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.

MRI 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


In This Story: Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia located in the northwest Pacific Ocean. Part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, Japan comprises an archipelago of 6,852 islands covering 377,975 square kilometers (145,937 sq mi); the country’s five main islands, from north to south, are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. Tokyo is Japan’s capital and largest city.

Japan is divided into 47 administrative prefectures and eight traditional regions. The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, with more than 37.4 million residents.

Japan is a great power and a member of numerous international organizations, including the United Nations (since 1956), the OECD, and the G7. Japan is a leader in the automotive and electronics industries.

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