Accent Expert Explains How Tongue Twisters Work | WIRED

Dialect coach Erik Singer is back, this time to take a look at tongue twisters. We've all tried tongue twisters in our lives, and know how hard they can be! But "why" are they hard? What makes one group of words more difficult to speak fluidly than others? Erik explains why our tongues get so twisted up, and breaks down how different tongue twisters affect different people with different accents.

Ultrasound Tongue Twister footage courtesy of Professor Ian Wilson, CLR Phonetics Lab at the University of Aizu, Japan

Sagittal Section Diagram courtesy of Professor Daniel C. Hall, Linguistics & Department of English Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, N.S.

https://incl.pl/sammy/

Thank you for all our tongue twister participants!
Nicole Cunniff
Larry Chan
Taylor Faires
Nichole Holze
Alina Peng
Sarah Jack
Siobhan Pesce
Bob Wendland
Anushka Conway
Maxine Jones
Jordan Trafford
Elizabeth Cartwright
Brooke Henzell
Tim Mills
Clare/Clisare Cullen
Kamal Batra
Dylan Rogers
Kayla Pereira
Marcus A Siler
Louise Starks

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Accent Expert Explains How Tongue Twisters Work | WIRED