Tongue-Twisters and Novels

Yesterday I was reading Plimco's blog and in the comments on one of the posts we got off on the subject of tongue-twisters. I have a love-hate relationship with tongue-twisters. See, my tongue gets twisted very easily. But I love them anyway. In theatre tongue twisters are used for warm-up exercises.

One of my favorites is a naughty one if you say it wrong. I always loved seeing the panicked looks on the faces of freshmen when this one came up: I am a mother-pheasant plucker. I am the most pleasant mother-pheasant plucker that ever plucked a mother-pheasant.

I came across one in A Midsummer Night's Dream, when Bottom is doing his bit in Pyramus and Thisbe: "Whereat with blade, with bloody blameful blade, He bravely broached his boiling bloody breast." I actually had to recite that in my British lit class when we were acting it out, and I managed to get through it bravely.

If, like I, you enjoy tongue-twisters, I herewith present a sampling for your delectation:

A Tudor who tooted a flute
Tried to tutor two tooters to toot.
Said the two to their tutor,
"Is it harder to toot, or
To tutor two tooters to toot?"

A noisy noise annoys an oyster.

Big bad blood. (Seems simple, but try saying it over and over. Not so simple. Unless your tongue is far more nimble than mine.) Another take on this one is: Good blood, bad blood.

We surely shall see the sun shine soon.

Girl gargoyle, guy gargoyle, gay gargoyle.

Tragedy strategy.

Another naughty one: I'm not the fig plucker, but the fig plucker's son. But I'll pluck figs 'til the fig plucker comes.

Red lorry, yellow lorry

OKAY----enough tongue twisters for now. It's November. NaNoWriMo. I get to write a novel this month! Squee! Ee. Eek. Egad! What have I gotten myself into?!