Enunciation – an underrated and priceless skill

As a part of my obligatory student apprenticeship, I occasionally translate and broadcast news in English on a local radio station. I've recently been there for the very first time and all I can tell you is that the boost of adrenaline was exceptional! And so was the level of satisfaction :) If you’d like to find out, what we are supposed to do and learn some more details related to our translation job, click here. You may also want to listen to me as I broadcast local news: 1, 2.

Me just before going on air :)

It is by all means an incredible and stressful adventure in equal measure. And suddenly we realise that enunciation is of considerable importance. But wait a minute, do you know what this word means?  Does it ring a bell with you? If not, let me tell you a few words and useful tips, concerning this priceless skill. 

In a nutshell, enunciation can be defined as a proper manner of speaking and pronouncing words. We can boast perfect enunciation skills, provided that we speak clearly, in optimal rate (not too slow and not too fast, either!), so that the message we convey is perfectly comprehensible. 

And yet, this applies only to the tiny minority of our society. This skill is key not only for actors, singers and broadcasters, but also for interpreters and… every single individual.

Why? Because we use our native or foreign language on a daily basis. We communicate with others, share our thoughts, experiences and accomplish various tasks, using the language. Thus, it is crucial to speak in a comprehensible way. 

Nevertheless, sometimes we are seem to be completely unaware of the importance of enunciation. That is why, in a stress-inducing environment, we tend to experience a classical slip of the tongue or simply get stuck, being unable to pronounce a certain word...

Does it sound familiar? With reference to any foreign language, phonetic classes are priceless. And so is immersing oneself in a given language, by listening to the proper pronunciation as often as possible (e.g. through radio, TV, films etc.).

Enunciation is certainly not an inborn skill, although some people may be more predisposed to speak more clearly way than others, but it still needs to be practised and developed. The same rule applies to speaking any foreign language. Do you happen to remember the very first scenes of “The King’s Speech”? I assure you that this “ridiculous and unnecessary” exercises are perfectly justified and really help to speak clearly.  

Have you ever been asked to repeat what you’ve just said to somebody? Do you have the impression that you are not understood because of the manner you speak? If so, go through the following exercises and find out the importance of enunciation.

1) Breathe with your diaphragm

Broadly speaking, women tend to breath, relying mostly on their breast muscles, whereas men use exclusively their diaphragm. And that’s what we should do as well, Ladies! In fact, combing these two ways of breathing is the most efficient for our organism, as it provides us with more oxygen and the best possible conditions to speak clearly. Read more about this rather complex topic here. 

2) Give your face muscles a good workout

The best time to do it would be in the morning. Ladies, you are well-advised to do so before putting up the make up on your face :) 
Every exercise should last up to 3 minutes, and all of them should not take you more than 15 minutes, seeing that exercising for a longer period of time would leave your muscles too tired...

• Chew a gum as a warm-up exercise.
• Stretch your face as wide as possible, and then scrunch it up as small as you can.
• Pull funny faces in order to relax your facial muscles (you’d better do it alone, as it might be too funny to watch for your flat mates... And you don’t want them to poke fun at you, do you? ;) 

• Massage the muscles between the upper and lower jaw, as well as those surrounding your mouth.
• Open your mouth as wide as you possibly can (as if you were yawning) – repeat this exercise several times.
• Turn circles with your tongue clockwise and counter clockwise while having your mouth opened or closed.
• Smack your lips as loud as you can, just as if you were Marilyn Monroe ;) 

3) Repeat tongue twisters

Get your tongue around some of the most challenging sentences you have ever heard of. It’s not that easy even in your mother tongue, I assure you :) Well, at least the Polish tongue twisters are always quite a challenge – even for the native speakers, let alone the foreigners! But have a go and find out, whether Polish is as difficult as linguists claim... 

• Sit down, put your feet on the floor and straighten your back. 
• Put the bottle cork (preferably one of a wine bottle) in your mouth and start pronouncing the tongue twisters as clearly as possible. 
• Afterwards, put the cork away and read them aloud once more. You will be certainly able to hear a noticeable difference in the way you speak!

You’ll benefit from the aforementioned techniques especially before having an important conversation on the phone, delivering a speech or just before taking an oral exam. But in fact, they should be done each and every single day :)

One of the greatest merits of these exercises is that they not only improve our enunciation, but they set us in a cheerful mood and provide us with extra incentive to work hard as well. Tried and tested! 

In case of practising tongue twisters in foreign languages, make sure that you pronounce the words properly (look them up in dictionaries!)  or ask your teacher to help you. 

