Untitled Document
 A
tongue twister is a phrase that is difficult to pronounce. According
to The Guinness Book of World Records, the hardest tongue twister
in English is: “The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick.” Try saying
that 10 times fast! However, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, the United States, have recently
claimed that they have created the world’s toughest English tongue
twister.
 Dr.
Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel, a psychologist at MIT, and her team believe
that “pad kid poured curd pulled cord” is tougher than the tongue
twister listed in The Guinness Book of World Records. “If anyone can
say this phrase ten times quickly, they get a prize,” Dr. Shattuck-Hufnagel
said.
The researcher created the tongue twister as part of a study to learn
more about the human brain’s speech planning process. Dr. Shattuck-Hufnagel
says that when certain words are spoken quickly, people lose control
and one sound replaces the other.
 When volunteers
tried to say “pad kid poured curd pulled cord,” they either couldn’t
repeat it or simply stopped trying altogether. The researchers concluded
that tongue twisters share certain qualities that the human brain
and mouth reject.
The MIT team will continue their research to try gain further insight
by placing transducers on the tongues of volunteers and measuring
their articulation. |
Staff
reporter Jessica Kim
(jessicakim@timescore.co.kr) |
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