article

For the Internet2 research project, see Shibboleth (Internet2).

Shibboleth (IPA: ) is any language usage indicative of one's social or regional origin, or more broadly, any practice that identifies members of a group. It comes from the Hebrew word (שבולת) that literally means "ear of grain" or "torrent of water". In the Hebrew Bible, pronunciation of this word was used to distinguish members of a group (like Ephraim) whose dialect lacked a sound (as in shoe) from members of a group (like Gilead) whose dialect included such a sound. The term originated in the Book of Judges, chapter 12, where the tribe of Gilead defeats the tribe of Ephraim, around 1370–1070 BC. Some Ephraimites crossed secretly into Gilead's territory to escape retribution. In order to catch and kill these disguised refugees, the Gileadites put each refugee to a simple test:

"The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivour of Ephraim said, "Let me go over," the men of Gilead asked him, "Are you an Ephraimite?" If he replied, "No," they said, "All right, say 'Shibboleth'." If he said, "Sibboleth," because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time." (Judges 12:5-6, NIV)

Modern usage

Today, a shibboleth is any word or phrase that can be used to distinguish members of a group from outsiders. The word is also sometimes used in a broader sense to mean specialized jargon, the proper use of which identifies speakers as members of a particular group or subculture. For example, people who regularly use words like "stfnal," "grok," "filk," and "gafiate" in conversation are likely members of science fiction fandom. Shibboleths can also be customs or practices, such as male circumcision.

Cultural touchstones and shared experience can also be shibboleths of a sort. For example, people about the same age tend to have the same memories of popular songs, television shows, and events from their formative years. Much the same is true of alumni of a particular school, veterans of military service, and other groups. Discussing such memories is a common way of bonding. In-jokes can be a similar type of shared-experience shibboleth.

A shibboleth can also be the manner in which a word is spelled. In computer programming, for example, the Perl language is sometimes written PERL (in all capital letters, representing the backronym Practical Extraction and Report Language), which is a sign to Perl community members that the document lacks respect for the published materials, and is therefore from an outsider. This is frequently used to distinguish "good" job offers or books (ones that understand Perl culture and conventions) from "bad" ones. Likewise, writing Ada as ADA shows that the writer is unfamiliar with the Ada programming language, which was named in honor of Ada Lovelace. Similarly, Macintosh users can tell that anyone who comes into a Mac forum talking about a "MAC" is an outsider or a newcomer.

For a quite extreme example of spelling as community shibboleth, see Leet.

Some shibboleths

Below are listed various examples of shibboleths. Note that many apocryphal shibboleths exist, and that since, by definition, shibboleths rely on stereotypical pronunciation traits, they may not accurately describe the speech of all members of the group in question.

