[RNLD] Australian tongue twisters

[Nicholas Reid]

In a Ngan’gi language class we once played around constructing a few. The one I remember best was:

Awafilfilimuy wannimfifilirrmuy  ‘the restless ones are staggering around’

which you can figure out from these two items, and knowing awa- is the human group’ noun class prefix:

• filimuy adjectival noun.
Person who can’t sit in one place, a wanderer. Derivations: wafifilimuy, wurfifilimuy, awafifilimuy.

• fifilirr muy coverb + bodypart
+ wannim verb intr. ‘go'
Stagger, weave drunkenly from side to side.


cheers
Nick

On 19 Jun 2015, at 9:51 am, Nicholas Evans <nicholas.evans at anu.edu.au<mailto:nicholas.evans at anu.edu.au>> wrote:

My favourite Kayardild one, the word for 'mudskipper':

ṱúrupuɖuyùpuɖu (thurruburduyuburdu in practical orthography)

and 'cuttlefish':

badaɻaraɻar

Nick
From: John Hobson <john.hobson at sydney.edu.au<mailto:john.hobson at sydney.edu.au>>
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2015 8:14 AM
To: r-n-l-d at lists.unimelb.edu.au<mailto:r-n-l-d at lists.unimelb.edu.au>
Subject: [RNLD] Australian tongue twisters

Dear Australianists,

I’m assembling some activities to support pronunciation skills development for learners of Australian languages, one of which is the use of tongue twisters. If anyone can offer any examples I’d be pleased to receive them, especially for phones and phonotactics that are considered problematic for English speakers.

Regards,

John

JOHN HOBSON | Lecturer
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Faculty of Education & Social Work

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