Sju sjösjuka sjömän skötte sjuttiosju sjösjuka sjölejon på skeppet Shanghai.

Meaning: An unstoppable 'sj/sk/sh' onslaught — the Swedish sj-sound (a unique voiceless fricative) in every word.

Language: Swedish

Literally: Seven seasick sailors tended seventy-seven seasick sea lions on the ship Shanghai.

Category: Fiendish

Origin: Considered Sweden's hardest tongue twister and a benchmark test for Swedish pronunciation.

More tongue twisters — Fiendish

• Appilan pappilan apupapin papupata pankolla kiehuu ja kuohuu. — A relentless 'pap/pap/pu' bilabial drill stacked with Finnish double consonants.
• Setze jutges d'un jutjat mengen fetge d'un penjat. — The famous 'j / tg / tj' test for the voiced sound Spanish lacks — a true Catalan shibbol…
• Barbara Ara bar Ara araba bara rabarbara. — An unbroken 'bar / ara / rab' roll built almost entirely from the same handful of syllabl…
• Les chaussettes de l'archiduchesse sont-elles sèches, archi-sèches? — A merciless duel between 'ch' and 's'.
• El cielo está enladrillado, ¿quién lo desenladrillará? — A brutal test of the rolled 'r' and 'l'.
• Blaukraut bleibt Blaukraut und Brautkleid bleibt Brautkleid. — A 'bl' / 'br' brain-twister.

More Swedish tongue twisters

• Sex laxar i en laxask. — A short 'x/lax/ks' crunch — Swedish's 'x' sounds like 'ks', which doubles the trap.

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