Shibboleths used in war

  • Lollapalooza: Used in World War II by the United States military to distinguish Japanese spies, who were unable to pronounce the , giving an instead. (Source: see *)
  • Scheveningen: Dutch people pronounce this word with separate "s" and "ch" [x, while German people pronounce sch as (IPA). The Dutch Resistance used this to ferret out Nazi spies during World War II.
  • Höyryjyrä: (IPA , Engl. "Steam Roller") Finnish soldiers in World War II used this as a password, as only a native Finnish speaker could properly say this word, which contains the Finnish front vowels Ö, Y, and Ä in combination with the rolled R used in Finnish. The leading H is particularly hard for Russian speakers; standard cyrillization turns it into Г [g, a completely different sound.
  • Yksi: Finnish for "one", used by the White Guard to separate Russians from Finns in the Finnish Civil War during the invasion of Tampere. Many of the Russians caught had changed to civilian clothing, so suspected people were rounded up, even from hospitals, and asked to say "yksi". If the prisoner pronounced "juksi", mistaking the front vowel 'y' for an iotated 'u', he was considered a Russian foreign fighter and was shot on the spot. The problem was that any Slav or Balt, Communist or not, was killed, including some volunteers of the White Guard. (Source: Heikki Ylikangas, Tie Tampereelle, ref. at *)
  • Paljanytsja: Ukrainian word "паляниця" () was used by soldiers of Makhno troops to identify Russians of bolshevik food-troops, who were sent into Ukraine to expropriate food. Russians pronounce the word approximately as . The word "paljanytsja" was also used during World War II by Ukrainian nationalists to identify Russians. See *.
  • The Spanish word perejil (parsley) was used as a shibboleth by Dominican Republic strongman Trujillo against Haitian immigrants at Río Masacre. See *.
  • Schild en vriend: On May 18, 1302, the people of Bruges killed the French occupants during a nocturnal surprise attack. They asked every suspicious person to say "schild en vriend" (shield and friend). The Flemings pronounced it with a separate "s" and "ch" [x" (see also "Scheveningen", earlier in this section); the French "sk". That way they could easily find the French. This day is known as the Brugse Metten.
  • Ceci (Chickpeas): This was used by native Sicilians to ferret out Norman French soldiers in the late 1200s during an uprising (Sicilian vespers) against Angevin rule. The Italian c * was (and is still) difficult for the French to pronounce.
  • Ba, bi, bu, be, bo Japanese used this syllabary group to detect Korean spies. Koreans would pronounce the syllables unvoiced, pa, pi, pu, pe, po.
  • The Catalan sentence Setze jutges d'un jutjat mengen fetge d'un penjat ("Sixteen judges of a court eat the liver of a hanged man") is claimed to have been used by the Almogàvers to distinguish the Turks and others of it being used during the War of Spanish Succession to distinguish the ethnic Spanish (native Castilian speakers) [http://www.ceafinney.com/miscellania/shibboleth.html by the means of z, ʒ and d͡ʒ sounds, difficult for native Castilian speakers. Oral tradition has added several different endings to the sentence.
  • Bûter, brea, en griene tsiis; wa't dat net sizze kin, is gjin oprjochte Fries means "Butter, bread and green cheese, who cannot say that is no real Frisian" was used by the Frisian Grutte Pier during a Frisian-Holland war. Ships whose crew could not pronounce this properly were usually plundered.
  • Soczewica, koło, miele, młyn. In 1312, Wladislaus the Short quelled a rebellion in Kraków, populated mostly by Silesian, German and Czech citizens. Anyone over the age of 7 who couldn't pronounce these four Polish words was put to death, ejected from the city or had his property confiscated.
  • During the Battle of Normandy in the Second World War, the American forces used the challenge-response codes "Flash" - "Thunder" - "Welcome". The last response was used to identify the challenger as a native English speaker (and therefore not an enemy), whereas the German enemy would pronounce it as "Velcome".
  • In the Paraguay War (1864 - 1870), Brazilian soldiers would identify Paraguayan citizens by having them say the word pão, meaning "bread". Non-native Portuguese speakers have great difficulty making the ão sound - instead, they would say pan or pao (without the tilde sound).
  • Woolloomooloo was used by Australian soldiers in the Pacific Theatre during the Second World War to identify themselves when approaching a camp.
  • During World War II the Nazis made a test to root out unidentified Jews who were amongst them by serving tea to a group of people, and placing sugar cubes on the table. The Jews would place the sugar cube in their mouths, while the ethnic germans would place the cube into the tea. This is an example of a shibboleth through action.

Humorous shibboleths

  • Olin seitsemän vuotta sedälläni kodossa renkinä (Finnish). "I was seven years at my uncle's home as a servant". This is to tease Eastern Tavastians, who pronounce 'd' as 'l'. It becomes "olin seitsemän vuotta selälläni kolossa renkinä", which means "I was seven years a servant in a hole, lying on my back" - certain connotations of being a sex slave.
  • Kurri etsi jarrua murkkukasasta: "Kurri sought for a brake in the ant pile." The Finnish phoneme rolled R * in general is considered a "shibboleth" between normality and various types of speech defects. Small children usually learn the phoneme /r/ last, using /l/ instead. Older children can trick them to say "kulli etsi Jallua mulkkukasasta", "The cock sought for a Jallu (porn magazine) in a pile of dicks."
  • Germany: Oachkatzlschwoaf is used to tell true Bavarians and eastern Austrians from non-natives, mostly northern Germans. Eekkattensteert is jokingly used by northern Germans to expose Bavarians. Both words mean "squirrel tail".