Below, you will find a couple of various tongue twisters in Polish, English and German, respectively. 

Polish tongue twisters: 

Well, I’m aware that this might be too challenging for you, but here you’ll find some help.

• Warszawa w żwawej wrzawie w warze wrze o Warszawie.
• No to cóż, że cesarz ze Szwecji?
• Cesarz czesze cesarzową, cesarzowa czesze cesarza.
• Taka kolasa dla golasa to jak melasa dla grubasa.
• Marne piwo browarne z browaru na Ogarnej – a mówiły kucharki, że najlepsze jest z Warki.
• Do jutra – burto kutra!
• To jest wir, a to żwir, a żwiru wirze ginie zbir!
• Czy szczególny to, proszę pana, zaszczyt, płaszczyć się, by wtaszczyć się na szczyt?
• Trzy cytrzystki grają na cytrze.
• Szczoteczka szczoteczce szczebioce coś w teczce.
• Trzynastego w Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie.
• Stół z powyłamywanymi nogami.
• Szedł Sasza suchą szosą.
• Spadł bąk na strąk, a strąk na pąk. Pękł pąk, pękł strąk, a bąk się zląkł.
• Rozrewolwerowany rewolwer na rewolwerowej górze rozrewolwerował się.
• Wyindywidualizowaliśmy się z rozentuzjazmowanego tłumu wylaryngologizowanych, najwydestylowaniuchniejszych ping pongów. 

English tongue twisters:

• Kitty caught the kitten in the kitchen.
• Birdie birdie in the sky laid a turdie in my eye.
• He who last laughs, laughs last. Ha ha ha! 
• A big black bug bit a big black bat, but the big black bat bit the big black bug back!
• Excited executioner exercising his excising powers excessively. 
• A cup of coffee from a copper coffee pot. 
• A noise annoys an oyster. But a noisy noise annoys an oyster the most.
• No need to light a nightlight to sight a knight on a light night like tonight, right?
• If you don’t notice this notice you won’t notice that this notice is not worth noticing.
• How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? He would chuck, he would, as much as he could, if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
• Don’t trouble about trouble until trouble troubles you!
• Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
• Which wristwatch is a Swiss wristwatch?
• The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick.
• She sells seashells by the seashore. The shells she sells are surely seashells. So if she sells shells on the seashore, I'm sure she sells seashore shells. 
• She sings sea-songs at Sing-Sing.
• Truly rural yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry.
• I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish. 

This video might be of help to you (but beware of the American English pronunciation!) 

German tongue twisters (Zungenbrecher):

• Brautkleid bleibt Brautkleid und Blaukraut bleibt Blaukraut.
• Acht alte Ameisen aßen am Abend Ananas. 
• Fischers Fritze fischt frische Fische. Frische Fische fischt Fischers Fritze,
• Am Zehnten Zehnten - um zehn Uhr zehn - zogen zehn zahme Ziegen -zehn Zentner Zucker zum Zoo. 
• In Ulm, um Ulm, um Ulm herum.
• Graben Grabengräber Gruben? Graben Grubengräber Gräben? Nein! Grabengräber graben Gräben, Grubengräber graben Gruben.  
• Hotten|torren|potentaten|tanten|attentat 
• Der Dachdecker deckt dein Dach, drum dank dem Dachdecker, der dein Dach deckt.
• Bierbrauer Bauer braut braunes Bier.
• Im dichten Fichtendickicht sind dicke Fichten wichtig. 
• Max, wenn du Wachsmasken magst, dann mach Wachsmasken!
• Russische Russen rutschen russische Rutschen russisch runter.
• Kleine Kinder können keine Kirschkerne knacken. 
• Ich wünsch Dir so viel gute Tage im Jahr, wie der Fuchs am Schwanz hat Haar.
• Wenn du denkst, du denkst, dann denkst du nur du denkst, aber denken tust du nie!
• Wenige wissen, wie viel man wissen muss, um zu wissen, wie wenig man weiß. 
• Wer nichts weiß sind weiß, dass er nichts weiß, weiß mehr als der, der nichts weiß, dass er nichts weiß. 

For further examples, go to this webpage.

If your hunger for knowledge still has not been satisfied, go to the following websites (1, 2, 3, 4) and enjoy mastering your enunciation skills.

If you happen to know any other methods that are helpful in exercising enunciation (or simply if you want to share some tongue twisters in other languages), please share them in the comments below.

Images taken from:
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