Tricky tongue twisters and the history behind them | E-Neighborhood Advisor

March blows in like a lion and is known to

spawn some twisters. But where do tongue

twisters come from? And why do they exist?

According to Gwendolyn Purdom in Mental

Floss, early English tongue twisters were used

to teach pupils proper speech.

Whether it's selling seashells by the seashore

or buying Betty Botter's bitter butter, some of

these difficult phrases go way back to when

elocution was practiced as routinely as

multiplication tables.

Peter Piper

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?

Peter and his famous pickled peppers first

appeared in print in 1813 in John Harris's Peter

Piper's Practical Principles of Plain and Perfect

Pronunciation. But as is the case with many

classic tongue twisters, the rhyme itself may

have already been in common use by that

time.

How Much Wood Would a Woodchuck

Chuck?

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck,

If a woodchuck could chuck wood?

While it likely predates her, Vaudeville

performer Fay Templeton is credited with

singing a song with this chorus in 1903 in the

Broadway musical The Runaways.

She Sells Seashells

She sells seashells on the sea shore.

The shells she sells are seashells, I'm sure. 

And if she sells seashells on the sea shore,

Then I'm sure she sells seashore shells.

Legend has it the rhyme is a tribute to 19th

century English paleontologist Mary Anning.

Anning was thought to have been responsible

for being among the first to identify fossilized

poop. Anning is known in scientific circles

(Charles Dickens even wrote about his

admiration for her after her 1847 death) but the

idea that she’s also the muse behind the

tongue twister has given the general public a

nice way to honor her as well.

Your Flooring Consultant,

Matt Capell

Email: sales@capellinteriors.com

Phone (208) 288-0151

Fax (208) 917-6160

P.S Here's another tongue twister for you!

If you notice this notice, you will notice that this notice is not worth noticing.