Shibboleths in fiction

  • Unionized: Isaac Asimov introduced this shibboleth that distinguishes chemists from non-chemists. When reading this word aloud with no context, a chemist will pronounce it "un-ionized", whereas a non-chemist will pronounce it "union-ized".
  • In his essay "The Shibboleth of Fëanor", J. R. R. Tolkien describes how the Ñoldorin Elves change the sound th (IPA ) to s in the Quenya language. Strife occurs when the king's second wife adopts the name Indis (with an s) to emphasize her acceptance of Ñoldorin culture; however, king's son Fëanor considered this change to be an insult to his dead mother Therindë who had refused to be called Serindë.
  • In the TV series "West Wing" in an episode appropriately titled "Shibboleth," President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen) utilizes knowledge of the Biblical term to determine whether a group of supposedly Christian Chinese refugees are legitimate in their desire for seeking religious freedom. His expectation is that, while anyone can learn the text or concepts of the Bible, a true Christian would speak of his faith differently. When the designated leader of the refugees states that faith cannot be demonstrated through knowledge of the Bible alone, but that faith is the true "Shibboleth", Bartlet knows they're on the level and finds a way for them to remain in the U.S.

Grammatical shibboleths

In the Victorian era, especially in Britain, the educated middle classes invented several shibboleths to distinguish themselves from the lower classes. One of these was pronouncing the gerund suffix -ing as it is spelled, rhyming with sing, whereas both the lower and upper classes pronounced it as -in, rhyming with sin. However, many of the shibboleths were grammatical. These were primarily taken from the rules of Latin grammar, and had not occurred in English prior to this time. For instance, in Latin it is impossible to split an infinitive, because a Latin infinitive (such as vadere "to go") is a single word; therefore, prescriptivist grammarians decided that people should not split English infinitives either. (That is, to boldly go "should" be boldly to go or to go boldly, as if to go were a single word as it is in Latin.) Despite centuries of contrary use, this became a mark of a good education, and is still taught in schools. Other grammatical rules used as shibboleths of a "good education" include:
  • between you and I (more properly between you and me; "me" is objective case, suited for use in a prepositional phrase. However, because "me" is often used for "I" in informal speech, and sometimes judged incorrect according to grammatical standards, speakers often resort to hypercorrection, producing this phrase)
  • no prepositions at the end of sentences (which often provokes the reply, apocryphally attributed to Churchill, that "this is the sort of pedantry up with which I will not put". Ironically, an easy description of this 'incorrect' usage is: "A preposition is something you should never end a sentence with".)
  • no verbless sentences (these are common in literature: Not so. Really?)
  • use different from rather than different than (different than has been well established in literature for centuries; cf. different to)
  • no initial ands or buts (in literature, and and but can even begin a paragraph: But suppose all this is rubbish? or, And so it turns out ...)
  • use a possessive noun with a gerund: women's having the vote would be ... (actually, women having the vote is traditional usage)
  • no use of themself or theirselves as pronouns to refer to singular nouns or persons: The teacher will introduce themself at the beginning of the lecture. (This usage is contentious, with supporters on both sides of the argument. This has developed as a gender-neutral alternative.)
  • no use of the apostrophe for standard, non-possessive plural (e.g. Hotdog's for sale)
  • no confusion of it's (verb contraction, "it is") and its (possessive for it, whips its tail)
  • use of the subjunctive case. We snoots say, "If it were so..." rather than, "If it was..." and "Whether it were..." rather than "Whether it was..."

