Can You Say This Vowelless Tounge Twister?

There is a Czech tongue twister “Strč prst skrz krk” (meaning  “stick your finger through your throat”) which doesn’t contain any vowel. It’s difficult to pronounce this sentence, especially for foreigners. So it’s used as a challenge for those learning Czech as a foreign language if they can pronounce it.

Someone told me that this sentence is even used by the Czechs as a test of sobriety.

Here is an example of a longer Czech tongue twister without a vowel.

Škrt plch z mlh Brd pln skvrn z mrv prv hrd scvrnkl z brzd skrz trs chrp v krs vrb mls mrch srn čtvrthrst zrn.

which translates as

A cheapskate dormouse, richly dotted by manure, who hails from the mists of Brdy (mountain range in Czech Republic) at first proudly flicked a snack for those goddamn deers – consisting of a quarter of a cupped hand of corn – from brakes through a tuft of cornflowers into dwarf willows.

Can you give some difficult tongue twisters from your language?

Here’s mine.












(Note: Read it in Mandarin since Cantonese is easier though it’s still pretty hard.)

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24 thoughts on “Can You Say This Vowelless Tounge Twister?

  1. Nicolas Slonimsky (1894-1995) was an eccentric russian-american musician and lexicographer who edited Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians from 1958 until his death. In the preface to the 6th edition, Slonimsky talks about a fake entry for one «Krsto Zyžik» (an inexistent czech composer) that he had created for an earlier edition – but killed it in page proofs. Among Zyžik’s compositions Slonimsky included «a belcanto work, Strč prst skrz krk, using only consonants in consonant harmony» :D

    Liked by 1 person

      1. It’s rhotacism

        Most Chinese can’t pronounce the letter “r” since there is no trilling r sound in the Chinese language. They tend to substitute the r sound with l sound :D.

        And in Hong Kong, we use British English which is non-rhotic (e.g. water is pronounced as wɔːtə).

        Liked by 1 person

      2. That explains it! I often hear Chinese-Filipinos here in the country speak to each other with that distinct l sound.

        The British English pronunciation is brought mostly by Britain’s colonization of Hong Kong, is that correct?

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Yeah, they’re pretty funny…

        Yes, but they didn’t adapt it completely. For example, despite pronouncing the letter “z” as “zed”, we don’t pronounce “zero” and “zebra” as “ze-ro” and “ze-bra”. Instead, we use the American pronunciations “zi-ro” and “ze-bra”. There are also several British English words and usage not adapted like “speciality”, “lorry”, “loo”, “telly” and “pub”.

        Liked by 1 person

    1. The truth is, foreigners find that Mandarin is lot easier to learn. I have seen many foreigners who are fluent at Mandarin. However, I seldom see any foreigner who is good at Cantonese. While they may be able to understand and speak it, they just can’t get the tone right unlike in the case of Mandarin.

      Yeah, it’s weird…

      Liked by 2 people

    2. To my knowledge, “stick your finger through your throat” isn’t supposed to mean anything. It’s not an idiom. I believe it was just created for the benefit of the tongue twister, since there aren’t that many vowel-less words to choose from, and this particular combination of consonant blends and vowel-less words gives quite a good challenge and workout.

      Liked by 1 person

  2. By the way, a fun fact you might want to look at is why “Czech” is written in neither the Czech sound system nor English. We never use cz in written Czech. That’s Polish or something.
    We say Česká republika or Česko (Czech Republic), or Čechy (Bohemia). The “ch” doesn’t even have the “k” sound, and the English “ch” is č.

    Liked by 3 people

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