The Literary Function of The Tongue Twisters in The Literature of The Turkic Peoples Common Motifs and Ethnocultural Codes
Dautuly T. Kurmangali F. Buribayeva M. Mamayeva G. Kulnazarova G. Beisenuly Z.
2 February 2026Florida Gulf Coast University
Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies
2026#13Issue 1228 - 255 pp.
Tongue twisters are among the most important features of oral cultural heritage and folk literature. These texts reproduce and reinforce social norms and values in an entertaining, memorable form. This study examines the literary functions, structural features, and thematic elements of tongue twisters in Turkish folk literature. It aims to reveal the reflections of common motifs, sound and rhythm elements, and geographical and cultural differences in these tongue twisters on the value system, worldview, and cultural memory of a society. This research adopted a systematic review, a qualitative research method. Within the scope of the analysis, relevant studies in Turkic and English published in Scopus, Web of Science, and TR Index databases between 2000 and 2025 were examined, and 27 studies were included in the research. The study revealed that tongue twisters, in the context of Turkic people, are folkloric products with multi-layered and deep functions, far beyond the generally accepted perception of language games. The findings of the reviewed studies strongly suggest that tongue twisters function as condensed cultural texts that reflect the cultural memory, worldviews, and value systems of the society to which they belong. In light of these findings, a systematic and comparative study of the motifs in tongue twisters with the motifs of other folkloric genres in the Turkic world may open new horizons on how cultural memory works. This study contributes to ethnic and cultural studies by demonstrating how tongue twisters function as carriers of cultural memory, social values, and ethnocultural identity among Turkic communities.
Cultural Values , Ethnic Identity , Ethnocultural Codes , Oral Tradition , Tongue Twisters , Turkic Folk Literature
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Kazakh National Womens Pedagogical University, Institute of Philology, Department of Kazakh Literature, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Saken Seifullin Kazakh Agrotechnical Research University, Astana, Kazakhstan
Research and International Relations, Korkyt ata Kyzylorda University, Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan
Department of Kazakh Linguistics, L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Astana, Kazakhstan
Turkic Education Center, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Department of Kazakh Language and Literature, M.H. Dulaty Taraz University, Taraz, Kazakhstan
Kazakh National Womens Pedagogical University
Saken Seifullin Kazakh Agrotechnical Research University
Research and International Relations
Department of Kazakh Linguistics
Turkic Education Center
Department of Kazakh Language and Literature
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