Other shibboleths

English shibboleths for native speakers or locale natives

  • nuclear/nucular: The word "nuclear" () is sometimes pronounced "nucular" () in the parts of the United States. This is considered incorrect or a metathesis by many authorities, although the alternative pronunciation is common, having been used by U.S. President George W. Bush and other politicians. This is common in some midwestern states, particularly those in the southern part of the region.
  • Fish and chips: The accents of Australians and New Zealanders seem very similar, and the term fish and chips is sometimes evoked to illustrate a major difference between the two. The New Zealand pronunciation features a shorter, clipped vowel sound which Australians often caricature as "fush and chups" but is more accurately f'sh and ch'ps with the vowel almost dropped. The Australian pronunciation has a longer vowel sound which sounds like "feesh and cheeps" to New Zealand ears.
  • Sixth: English people, especially middle class, will often pronounce this as "sickth".
  • loch: Scottish people have been known to ask suspected English impersonators to say this (the Scots Gaelic word for a lake or fjord, which occurs in many placenames) since this includes the hard "ch" sound (voiceless velar fricative) not found in standard English. English people usually pronounce it "lock", and this pronunciation has also spread into southern Scotland recently.
  • Pronunciation of letters of the alphabet
  • New England, United States: certain words/phrases are well known in other regions of the United States and often serve as stereotypes or shibboleths for New England natives (especially from the Boston area, considered by many as an informal "standard" or central area of the dialect region. Typical as "How are you?" pronounced in a clipped manner, "H'w ar'ya?", and the well-known "Harvard Yard" (Haahvaahd Yaahd), often in the context of the stereotypical sentence, "Park the car at Harvard Yard" (Paahk the caah at Haahvaahd Yaahd), which gives many instances of this derhotacization.
  • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Natives of this city usually pronounce the word 'water' (WAH-ter) as 'wudder' (WUH-der).
  • Southern United States: There are several noticeable differences between the stereotypical pronunciation of Southerners and those of other parts of the United States. Certain vowels experience monophthongization or diphthongization as compared to vowels in other American and North American dialects of English. For example, the vowel in non-Southern dialects may be rendered or in Southern dialects.
    • Pen: Some people from the Southern United States and Midwest pronounce pen the way other Americans would pronounce pin. Furthermore, some have difficulty hearing the difference between the two. This is known as the Pin-pen merger, and occurs before *. Southerners will often add the word "ink" before "pen" to disambiguate.
  • Regional vowels
    • Orange: Put as a test by Californians to distinguish natives from rustbelt or New York immigrants, who tend to pronounce a different initial vowel, usually pronouncing the word as as compared to or as said by native Californians. is not unique to California, however.
    • About: U.S. commentators (and popular culture) have drawn attention to the stereotypical Canadian pronunciation of about. Supposedly, Canadians pronounce the word ah-boot, while Americans pronounce it uh-bowt. In fact, many Canadians feel that the shibboleth is more reflective of Toronto pronunciation than a general Canadian pronunciation. (And in fact, the pronunciation is closer to "ah-bewt," or , as compared to General American ) This phenomenon is known in linguistics as Canadian raising, and is not restricted to just Canada, as many Northern U.S. dialects have clear Canadian Raising as well. However, Torontonians will generally disagree with this idea; perhaps the pronunciation is maritime in origin. It is unclear how this stereotype developed.
    • Tomato: UK pronunciation is usually , while US pronunciation is usually or . Ira Gershwin famously used this difference in the verse "You like to-may-to, I like to-mah-to".

