The Enunciative Parrot

Introduction

The Enunciative Parrot is a party game for inadvertent polyglots that blends language, mimicry, and deduction. Think Pictionary x Charades x Broken Telephone, but with foreign-language tongue-twisters. Blue Team and Red Team take turns incarnating the roles of The Parrot and The Birdwatcher. The Parrot is sent a randomized tongue-twister from a shortlist of five languages, as pre-selected by the opposing team from a bank of 24 tongue-twisters. This selection is based on the assumptions made about the nominated Parrot's ability to replicate sound in a given set of languages. The Parrot listens to the tongue-twister for a minute and then has to imitate whatever sounds they can recall. The Birdwatcher must then decide which language the Parrot was speaking, of the shortlisted five. Three wrong answers (strikes) means the opposing team takes centre-stage. A correct answer means a point and a continuation of the scoring team's round. The team with the most points, wins.

Like Twister, the game is at its most joyfully absurd when failed at completely. We can't help but laugh at ourselves when our attempts at verbal communication degenerates into a spluttering mess of repetitive sound. We delight in hearing other's attempts to mimic the hardest phrases in our own languages. The game is about collectively sharing in, and laughing with, the simple pleasure of our mutually-recognizable failures. It is also a game about the assumptions we make about our abilities to mimic each other's languages, usually based on our appearances. The subversion of those assumptions is glorious fun.

Game Overview

Two teams, Blue and Red, take turns selecting tongue twisters in various languages, with one player acting as the Parrot and another as the Birdwatcher. 

The Parrot listens to a randomized tongue twister and must mimic it while the Birdwatcher identifies the language from a given list. 

Points are awarded for correct guesses, and the game alternates between teams. 

Game Setup 

1.⁠ ⁠Divide players into two teams: Blue and Red. Each team selects one Parrot and one Birdwatcher. 

2.⁠ ⁠The Red team selects five tongue twisters in different languages to send to the Blue team. The selections can be based on assumptions about the Parrot and Birdwatcher’s linguistic knowledge. 

3.⁠ ⁠One of the five tongue twisters is selected at random for the Blue Parrot. Gameplay 

1.⁠ ⁠The Blue Parrot listens to the chosen tongue twister via a private recording, which loops for one minute. The Birdwatcher cannot hear the recording. 

2.⁠ ⁠After the minute is up, the Parrot must mimic the tongue twister as closely as possible, attempting to convey the rhythm and sound of the original. 

3.⁠ ⁠The Birdwatcher listens and must identify which language the Parrot was mimicking from the five shortlisted languages. 

Scoring 

1.⁠ ⁠If the Birdwatcher correctly identifies the language, the Blue team scores one point. 2. If the Birdwatcher guesses incorrectly, the team receives a strike. After three strikes, the Blue team’s turn is over. 

3.⁠ ⁠The Red team then becomes the active team, and the roles are reversed. 

4.⁠ ⁠After two rounds (one for each team), the team with the most points wins. 

5.⁠ ⁠In case of a tie, a tiebreaker round is played. Tiebreaker In the event of a tie after two rounds, a tiebreaker round is played. Both teams nominate new Parrots and Birdwatchers, and the same rules apply. 

The first team to score a tiebreaker point wins the game.