Yesterday was Wednesday. And this means Words for Wednesday!
This challenge was started by Delores a long time ago. Troubles led her to
bow out, but the challenge was too much fun to let go, and now the
Words for Wednesday is provided by a number of people and has become a movable feast with
Elephant's Child as our coordinator.
The
general idea of this challenge is to make us write. Poems, stories,
subtitles, tales, jokes, haiku, crosswords, puns, ... you're the boss.
Use all Words, some Words or even none of them if that makes your
creative juices flow. Anything goes, only please nothing rude or vulgar.
It is also a challenge, where the old saying "
The more the merrier" holds true.
So
Please,
remember to follow the links, go back and read other peoples'
stories. And please leave a comment after reading. Challenges like this
one thrives on interaction, feedback and encouragement. And we ALL need
encouragement.
-- 🇦 -- 🇧 -- 🇨 --
All Wednesdays in June the Words are provided by Hilary Melton-Butcher but they are made public at Elephant's Child's blog.
For June 21 we were given: Archetype (cliche)
Clouds
Rummage
Weakly
Shovel
And/or
Grace
Blot
Jackdaw
Legume
Poet
Sometimes you just have a theme pursuing you and jumping at you whatever you read. For me this week it has been tongue twisters. And this made me write this crazy piece from exactly today, but many years ago at Unicorn Farm:"Today is the last Thursday before Midsummer," Gylfi said after casting the
Mál sameinast, so that everyone could understand what he said. "And in the wizarding world this means Tongue Twister Thursday. So today, after the last lesson, which will be shorter than normal, we all meet in the barn, or," Gylfi said looking out through the window: "Make that in the meadow."
None of the apprentices could really concentrate on the lessons for the rest of the Thursday. Now and then the professors had to call out a name loudly to make the apprentice answer. Heidi almost walked into the pump in the yard and Terje fell over his own legs twice on the way back to their classroom. Susan was for once the least affected of the apprentices. She had always loved tongue twisters and knew several in different languages. Of course worries got the better of her, in the exact moment Thora asked her a question:
"Susan, did you not hear me?" Thora asked.
Susan stopped trying to remember how to say a quite nasty row of words in Czech and shook her head: "Sorry, no I was inattentive. Would you please repeat?"
Thora looked at the apprentices, decided against praising Susan for her honesty and polite answer and instead just asked her: "The elemental of fire is characterised by which properties?"
Susan drew a deep breath, and answered Thora's question: "The efreet is the archetype of the element of fire. He is playful, volatile, and bent on getting bigger. You cannot command or convince an efreet, but you can trick him, a dare would probably be a good way to do this. But never forget. Fire is dangerous."
"Fine answer," Thora sad, but you forgot ..."
What Susan forgot had to wait for next lesson. The bell in the small belfry stroke, and every apprentice an professor hurried out into the meadow.
In the corner of the meadows as usual tree trunks lay and slices of trees stood as couches, benches and stools. All the apprentices and professors sat down on their favourite piece of wood, and the Nisser gathered shyly in a corner a bit off from the rest. Gylfi steered a fairly thin slice of a big trunk to the front,m and cast a spell on it, Then he stepped upon it and spoke. His voice, magically augmented,, reached everybody.
"Whoever thinks he or she can pull off a tongue twister with a straight face steps upon this slab of wood. Any who cannot find any more to say, who stumbles or begin laughing is out, and go sit on the unused logs right and left. Whoever is still standing after one round, can try again. Winner is the last man, woman, girl or boy standing.
"I begin," Gylfi said. "How do you like this one: 'Stebbi stood on the beach and was treading straws. Straws will not be tread unless Stebbi tread straws. Once treads Stebbi straws, twice treads Stebbi straws, thrice treads Stebbi straws' ..."
All the apprentices and professors looked at him in wonder, then he and Thora looked at one another and began laughing.
Thora shook her head, clasped her wand firmly, and said: "It is no good trying tongue twisters under the language spell:" Then she swished her wand just so, saying: "
Mál skiljas hver frá öðrum!"
Gylfi drew a long breath and repeated the tongue twister. Only this time his words came out in Icelandic: "
Stebbi stóð á ströndu, var að troða strý. Strý var ekki troðið nema Stebbi træði strý. Eintreður Stebbi strý, tvítreður Stebbi strý, þrítreður Stebbi strý ..."