=Place names
=
  • Alachua County, Florida, USA: Frequently mispronounced by non-locals as "al-uh-CHU-ah", this Native American word is pronounced by locals with the stress on the second syllable: uh-LA-choo-wuh. Oddly, the town of the same name is frequently pronounced by locals as uh-LA-chuh-WAY, perhaps to distinguish between reference to the town versus the county.
  • Amherst, Massachusetts is pronounced by locals as "Am-urst", while visitors pronounce it as "Am-hurst."
  • Havana, Florida, USA (in Gadsden County) is pronounced by locals as "hā-VAN-a". Native English-speaking visitors pronounce it like they do the Cuban capital, "Hah-VAN-a".
  • The city, river, and lake of Kissimmee, Florida, USA (in Osceola County) is pronounced by locals as "kis-SIM-mee". Non-locals typically pronounce it as "KISS-im-mee".
  • Boise, Idaho, USA (the state capital) is pronounced by locals as "boy-see" . Most Americans, especially those far removed from Idaho, pronounce it "boi-zee" .
  • Two USA towns with the name "Hurricane"—Hurricane, Utah and Hurricane, West Virginia—are both pronounced by locals as "HUR-uh-kin." Others pronounce it like the destructive weather phenomenon, "HUR-ri-kain."
  • Pierre, South Dakota, USA (also the state capital) is properly pronounced as "Pier" (as in "dock": ). Non-locals will pronounce it like the man's name as in French ().
  • DuBois, Pennsylvania, USA . Locals pronounce it Du-BOYS. Non-locals will pronounce it Du-BWAH as in French.
  • Chili, a suburb of Rochester, New York, is pronounced "chye-lie" (), not "chih-lee" () as the stew. Visitors to the Rochester area can often be distinguished by this.
  • Bellefontaine, Ohio is pronounced "Bell-fountain," with the emphasis on "fount."
  • Lima, Ohio, usually pronounced LEE-muh, as one would pronounce the city in Peru, is correctly pronounced "LIE-ma."
  • Russia, Ohio is pronounced "ROO-she."
  • Versailles, Kentucky, Versailles, Ohio, and Versailles, New York are all pronounced "ver-SAILS."
  • Couch Street in Portland, Oregon, USA (named after an early settler), is pronounced by locals as rhyming with "pooch" or "smooch" ( vowel). Visitors and newcomers pronounce it as in the name for a piece of furniture ("couch": diphthong).
  • Detroit, Michigan: Residents stress the second syllable of this city's name; other Americans tend to stress the first. (Both ignore the "correct" French pronunciation.)
  • Houston Street, New York City, USA: Locals pronounce the first syllable identically with "house" (), while most visitors will employ the same pronunciation as in Houston, Texas (first syllable ). Houston Street is actually a corruption of the original name of Houstoun Street, named after Continental Congress Delegate William Houstoun, who pronounced his name in this way. At the time the street was named, Sam Houston, the namesake of the Texas city, was an unknown teenager in Tennessee.
  • Houston, Georgia, USA: Georgians pronounce this town's name identically to the New York City pronunciation of Houston Street, with the first syllable as "house" (), rather than pronouncing it as in Houston, Texas.
  • Avenue of the Americas, Manhattan, New York City, USA: native New Yorkers typically give the name as "Sixth Avenue", despite the officially re-named version of the street, the only one known to (most) non-natives.
  • Pawtucket, Rhode Island, USA: native Rhode Islanders pronounce the name of the city as "p'tuckit," whereas non-natives will pronounce as "paw-tuck-et."
  • Worcester, Massachusetts, USA: Whereas non-natives will often pronounce as "War-sester" or "War-chester," the correct pronunciation of this city name is "Woo-ster" (). However, the true local pronounces it, often in affectionate jest, as "Wuh-stah." See Worcester, England.
  • Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA: When a non-local first sees this, they might think that it is pronounced, 'Glou-Ches-Ter.' However, it is pronounced by locals as, 'Glah-ster,' or, 'Glah-stuh.' See Gloucester, England.
  • New Haven, Connecticut, USA: While most native Connecticuters stress the second word (noo HAY-ven), most outsiders will make the mistake of stressing the first (NOO hay-ven).
  • Appalachia: pronounced "App-uh-LAT-cha" within the central portion of the region, particularly between North Carolina and West Virginia; usually pronounced "App-uh-LAY-sha" elsewhere.
  • Arkansas River: While in most places the name of this river is pronounced the same way as the name of the state of Arkansas (ar-kan-SAW), Kansans typically pronounce it as if the "Ar-" were a prefix added to the name of the state of Kansas (ar-KAN-zis).
  • Cairo, Egypt: The Egyptian city is pronounced "keyero" (), whereas assorted American locations of the same name pronounce it differently ("kā·rō", "CARE-oe" or IPA )
  • ''Gorinchem, in The Netherlands, is prounced as 'Gorkum', not as 'Gor-in-chem'.
  • Milngavie, Glasgow, Scotland: correctly pronounced "mull-guy", but often pronounced "miln-gavee" by non-Glaswegians. (This is elaborated upon in the main article.)
  • Manuka: A locality (not an actual suburb) of Canberra, national capital of Australia. Local pronunciation is MAN-E-KA with equal emphasis on each syllable; new arrivals can be identified by the pronunciation ma-NU-ka with emphasis on the middle syllable.
  • Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Locals (and most Canadians) pronounce the name of the city as though the first syllable rhymes with the word "ton", while emphasizing the last syllable--thus, "mun-tree-ALL"--whereas most Americans pronounce the name as though the same syllable rhymes with the word "gone", while emphasizing that syllable--thus, "MAHN-tree-all". Interestingly, the same applies to the name Quebec, which is pronounced "kwe-BEC" by most Americans, whereas local english speakers adopt a middle ground between the American pronunciation and the french "kay-BEC", pronouncing the name "ke-BEC".
  • Oamaru, New Zealand: Pronounced locally, and by other natives of the Otago region, as AUH-muh-ROO, a pronunciation borrowed from the local dialect of Māori. Most Māori speakers from farther north in New Zealand pronounce both initial vowels separately, as o-UH-muh-ROO, while non-Māori-speakers will pronounce it om-a-ROO.
  • Oregon: The correct pronunciation for this US state is "Orygun". However, many non-locals, particularly in the southern and eastern United States, pronounce it "Ore-e-gone". People who use this pronunciation are often looked upon in disdain by native Oregonians.
  • Ouachita: This is a region in southwest Arkansas that lends its name to a mountain range as well as a local university. It's pronounced "WASH-ih-tah" by Arkansans, whereas non-locals would say "ooh-CHI-tah" or "OW-chih-tah." Additionally, the state is pronounced "AR-kan-sah" but its residents are "ar-KAN-sans."
  • Puyallup, Washington: This uniquely-named town is correctly pronounced "pew-ALL-up."
  • Tulalip, Washington: Properly said "too-LAY-lip" or "tuh-LAY-lip," and an easy way to spot out-of-town solicitors (some say "TOO-luh-lip," and others refuse to try even after hearing it several times).
  • Norfolk, Virginia, USA: Long time residents tend to pronounce the city's name as , while other locals will say . Non-locals will pronounce the "L" in an effort to avoid a common impolite word, and also the "R", often taking twice as long to say the name as locals. See Norfolk, England.
