Tips of the Slung

Sometimes when we talk the letters or syllables of our words get swapped. We might say something like “tips of the slung” instead of “slips of the tongue.” This kind of spoken slip up is called a spoonerism. It was named after Reverand William Spooner who reportedly made many of these speech errors during his sermons. People who speak languages other than English also make spoonerisms. What causes us to make spoonerisms?

Human speech production occurs at a rate of about 150 words per minute. Speech errors, such as spoonerisms, occur about once in one-thousand words uttered. Given the speed of speech, it is remarkable that we don’t make more speech errors. Linguists think that spoonerisms are caused by a breakdown in two linguistic sequencing processors, a phoneme processor and a word processor. Phonemes are the smallest units of sound in language, typically single vowels or consonants. The phoneme processor’s job is to assign the correct letters to words. Sometimes the phoneme processor transposes the first letters of a string of words which results in a spoonerism.

We aren’t exactly sure why spoonerisms happen yet. They might happen from speech processing fatigue or lapses in attention. Future research will hopefully shed light on what causes the phoneme processor to make mistakes. Although spoonerisms occur naturally, people sometimes use them intentionally for comic effect. You might say “I'm going to shake a tower” instead of "I'm going to take a shower" or “My sips are lealed” instead of "My lips are sealed." On that note, pass me the valted minegar for my chish and fips…