The nickname used by a Luxembourg couple for the annual Schueberfouer has reached a record 26 syllables, according to official sources.
The couple, who have struggled to correctly pronounce the name of the end-of-summer funfair since moving to the country six years ago, deny that their feat was intentional.
“I had asked my partner Claire if we should take the kids to the Schouby-douby-whatever this weekend,” said Yuri Barkate.
“And I replied that we should go to the Schouby-douby-douby-doo-whatever,” said Claire Baldit.
“I never really learned how to say it,” she added. “For years I was calling it the Scooby Doo Fryer.”
That is when Yuri took it to the next level, according to both parties.
Riffing off of Claire’s words, he said, “Yes, let’s go to the Schouby-douby-douby-doo-ba-doo-be-doo,” bringing the syllable count up to 11 — a record in the household but only the 121st longest variation of “Schueberfouer” on record.
Feeling excited, Claire went to the bedroom of to the couple’s two children, aged five and nine, and announced that they could go to the “Schouby-douby-douby-doo-ba-doo-be-doo-ba-doo-be-doo” as long as they behaved for the rest of the week.
Still in the kitchen, Yuri echoed Claire’s words but added six syllables, bringing the total to 21, thereby breaking the previous record of 19.
“Schouby-douby-douby-doo-ba-doo-be-doo-ba-doo-be-doo,” he said to himself. “Be-doo-ba-doo-be-doo.”
Within minutes, representatives from the Guinness Book of World Records contacted the couple to congratulate them.
“This is the second time we’ve honored a foreign-born resident of Luxembourg for linguistic acrobatics,” said a spokesperson for the records book.
In 2015, an expat unwittingly added six F’s to “Pfaffenthal,” and the subsequent burst of /f/ sounds created a gust of wind so powerful that it damaged several houses and destroyed one chicken coop in the valley.