  • Rutherfordton, North Carolina, USA: Long time residents tend to pronounce the city's name as "rulfton", while visitors or new residents will stress all the segments of the name, emphasizing "fordton."
  • Forest City, North Carolina, USA: Locals tend to pronounce the city's name as "Far City", while visitors or new residents will pronouce the city's name properly.
  • Tooele, Utah, USA: (See: Tooele with audio pronunciation) pronounced as "too-ill-ah" by Utahns.
  • Yocona, Mississippi, USA: Most locals refer to the river and community as "yack nuh" or "yock knee". Passersby will refer to it as "Yo cone ah".
  • Louisville, Kentucky, USA: Most people not from the Louisville area pronounce its name "Looey-ville." Louisville area natives, by contrast, tend to use one of several local pronunciations. "Loo-uh-vull," "Loo-vull," "Luh-vull," or "Luh-uh-vul." The last pronunciation seems a difficult one for outsiders, who have trouble mastering the back-of-the-throat transition from "Luh" to "uh." On occasion, Louisville natives may employ a variation of "Looey-ville," removing the middle syllable ("Loo-ville.").
  • Chickasha, Oklahoma, USA: Locals pronounce the city's name as "chi-ka-shay," while outsiders tend to pronounce it as "chi-ka-shah." Ironically, the name comes from the Chickasaw tribe, so the latter pronunciation is likely more accurate.
  • New Orleans, Louisiana, USA: Locals pronounce the city's name as "n'OWlens" or sometimes "nyor-lens", while outsiders tend to pronounce it as "new or-leenz".
  • There is a Scottish proverb involving the surname Dalziel (generally recognised from the BBC TV series 'Dalziel and Pascoe') and the word "devil" (both pronounced 'die-il' in the Scots dialect):
Dalziel and de'il begin with the ane letter. De'il is nae gude, and Dalziel is nae better.
This means " 'Dalziel' and 'devil' begin with the same letter. The Devil is no good, and Dalziel is no better". "Dalziel" is referring to the Scottish clan of that name, and the phrase is intended as a slight against that clan.
  • Many English placenames act as shibboleths. Warwick, Norwich and Alnwick may be pronounced "wɔːˈwɪk", "nɔːˈwɪtʃ" and "ælnˈwɪk" by Americans, when the actual pronunciations are "ˈwɒɹɪk", "nɒɹɪtʃ" and "ˈænɪk".
  • Manchaca, Texas, USA: This small town just south of Austin is always mispronounced by non-locals as "man-CHACK-a", but locals know the town (and the Austin street) as "MAN-chack." This is only one of a dizzying array of shibboleths that true Austin locals use to identify imposters, which include local music history and club lore, geographic indicators and zip codes containing the "Old Austin," historical knowedge of state politicians, where to shop, what to wear, and one's position on the ideological/political spectrum. Other place name shibboleth examples in or near Austin include Burnet, Texas (BURN-it), another town/street, Manor Road (MAY-ner), the town of Buda, Texas (BYEW-duh), and Guadelupe Street (Guad-eh-LOOP). Locals who care will use the phrase "It's Burn it, durn it, learn it" as a way to educate newcomers on how to pronounce Burnet, Texas.
  • Refugio, Texas, USA: Locals pronounce this town's name as "Reh-FUR-ee-oh" or "Reh-FEER-ee-oh". This might have been a mispronounciation among the prominent Irish settlers.
  • Berlin, New Hampshire, USA: The New Hampshire pronunciation is "BER-lun". Non-locals assume that it is "Ber-LIN" like the city in Germany.
  • Calais, Vermont, USA: Locally pronounced "KAL-us," thus the local musical group, "Calais Hands."

