How to Celebrate 'International Tongue Twister Day'

As dubbed and celebrated with a contest by the Logic Puzzle Museum, “International Tongue Twister Day” always falls on the second Sunday in November. 

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the most difficult tongue twister to say is:

"The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick."

Other amazing tongue related feats on the Guinness World Records Website include:

• Longest Female Tongue: Chanel Tapper with a length of 3.8 inches from the tip to the top lip.  The site describes her tongue as, ‘wide as your plam, the same volume as a quarter pounder hamburger and the same length as an iPhone.’  
• Heaviest Weight Lifted by a Human Tongue:  Thomas Blackthorne (UK) who lifted a weight of 27 lbs. 8.96 oz, hanging from his tongue.   
• Worlds Longest Tongue:  Stephen Taylor (United Kingdom) with a length of 3.86 in. from the tip to the middle of his closed top lip.  

According to World’sStrangest.com, there are some historical origins to some well-known tongue twisters.

According to the site, French Pirate and horticulturalist, Pierre Poivre was well known for raiding and stealing from spice stores.  At this same time in history, all spices were referred to by the name “peppers”. 

Also at this time it was common practice for companies who ran the spice trade to rub their seeds with lime before they were sold.  This would ensure that the the seeds wouldn’t germinate if planted and keep the demand and price of their product high.  The process was called “pickling”. 

Alltogether, once Pierre Poivre’s name became Anglicized into “Peter Piper”, the still-famous tongue twister emerged:

Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled peppers,

How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

Also, according to the site, in the late nineteenth century, a little girl, Mary Anning and her father not only discovered sea shells, but also dinosaur fossils on the beach.  Father and daughter began to dig up the specimens and sell them to tourists.  They became so well-known for their role as vendors; they inspired Terry Sullivan to write a poem that later developed into a still famous tongue twister:

She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore;

The shells she sells are sea-shells,

I'm sure;

For if she sells sea-shells on the sea-shore;

Then I'm sure she sells sea-shore shells." 

As an adult, Anning continued to dig and discover, eventually unearthing full-size skeletons of dinosaurs, gaining quite a bit of fame in the 1800’s, a time when many were still un-convinced of the existence of dinosaurs.

Now, hundreds of years later, Anning is still credited by many as the founder of modern day paleontology.

You may wish to celebrate by heading to the Carroll County Public Library to check out one of the many tongue twister books such as:

• Six Sheep Sip Thick Shakes: and Other Tricky Tongue Twisters, by Brian P. Cleary
• Ridiculous Tongue Twisters, by Chris Tait.
• Orangutang Tongs: Poems to Tangle Your Tongue, by Jon Agee
• Oh Say Can You Say, by Dr. Seuss

And be sure to try out the following Thanksgiving Tongue Twisters:

• Ten tricky two-toed turkeys trotted on the table. 
• Greedy gobblers grabbed the gravy.