tongue-twister

See also: tongue twister

English

Alternative forms

• tongue twister

Noun

Examples
Red lorry, yellow lorry Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

tongue-twister (plural tongue-twisters)

1. A phrase that is deliberately designed to be difficult to say correctly, usually because of varying combinations of similar phonemes.
   • 1855, H. Taylor with J. H. Beech, “Report of the Committee on Dysentery”, in The Transactions of the American Medical Association‎^[1], volume viii, Philadelphia: Collins, page 568:

     The present name being a translation, "in brief," of the original tongue-twister, meaning "the river of the rock"

Coordinate terms

• finger-fumbler

Translations

phrase which is difficult to say

• Arabic: تَنَافُر m (tanāfur)
• Aymara: laxra chinja
• Azerbaijani: yanıltmac
• Basque: aho-korapilo
• Bavarian: Zungabrecha f, Bappndralla f
• Belarusian: скорагаво́рка f (skorahavórka), быстрамо́ўка f (bystramóŭka) (taraškievica)
• Bulgarian: скоропоговорка f (skoropogovorka)
• Catalan: travallengua (ca) m, embarbussament (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 急口令 (gap¹ hau² ling⁶)

  Hokkien: 繞口令／绕口令 (liáu-kháu-lēng), 桀口話／桀口话 (ke̍h-kháu-ōe), 謔喙訣／谑喙诀 (gio̍h-chhùi-koat)

  Mandarin: 繞口令／绕口令 (zh) (ràokǒulìng), 拗口令 (zh) (àokǒulìng)

• Crimean Tatar: tezaytım
• Czech: jazykolam m
• Danish: tungebrækker c
• Dutch: tongbreker (nl) m
• Esperanto: langrompilo
• Finnish: kielivoimisteluloru, sanahirviö
• French: virelangue (fr) m
• Galician: trabalinguas m
• German: Zungenbrecher (de) m

  Alemannic German: Zongabrecher m

• Greek: γλωσσοδέτης (el) m (glossodétis)
• Hungarian: nyelvtörő (hu)
• Icelandic: tungubrjót m
• Indonesian: pembelit lidah
• Irish: rabhlóg f, casfhocal m
• Italian: scioglilingua (it) m
• Japanese: 早口言葉 (ja) (はやくちことば, hayakuchi kotoba)
• Komi-Zyrian: кывбертлас (kyvbertlas)
• Korean: 빠른말 (ppareunmal)
• Kyrgyz: жаңылтмач (ky) (jaŋıltmac)
• Latvian: ātrruna f, mēles mežģis f
• Lithuanian: greitãkalbė (lt) f
• Lombard: deslengualengua m
• Low German:

  German Low German: Tungenbreker m

• Macedonian: брзозбо́рка f (brzozbórka)
• Maori: pepe takimanawa
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: tungekrøll m

  Nynorsk: tungekrøll m

• Occitan: viralenga (oc) f
• Polish: łamaniec językowy (pl) m, łamaniec (pl) m
• Portuguese: trava-língua m, trava-línguas m
• Romanian: frântură de limbă f
• Russian: скорогово́рка (ru) f (skorogovórka)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: бр̀залица f

  Roman: br̀zalica (sh) f

• Slovak: jazykolam m
• Spanish: trabalenguas (es) m
• Swahili: kitanza ndimi
• Swedish: tungvrickare (sv) c
• Tagalog: pamilipit-dila, pampilipit-dila
• Telugu: టంగ్-ట్విస్టర్ (ṭaṅg-ṭvisṭar)
• Turkish: tekerleme (tr)
• Ukrainian: скоромовка f (skoromovka)
• Uzbek: tez aytish
• Walloon: toitche-linwe (wa) m
• Welsh: cwlwm tafod m
• West Frisian: tongbrekkerssechje c
• Yiddish: גיכווערטל n (gikhvertl)

Further reading

• tongue twister on Wikipedia.Wikipedia