Scioglilingua ~ Tongue Twister… “Sopra la panca…



Scioglilingua is the Italian term for tongue twister.


That’s a tricky word to say; let’s break it down into syllables and a phonetic spelling:
Scioglilingua (shol-yee-ling-gwuh).

The actual meaning is closer to ‘tongue loosener’ than ‘twister’.


Here it is:
“Sopra la panca la capra campa, sotto la panca la capra crepa.”
[Meaning: Over the bench the goat lives/gets by, under the bench the goat dies/croaks.]


Today’s scioglilingua is among the best-known in the Italian language.  It looks easy enough, but it is quite challenging even for native speakers of Italian to say it fast and well.  Make sure to stress the double “t” in ‘sotto’ becuase, unlike their English counterpart, Italian double consonants are doubly emphasized… just stretch out the sound a little longer than with single consonants.

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2 Responses to Scioglilingua ~ Tongue Twister… “Sopra la panca…

  1. U-Black says:

    This scioglilingua is not more easy for italians 😀
    try this:
    Trentatré trentini
    entrarono in Trento
    tutti e trentatré
    trotterellando
    trecentotrentatré trentini
    entrarono in Trento
    tutti e trentatré
    trotterellando
    tremilatrecentotrentatré trentini
    entrarono in Trento
    tutti e trentatré
    trotterellando.

    bye 🙂

  2. admin says:

    Love it! Grazie! This has definitely got to be the scioglilingua I heard most often in my ‘Italy years’… thanks 4 writing it down:D

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