Tongue Twisters

Joachim, here you go: http://forum.chinesepod.com/viewtopic.php?t=1725 Not really helping for learning pronounciation. :)

on a related subject, I have an excellent book to learn and practice pronunciation (200 p., with mp3 CD). I hardly ever used it, I'd gladly ship it to one of the ChinesePod regulars for free if there's interest: 汉语语言训练教程 (日本汉语教师培训系列教材) 内含超长MP3一张 (300分钟) from Beijing Language and Culture University Press (北京语言大学出版社) 2006年. While it's part of their series for Japanese students, it's actually in Chinese, but with pinyin transcription for every single example, which pretty much all this book is about. Only thing you'd need Chinese for is the explanations as to where to place the tongue and such like, which I personally find of no use whatsoever (I guess MikeinEwshot would disagree with me on that one too :-)

here you go, parallel response from henning as expected...

goulniky: apart from no. 8 these look quite above my head...

Joachim, are they too long or do you have an issue with the meaning? If the latter I think it really doesn't matter, remember Jenny talking about the Tang poetry she had to memorize when she was 3-4, couldn't even read, no doubt she didn't get much of the language subtleties either. Could still be a valuable exercise. If the former, just take them one step at a time.

they're called 绕口令 (ràokǒulìng). It's fun, you'll have to decide if it's any help to you. Here's a few examples, I'm sure more can be found on the net : ①门外有四辆四轮大马车, 你爱拉哪两辆, 就拉哪两辆。 mén wài yǒu sì liàng sìlún Dàmǎ chē, nǐ ài lā nǎ liǎng liàng, jiù lā nǎ liǎng liàng. ②吃葡萄不吐葡萄皮, 不吃葡萄倒吐葡萄皮。 Chī pútaó bù tǔ pútáo pí, bù chī pútáo dào tǔ pútáo pí. ③和尚端汤上塔, 塔滑汤洒, 汤烫塔。 Héshàng duān tāng shàng tǎ, tǎ huá tāng sǎ, tāng tàng tǎ. ④山前有个崔腿粗, 山后有个崔粗腿。两人山前来比腿, 不知道是崔粗腿的腿粗, 还是崔腿粗的腿粗? Shān qián yǒu ge cuī tuǐ cū, shān hòu yǒu ge cuī cūtuǐ. Liǎng rén shān qiánlái bǐ tuǐ, bùzhīdào shì cuī cūtuǐ de tuǐ cū, háishì cuī tuǐ cū de tuǐ cū? ⑤山前有个颜圆眼, 山后有个袁眼圆。两人上山来比眼, 不知道是颜圆眼的眼圆, 还是袁眼圆的眼圆? Shān qián yǒu ge yán yuán yǎn, shān hòu yǒu ge Yuán yǎn yuán. Liǎng rén shàngshān lái bǐ yǎn, bùzhīdào shì yán yuán yǎn de yǎn yuán, háishì Yuán yǎn yuán de yǎn yuán? ⑥长虫围这砖堆转, 转完了砖堆, 长虫钻砖堆。 Cháng chóng wéi zhe zhuān duī zhuàn, zhuàn wánle zhuān duī, cháng chóng zuān zhuān duī. ⑦长藤上挂铜铃, 风吹藤动铜铃动, 风停藤停铜铃停。 Cháng téng shàng guà tónglíng, fēng chuī téng dòng tónglíng dòng, fēng tíng téng tíng tónglíng tíng. ⑧四个四, 四个十, 四个十四, 四个四十, 四个四十四。十个四, 十个十, 十个十四, 十个四十, 十个四十四。 Sì ge sì, sì ge shí, sì ge shísì, sì ge sìshí, sì ge sìshísì. Shí ge sì, shí ge shí, shí ge shísì, shí ge sìshí, shí ge sìshísì. ⑨你会燉我的燉冻豆腐, 来燉我的燉冻豆腐; 你不会燉我的燉冻豆腐, 别混充会燉, 燉坏了我的燉冻豆腐。 Nǐ huì dùn wǒ de dùn dòngdòufǔ, lái dùn wǒ de dùn dòngdòufǔ; nǐ bú huì dùn wǒ de dùn dòngdòufǔ, bié hùnchōng huì dùn, dùn huài le wǒ de dùn dòngdòufǔ.

incidentally the maine.edu link above also has .wav recordings, pretty cool

I Chinese teacher I know reckons they improve your pronunciation - I think they may have helped me. Incidentally, I think it is important to understand what you are saying, otherwise you get the phrasing wrong...

I disagree with Mike'sinference - sure, knowing the general meaning is useful, but getting the pronunciation right is a matter of practice, understanding is of little if any help. In fact it's probably counter-productive. Way back when I was teaching myself English, I always went for 'blind' repeat until I had the pronunciation under control, and everything was a tongue twister back then. Only then did I look up spelling and did I bother about meaning.

Goulniky - enfin nous ne sommes pas d'accord. I am pretty sure that sometimes the way the tones and sounds are uttered together depends on the grouping which depends on the semantics and parsing of the phrase, which in turn depends on the meaning. Speaking personally, I can't get worked up about uttering meaningless sounds - maybe it reminds me of when my school teacher tried to teach me French(!) at 11 years old - we had to recite the sounds: the nazals (an, en, in, on) I particularly remember!

more 绕口令 with translation, including a simpler 吃葡 萄不吐葡萄皮 Chī pútao bù tǔ pútao pí. Some English tongue-twisters too