Shanghaiist Tonguetwister Challenge
lisa_t
June 07, 2009, 09:57 PM posted in General DiscussionIf you can pronounce this
石室诗士施氏，嗜食狮，誓食十狮。适施氏时时适市视狮。十时，适十狮适市。是时，适施氏适市。氏视是十狮，恃矢势，使是十狮逝世。氏拾是十狮尸，适石室。石室湿，氏使侍拭石室。石室拭，氏始试食是十狮尸。食时，始识是十狮尸，实十石狮尸。试释是事
send a recording of it to http://shanghaiist.com/2009/06/08/tonguetwister_of_the_day.php you might win a prize!
mattieujoshua
June 08, 2009, 04:48 AMahhh! funny huh?
heroius
June 08, 2009, 04:56 AM这是只能看、不能读系列的《施氏食狮史》，讲述了一哥们花冤枉钱买了十块石头，痛苦地啃的一个故事……⊙﹏⊙b汗
《于瑜与余欲渔遇雨》
于瑜欲渔，遇余于寓。语余：“余欲渔于渝淤，与余渔渝欤？”
余语于瑜：“余欲鬻玉，俞禹欲玉，余欲遇俞于俞寓。”
余与于瑜遇俞禹于俞寓，逾俞隅，欲鬻玉于俞，遇雨，雨逾俞宇。余语于瑜：“余欲渔于渝淤，遇雨俞寓，雨逾俞宇，欲渔欤？鬻玉欤？”
于瑜与余御雨于俞寓，俞鬻玉于余禹，雨愈，余与于瑜踽踽逾俞宇，渔于渝淤。
the story above tells us that..two boys planed to go fishing ,but before that one of them wanted to buy a piece of jade,and it started to rain just when they did the shopping thing.however they went fishing in the end.
helenshen_counselor
June 08, 2009, 03:33 AMIt sure is one of the most difficult tongue twisters I've ever met! I can hardly twist my tongue with enough agility to make it fluent. @#$%^&*.....
heroius
June 08, 2009, 10:24 AMHi changye
I'm afraid there are some
and 这种小短文是不应该被称为“绕口令”（因为它们没有节奏和规律），而只能说是变态的、类似《世说新语》一样的小故事。
here we go...
《遗镒疑医》
伊姨殪，遗亿镒。伊诣邑，意医姨疫，一医医伊姨。翌，亿镒遗，疑医，以议医。医以伊疑，缢，以移伊疑。伊倚椅以忆，忆以亿镒遗，以议伊医，亦缢。噫！亦异矣！
this story says a man called Yi got a dying auntie ,so he went to find a doctor .But the second day he found a large sum of money had gone !He suspected the doctor as the thief .The doctor felt being wronged and hanged himself (想不开)...By then Yi realized how cruel himself was ,and hanged himself too , with guilt.....(也想不开)
changye
June 08, 2009, 12:18 PMHi heroius
I have to say "Chinese is an amazing language". Thank you very much!
lisa_t
June 08, 2009, 07:45 PMhi changye,
wow, I didn't know that this was made for some kind of protest, I thought it was just created for fun.
changye
June 08, 2009, 07:11 AMPrecisely speaking, both 《石室诗士施氏嗜狮》 and 《于瑜与余欲渔遇雨》 are NOT tonguetwisters because they are actually not so difficult to read out. The main difficulty lies not in reading them out but in understanding their meanings.
Hi heroius
Thanks a lot for showing us 《于瑜与余欲渔遇雨》. It's just as hilarious as 《石室诗士施氏嗜狮》. I believe this kind of things probably only exist in Chinese, which is the language that has tons of homophonic characters.
I've just found that there are more Chinese characters with the sound "yi" than ones with "shi" or "yu" in my dictionaries. Do you know any "tonguetwister" made up of only characters that have the sound "yi"?
changye
June 08, 2009, 02:58 AMHi lisatiyamiyu
This tonguetwister was made by a Chinese scholar in the firsr half of the 20th century to criticize/ridicule the romanization movement of Chinese (汉语拼音化 = eliminating Chinese characters) in those days. Without using/seeing Chinese characters, nobody can understand the meaning of the text.