing in quick succession in alternation - that's really difficult!" Actors often go one better and speak such tongue twisters with a cork in their mouth. This loosens the articulatory muscles, promotes blood circulation and works just like a sports warm-up.

Tongue twisters - a game with language

Tongue twisters also exist in other languages. A good example from Switzerland is: S' Christchindli und dä Samichlaus ässäd zum Z'Nüni Guetzli und Chäschüechli ausem Chuchichäschtli. (The Christ Child and St Nicholas eat biscuits and cheesecake from the kitchen cupboard for lunch). Complicated? "That's the nature of all tongue twisters," laughs the linguist, "We just like to play with language. It's a challenge and you can always join in. It's fun and it's practice."

The most difficult tongue twister

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the most difficult tongue twister in the English-speaking world is "The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick". Which means something like: The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep is sick. Tongue twisters are therefore an international phenomenon. "Tongue twisters really do exist in all languages, I think. You could definitely build them in all languages. A special feature of German is that we have very complicated consonant combinations. Not only at the beginning of the syllable, but I believe that the consonant connections at the beginning of the syllable are particularly important for tongue twisters." However, this can also be different in other languages, explains the scientist. The Chinese language, for example, is a tonal language. "On the phonetic level, the syllables are very simple. They usually consist of just one consonant followed by a vowel. But it plays a role whether the voice in the syllable falls, rises, first falls and then rises or remains the same. In Chinese, these are different syllables." In German, it doesn't matter. "This means that a Chinese tongue twister can consist of complicated tone sequences. It's a different language system."

Barbara's rhubarb bar

The most recent and most viral tongue twister is 'Barbaras Rhabarberbar', written by Bodo Wartke, which became very popular in 2024. It was clicked millions of times on social media platforms such as YouTube and TikTok and was even mentioned in the New York Times. Could the hit song 'Zungenbrecher' also be used in teaching? "I've never used them consciously," summarises Colomo, "but when I teach phonetics, I also want the students to consciously notice their articulation movements. Tongue twisters draw attention to the articulation, which could help. And if the students understand why they are difficult to pronounce, they have definitely already learnt a lot."

Uwe Blass

Linguist Dr Katarina Colomo works as a senior academic advisor in German Studies in the School of Humanities and Cultural Studies at the University of Wuppertal.