Famous Italian tongue twisters
Loyal to my username, I’m here today to teach you some Italian scioglilingua! Our word for tongue twister is a slightly more optimistic one when compared to its English counterpart, literally meaning tongue loosener or tongue untier.
Before I begin, a disclaimer: of course these were all passed along by word of mouth from one person through another for generations, so there will be variations. These are simply the ones I remember from my childhood, the way I remember them. Enjoy!
- Apelle, figlio di Apollo, fece una palla di pelle di pollo, e tutti i pesci vennero a galla per vedere la palla di pelle di pollo fatta da Apelle, figlio di Apollo. – Apelles, son of Apollo, made a ball out of chicken skin, and all the fish came to the surface to see the ball made out of chicken skin by Apelles, son of Apollo.
Apelles was, in fact, not the son of Apollo (at least not to my knowledge), but both a renowned Greek painter from the 4th century b.C. and a Gnostic thinker answered to the name.
- Sul tagliere gli agli taglia, non tagliare la tovaglia! La tovaglia non è aglio: se la tagli, fai uno sbaglio. – Cut the garlic on the cutting board – don’t you cut the tablecloth! The tablecloth isn’t garlic, if you cut it, you’ll make a mistake.
This tongue twister is meant to practice the infamous /ʎʎ/ (and single /ʎ/) sound. While it’s notoriously tricky for foreigners to get right, it’s no walk in the park for Italians either – which is why you’re likely to often hear approximations of it in everyday speech, ranging from a single /ʎ/ in all cases or sometimes even something closer to an /l/ in the North to /j/ or /jj/ in the Central and Southern regions.
- Trentatré trentini entrarono a (or in) Trento, tutti e trentatré trotterellando. – Thirty-three Trentines (= people from the city of Trento) entered Trento, all thrity-three of them trotting.
Trento is a city in the North of Italy; disappointingly enough, its denizens mostly don’t go trotting around.
- Li vuoi quei kiwi? – Do you want those kiwis?
A longer version adds “E se non vuoi quei kiwi, che kiwi vuoi?” (”And if you don’t want those kiwis, which kiwis do you want?”
- Tigre contro tigre OR Tre tigri contro tre tigri – Tiger against tiger OR Three tigers against three tigers.
Basic and pro version.
- Se l'Arcivescovo di Costantinopoli si disarcivescoviscostantinopolizzasse, vi disarcivescoviscostantinopolizzereste voi? – If the Archbishop of Constantinople renounced his position of Archbishop of Constantinople, would you renounce to your position of Archbishops of Constantinople as well?
This can go on for a while: some longer versions manage to add a couple more “de-archbishopizations”.
- Sopra la panca la capra campa, sotto la panca la capra crepa. – On the bench the goat lives, under the bench the goat croaks.
“Croaks” as in “dies”, only more colloquial.
- Se oggi seren non è, doman seren sarà; se non sarà seren, si rasserenerà. – If today the sky isn’t clear, it will be clear tomorrow; if it isn’t clear, it will get clearer later.
This tongue twister is an apocope fest, which gives it an old-timey feeling. Notice that some final vowels are dropped (seren = sereno, doman = domani): such a proceeding, a.k.a. apocope, was frequently used in poetry and in song, because it effectively shortens the word of a syllable (sereno has three syllables, seren has two), which was useful for rhythmic purposes.
- Dietro il palazzo c'è un povero cane pazzo; date un pezzo di pane a quel povero pazzo cane. – Behind the building there’s a poor, mad doog; give a loaf of bread to that poor, mad dog.
Cut to middle schoolers giggling: this tongue twister, as a matter of fact, is just an elaborate trap to get a person to swear.
- Una rara rana nera sulla rena errò una sera, una rara rana bianca sulla rena errò un po’ stanca. – A rare black frog wandered on the sand one evening, a rare white frog wandered, a little tired, on the sand.
Used to torture everybody with an “r moscia” (”weak R”, the common Italian name for rhotacism, or the inability to trill your Rs – it’s a thing among Italians as well!).
- Orrore, orrore! Ho visto un ramarro marrone cadere nel burrone! (OR: Ho visto un ramarro verde su un muro marrone!) – The horror! I saw a brown lizard fall down the ravine! (OR: I saw a green lizard on a brown wall!)
Fun fact: ramarro apparently translates to “green lizard” – but I had to leave the green out for the purposes of this tongue twister.