Thora stopped laughing long enough to say her part: "
Rómverskur riddari réðist inn í Rómarborg. Rændi og ruplaði rabbarbara og rófum."
Susan began laughing as did some of the apprentices, mostly the Icelandic ones.
"What did she say?" Heidi asked, "I think I have come to rely too much on the language spell to be cast every morning. I only understood a few words words."
"It is a crazy sentence," Susan said, still smiling. It means: A Roman knight went charging into Rome. Ran around and robbed rhubarbs and beets."
Tähti og Taavi stepped on the wooden slab and spoke in unison: "
Vesihiisi sihisi hississä." (A water troll was hissing in the elevator).
Then Jon took a turn: "
Ibsens ripsbærbusker og andre buskevekster." (The redcurrant bushes and other bushy growths of Ibsen's).
Torben was next. With a flourish he stepped up and said: "
Bissens gibsbisp gisper bistert." (Bissen's plaster-bishop gasps gruffly.)
ML tried her luck repeating Stativ, stakit, kasket (tripod, fence, cap - not a sentence, only very hard to say) three times without error and failed.
Birgitta impressed everybody with her sentence: "
Knut stod vid en knut och knöt en knut, så knöt Knut knuten och så var knuten knuten." (Knut stood by a corner and knotted a knot, then Knut knotted the knot and the knot was knotted).
Martine tackled a Swedish one: Sorry, Norwegian is not a good language for tongue twisters, and I'm sure you all appreciate this one: "
Kvistfritt kvastskaft." (Knot-free broomstick)
Almost everybody began laughing and tried repeating it. The words were some they all knew in other languages from flying lessons, from working around The Farm, and most of all from arriving too late, after the
Mál sameinast had been spoken over the apprentices and professors on The Farm.
One ingenious tongue twister after another rang over the meadow, professors and apprentices mixed up sentences, languages and words, and had to go sit on the logs, where friendly compensations in strange words and even stranger languages played out.
In the end only five were left. Tähti, Taavi, Susan, Lis and and much to her own surprise, Aamu
Tähti said: "
Mustan kissan paksut posket," (Black cats' fat cheeks) whereupon Taavi admitted defeat, he had run out of ideas.
Lis still had it in her and gasped out: "
Fem flade flødeboller på et fladt flødebollefad" (Five flat cream puffs on a flat cream puff dish)
Aamu held her own with "She sells sea shells down by the sea shore."
Susan retaliated with the worst one she knew in Danish: "
Jeg plukker frugt med en brugt frugtplukker," (I pick fruit with a second-hand fruit picker). And only much practise let her say this sentence correctly.
Tähti dug through her brain, and came up with an Icelandic one: "
Barbara Ara bar Ara Araba bara rabbarbara" (Barbara Ara only gave Ari the Arab rhubarb). This one made Lis laugh so much, that she could not say her sentence, and was forced to go sit on the logs.
Aamu showed off her spunk by continuing in German: "
Wenn nach Fliegen Fliegen fliegen, fliegen Fliegen Fliegen nach" (When flies fly after flies the flies fly after flies).
And this made Susan say the Czech sentence she had been thinking off when Thora asked her about efreets: "
Strč prst skrz krk," she said (Stick a finger through your throat). "And as far as I know only in Czech can you make sentences totally without vowels!"
Tähti stepped to the slab and drew a deep breath. Then she said: "
Ringeren i Ringe ringer ringere end ringeren i Ringsted" and began laughing. (The toller in Ringe, is ringing worse than the toller in Ringsted -Danish, not Finnish). She went to the logs and sat down next to Taavi.
Aamu climbed up the slab, closed her eyes and said: "
Zwei Schwalben zwitschern zwischen zwei Zwetschgenzweigen ," (Two swallows twitter between two plum branches).
Susan went to the slab, but all words had suddenly drained out of her head: "I surrender," she said. "Aamu knows more, and better tongue twisters than I do."
Everybody applauded Aamu, and Gylfi hung a big medal around her neck. Tea and cake magically appeared on tables near where they sat, and while the sun set between clouds to the west, good times were had by all.
Some kind of record? I used only two words, but a lot of different languages (Icelandic, Finnish, Norwegian, Czech, Swedish, German and Danish) and for info, yes, I understand them all - only not the Finnish ones.
