Barbara Ara bar Ara araba bara rabarbara.
Meaning: An unbroken 'bar / ara / rab' roll built almost entirely from the same handful of syllables.
Language: Icelandic
Literally: Barbara, daughter of Ari, brought Ari the Arab only rhubarb.
Category: Fiendish
Origin: A beloved Icelandic tongue twister.
More tongue twisters — Fiendish
- Pad kid poured curd pulled cod. — Alternating repetition — the consonants swap at the start of every other word, which is w…
- Четыре чёрненьких чумазеньких чертёнка чертили чёрными чернилами чертёж. (Chetyre chyornenkikh chumazenkikh chertyonka chertili chyornymi chernilami chertyozh.) — Seven consecutive words built on 'ch' — Russian's ч in every stressed position with barel…
- 红鲤鱼与绿鲤鱼与驴 (Hóng lǐyú yǔ lǜ lǐyú yǔ lǘ) — lǐ, lǜ and lǘ differ only by vowel rounding and tone — nine syllables that all collapse t…
- 앞 집 팥죽은 붉은 팥 풋팥죽이고, 뒷집 콩죽은 햇콩 단콩 콩죽이다. (Ap jip patjugeun bulgeun pat put-patjugigo, dwitjip kongjugeun haetkong dankong kongjugida.) — Stacks Korean's aspirated p and k against the final consonants, so every word ends where…
- 저 분은 백 법학박사이고 이 분은 박 법학박사이다. (Jeo buneun Baek beopakbaksa igo, i buneun Bak beopakbaksa ida.) — Baek and Bak are a single vowel apart, and 법학박사 piles four stop consonants into one title.
- Czy rak trzyma w szczypcach strzęp szczawiu? — Four different Polish sibilant clusters — trz, szcz, strz, szcz — in a single short quest…
From our proverbs
- You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs — Progress requires sacrifice.
- What doesn't kill you makes you stronger — Adversity builds resilience and character.
- It takes two to tango — Both parties are responsible in a conflict.