Title:

German Tongue Twister (Tongue Breaker in German): Fischers Fritze fischt frische Fische; Frische Fische fischt Fischers Fritze

General Information about the Item:

• Oral tradition: tongue breaker
• Language: German
• Country of Origin: Rostock
• Informant: Marie-Luise Kieseler
• Date Collected: October 26, 2018

Informant Data:

Marie-Luise Kieseler and her family are from Rostock, Germany where she grew up and spent most of her life. Now, Marie is twenty seven years old, is a graduate student at Dartmouth College, and conducts Neuroscience research on facial perception and animal cognition. Marie loves to be outside, and she has enjoyed meeting a lot of different people from various backgrounds and ages at Dartmouth. She is interested in learning about unique cultural customs, so she was pleased to share information about her own culture.

Contextual data:

In Germany, Marie reflected on the seriousness of her childhood and the pertinence of a solid educational background. The tongue twisters are used for educational purposes to help with pronunciation of difficult words and sounds, and served as a type of practice for children to master certain aspects of the language. Therefore, she remembers her parents teaching her tongue breakers at a young age to solidify her pronunciation and diction, so that her speech was pristine. In addition to their educational purpose, tongue breakers were also a form of entertainment. Marie remembers learning tongue breakers from her relatives and then learning from and teaching her friends at school. It was a way for her to bond with the other students, make new friends, and even impress other boys, because they were also used as a determining factor for who was the most impressive. It became a friendly competition of who could pronounce the most difficult tongue breakers. To this day, she loves tongue breakers, and as she has learned english, she has enjoyed mastering english tongue breakers as well.

Item:

Orally transmitted tongue twister:

Fischers Fritze fischt frische Fische; Frische Fische fischt Fischers Fritze.

Translation:

Fritz, the fisherman’s son, fishes for fresh fish; For fresh fish fishes Fritz, the fisherman’s son

Collector’s Names: Shae Wolfe and Ashley Martinez

Tags/keywords:

• German
• Tongue twister
• Tongue breaker

Title: German Tongue Twister (tongue breaker in German): Brautkleid bleibt Brautkleid und Blaukraut bleibt Blaukraut

General Information about the Item:

• Oral tradition: tongue breaker
• Language: German
• Country of Origin: Berlin
• Informant: Hendric Tronsson
• Date Collected: October 29, 2018

Informant Data:

Hendric Tronsson and his family are from Berlin, Germany where Hendric grew up and spent most of his life. Now, Hendric is twenty one years old, goes to school at Dartmouth College, and  is on the track and field team. Hendric is an engineering major and though he has been a very busy student, he has still enjoyed meeting a lot of different people. He is very interested in seeing the similarities and differences between many different cultures.

Contextual data:

In Germany, education is strongly encouraged and expected. The tongue twisters were used for educational purposes to help with pronunciation of difficult words and sounds, and served as a type of practice for children to master certain aspects of the language. In addition to their educational purpose, tongue twisters were also a form of entertainment. Hendric remembers school being particularly strict, rigid, and challenging, but that is where he learned the tongue twisters when they had breaks. Therefore, Hendric and his elementary school classmates would introduce tongue twisters to each other, and use them in order to create fun and challenging entertainment amongst themselves. Hendric also recalls his family being competitive which led to a desire to challenge himself as well as other students with difficult tongue twisters and felt a sense of accomplishment when someone could master one of them. Tongue twisters have been particularly fun for Hendric because he has met many students at Dartmouth that have wanted to learn German. These tongue twisters could be shared with students and help to teach non-native speakers difficult pronunciations while also connecting with the German-speaking students as well.

Item:

Orally transmitted tongue twister:

Brautkleid bleibt Brautkleid und Blaukraut bleibt Blaukraut

Translation:

A wedding dress will always be a wedding dress and blue cabbage will always be blue.

Collector’s Names: Shae Wolfe and Ashley Martinez

Tags/keywords:

• German
• Tongue twister
• Tongue breaker