Editing Tongue twister (section)

== Linguistics of tongue twisters ==
=== Phonemes ===
Based on the MIT confusion matrix of 1620 single phoneme errors, the phoneme with the greatest margin of speech error is ''l'' [l] mistaken for ''r'' [r]. Other phonemes that had a high level of speech error include ''s'' [s] mistaken for ''sh'' [ʃ], ''f'' [f] for ''p'' [p], ''r'' [r] for ''l'' [l], ''w'' [w] for ''r'' [r], and many more.<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal|last1=Shattuck-Hufnagel|first1=Stefanie|last2=Klatt|first2=Dennis H.|date=1979-02-01|title=The limited use of distinctive features and markedness in speech production: evidence from speech error data|url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022537179905541|journal=Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior|language=en|volume=18|issue=1|pages=41–55|doi=10.1016/S0022-5371(79)90554-1|issn=0022-5371|access-date=2020-10-10|archive-date=2022-05-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220510214335/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022537179905541|url-status=live}}</ref> These sounds are most likely to transform to a similar sound when placed in near vicinity of each other. Most of these mix-ups can be attributed to the two phonemes having similar areas of articulation in the mouth.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Acheson|first1=Daniel J.|last2=MacDonald|first2=Maryellen C.|date=April 2009|title=Twisting tongues and memories: Explorations of the relationship between language production and verbal working memory|url= |journal=Journal of Memory and Language|volume=60|issue=3|pages=329–350|doi=10.1016/j.jml.2008.12.002|pmid=21165150|issn=0749-596X|pmc=3001594}}</ref>

Pronunciation difficulty is also theorized to have an effect on tongue twisters.<ref name=":02"/> For example, ''t'' [t] is thought to be easier to pronounce than ''ch'' [tʃ]. As a result, speakers may naturally transform ''ch'' [tʃ] to ''t'' [t] or when trying to pronounce certain tongue twisters.

=== Fortis and lenis ===
[[Fortis and lenis]] are the classification of strong and weak consonants.

Some characteristics of strong consonants include:<ref name=":02"/>
* high frequency in a language
* earlier development in language acquisition
* lower placement on the [[phonological hierarchy]]

It is common for more difficult sounds to be replaced with strong consonants in tongue twisters.<ref name=":02" /> This is partially determinant of which sounds are most likely to transform to other sounds with linguistic confusion.