Danish Tounge-Twister

Nationality: Danish, Persian, American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Chicago, Il
Performance Date: April 25, 2015
Primary Language: English

The informant is a 19 year old male whose mother is Persian and father is Danish. He is not fluent in Danish, but knows little bits and pieces. He told me about a series of tongue twisters that he learned growing up.  His cousins would tease him with these tongue twisters because Danish is one of the hardest languages to pronounce.  Here is one of the ones he best remembers.

Danish: Fem flade flødeboller på et fladt flødebollefad

Translation: Five flat cream puffs on a flat cream puff plate

Analysis: This would be the equivalent to something like “Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore. But if Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore then where are the sea shells Sally sells?”  Because Danish is such a difficult language to learn, tongue twisters such as these are something that Danish people can take pride in knowing how to say.  I cannot even figure out the phonetic pronunciation of that tongue twister.  The translation is not particularly important, though, considering the point of the phrase is not to be thought-provoking but to be hard to say.  There are tongue twisters like these in almost every language, so it is a widespread practice and fun thing for all different people to participate in.