Tongue Twisters

Tongue Twisters is a HyperCard freeware program by Joe Hammons (hammo@softcom.net) that lets children of all ages hear the Macintosh speak more than eighty classic tongue twisters aloud, then write and hear their own. It is a compact example of how HyperCard and the Mac's built-in speech synthesis were used for playful early-1990s educational software.

What It Does

The stack reads from a built-in library of over 80 tongue twisters and uses Macintosh text-to-speech to recite each one, so children can hear the trickier passages spoken at the computer's pace.

Make Your Own

Beyond the bundled list, kids can type in their own original tongue twisters and have the computer read them back, turning the program into a small creative writing toy as well as a listening exercise.

HyperCard Roots

Like many freeware education titles of its era, Tongue Twisters runs as a HyperCard stack rather than a standalone application, which made it easy for parents and teachers to open, share, and tinker with on classic Macs.

Distribution

The program is freeware, distributed through Info-Mac with the author's e-mail address attached for feedback.