English shibboleths for non-native speakers
  • Vespene gas (a fictitious gas from the game StarCraft): Arabs tend to mispronounce this phrase, since Arabic lacks v, p, and g.
  • Ripley/ripply: If any distinction is made between the two words by a native speaker (rip-lee vs. rip-ul-ee), it will probably be lost by a native speaker of Japanese. Either pronunciation would be very difficult to say properly as the distinction between the R and L sounds is not present in Japanese. Furthermore, Japanese syllables must terminate in either a vowel or n, thus many Japanese would pronounce both words as ri-pu-ri-i, with both r sounds being somewhere between a standard English r and l.
  • Refract/Reflect: similar problems as with ripley/ripply for speakers of languages that do not distinguish between r and l.

Non-English
  • Krai kai kai or Kai kai kai: This phrase is used to teach Thai children the subtleties of their tonal language. When each word is pronounced with the proper tone, the phrase means, "Who sells chicken eggs?"*
  • Rødgrød med fløde : This is the standard Danish (English: 'Red porridge with cream').
  • A æ u å æ ø i æ å : a well-known Danish vowels-only way of judging someone's ability to speak Jysk, the general dialect of Jutland. Often/usually practiced on visitors from Copenhagen. In standard Danish, the sentence would be Jeg er ude på øen i åen ("I'm on the island in the stream").
  • I öa ä e å, o i åa ä e ö, a Swedish phrase from Värmland. "On the island is a river, and in the river an island". In standard Swedish it would be "På ön finns det en å, och i ån finns det en ö".
  • Chuchichäschtli in Swiss German, meaning "little box in the kitchen".
  • The sentence a oagnehm grean agstrichns Gartatihrle (a garden door painted in an awful shade of green) serves as Swabian shibboleth. The consecutive nasal sounds are almost unspeakable for other German speakers.
  • A Czech shibboleth is Strč prst skrz krk, meaning "stick the finger through the throat".
  • Estamos en la huelga is a Spanish phrase meaning "We are on strike". The majority of Spaniards pronounce "huelga" (strike) as . Andalusians and Extremadurans, though, often pronounce the elsewhere silent /h/ and intermix /l/ and /ɾ/, pronouncing "huelga" like the Spanish word "juerga", as . This will change the meaning of the sentence to "We are having fun". The same happens in the Southwestern region of the Dominican Republic, where for example "mal" (bad) is pronounced "mar" (sea) . Similarly, Puerto Ricans change the sound of a mid-word to an , thus a Puerto Rican will say "I come from Puelto Rico".
  • In Spanish, most Argentinians and Uruguayans pronounce as or . This for example turns arroyo (, stream) into or .
  • Also in Spanish, you can tell a Castilian from a Catalonian from their pronunciation of the letter Ll, which Catalonians will pronounce . Most dialects of Spanish have a feature called yeísmo where it is pronounced . This means that callar (, to be quiet) is pronounced .
  • During the Cuban independence war, prisoners caught by the insurgents were asked to pronounce the word "garbanzo" ( in Castilian Spanish). Cubans pronounced the as , and as , resulting . Therefore they were considered as traitors.
  • 15円 50銭 (jū-go-en, go-jū-sen) and がぎぐげご (gagigugego) were used in Japan after the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake to search for Koreans, who were killed. They were accused of poisoning wells.
  • Northern-Italian dialects have ü and ö sounds as French or German, which are not present in standard Italian language or southern dialects. Words like föra (out) may be used to discern whether one is from the north. Comedians Aldo, Giovanni and Giacomo presented a whole scene about a similar shibboleth in their first movie, the Lombard word cadrega: a guest, suspected to be a southerner, would be shown a table with many sorts of fruit, and offered to take a cadrega (), unaware he was actually being offered just a chair (in Italian, sedia ).
  • Italians travelling abroad and wishing to dine at an Italian restaurant often check the menu's grammar to verify whether the restaurant can be trusted to be authentic. Common errors are missing prepositions as in "spaghetti bolognese" instead of "spaghetti alla bolognese", missing accents, such as "tiramisu" instead of "tiramisù" and uncommon misspellings such as "mozarella" (mozzarella).
  • In Chile, the pronunciation of as is oftenly associated with the lower classes. Hence, humorous phrases like "el shansho con shaleco" (corruption of "el chancho con chaleco", the pig with a sweater) denotes a person with a genuine lower class pronunciation, or just somebody impersonating it, in jest.
  • The German words Streichholzschächtelchen (small box of matches), Eichhörnchen (squirrel) and Strickstrumpf (knitted sock) serve as shibboleths for distinguishing native speakers from foreigners, due to their many ch sounds and the large number of consonants.
  • In Mandarin Chinese the phrase Māma mà mǎ (媽媽罵馬; Mother scolds a horse) is used in teaching children and non-native-speakers the different tones used in the language.
  • Also used in Mandarin Chinese is the sentence sì shì sì, shí shì shí, shísì shì shísì, sìshí shì sìshí (四是四，十是十，十四是十四，四十是四十; four is four, ten is ten, fourteen is fourteen, forty is forty), which is used to distinguish between native speakers of Mandarin and native speakers of Cantonese, which lacks the sh sound. This retroflex "sh" sound in standard Mandarin is not just difficult for Cantonese speakers but also difficult for many others from southern China and Taiwan.
  • A Polish shibboleth is W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie (in Szczebrzeszyn the beetle skirls in the reed).

Computer security

Within the field of computer security, the word shibboleth is sometimes used with a different meaning than the usual meaning of verbal, linguistic differentiation. The general concept of shibboleth is to test something, and based on that response to take a particular course of action. This principle is frequently used in computer security. The most commonly seen usage is logging on to your computer with a password. If you enter the correct password you can log on to your computer, if you enter an incorrect password, you can go no further.

There are various classes of computer security-related shibboleth.

  • Class 1: Something you know; perhaps a password or another fact.
  • Class 2: Something you have; a card or a physical tag of some kind.
  • Class 3: Something you are; a biometric feature such as a fingerprint or an iris scan.

In general, it is considered more secure to combine various classes of shibboleth, rather than using the approach of just requiring a class 1 shibboleth that is common today. So for example, a high security system might require an authorized user to login only by entering a password, providing an encoded card, and passing a biometric test.

References

See also

Hebrew words | Linguistics | Sociology

Schibboleth | Sjibbolet | Sjibbólet | Schibbolet | Schibbolet

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Shibboleth".

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