As a kid, I loved to practice tongue twisters — those difficult to pronounce expressions, supposedly designed to improve one’s speaking elocution. Frequently, they used two consonants interchangeably to trip your tongue to misspeak, often with amusing results. In addition to improving pronunciation, they were fun to recite and to listen while others bungled the lines.
For example, try saying: “Big black bug bled black blood” three times without error. With concentration, you may get through the first series, but invariably will say: “blig” or “blug,” or “back” or “bed” along the way to offend one’s ear. After mastering that one, switch to a triple oration of: “She sells seashells by the seashore,” or “He threw three free throws.” What’s the matter: Did the cat get your tongue?
The “Sarah” song, always a favorite, sometimes was sung intentionally wrong to say the “forbidden” four letter words for fun. It went like this: “Sarah, Sarah, sitting in a Chevrolet. All day long she sits and shifts. All day long she shifts and sits. Shifts and sits; sits and shifts” — difficult not to interchange the “sh” sounds. But even more precarious: “Sarah, Sarah, working in a tailor shop. All day long she tucks and fits. All day long she fits and tucks. Tucks and fits; fits and tucks.” Well, wash my mouth out with soap!
Lastly, I submit three well-known twisters:
“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?”
“Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter’s bitter. If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter; but a bit of better butter will make my batter better, so ‘twas better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter.”
“How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? He would chuck, he would, as much as he could, and chuck as much wood, as a woodchuck would, if a woodchuck could chuck wood.”
Whoa! And I thought you were on a roll.