Tongue twisters are a phenomenon that everyone recognizes as a fun challenge.  Both young children and adults enjoy attempting to say the nonsensical phrases.  One such phrase, which causes catches of the tongue, is, “She sells seashells by the seashore.”  It is difficult to say this phrase for several reasons.

 The first reason for the difficulty with the tongue twister is that the speech production of the varying sounds occurs in different parts of the mouth.  The place of articulation is where speech sounds and airflow are constricted.  In this particular example there are two main sounds that are emphasized, the s and the sh.  To produce a s sound the place of articulation is near the front of the mouth, while production of the sh sound occurs near the back, closer to the throat.  In this particular tongue twister the s and sh sound switch every syllable. It is physically hard for the tongue to move fast enough to produce the correct sound.

Another reason is seen in the theory proposed by G.S. Dell.  This theory deals with the activation levels of different sounds.  For example the sh sound in she is the first word in the sentence and sets a precedence for the following words like seashells.  The speaker will be inclined to pronounce seashells as sheashells because the rhythm of the sentence encourages a resemblance between the she and the sea in seashells. (Cognition. Maltlin, Margaret. pp. 319-320)
 

This page prepared by:
Sarah Cook
Tracie Lambertson
Michael Sasscer
Brianne Sigler
 

Question GIF courtesy of animation city