Shibboleth
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The Hebrew word Shibboleth literally means "ear of wheat". In the Bible, the term was used to distinguish members of a group whose dialect lacked a "sh" sound, using an "s" in its place, from members of a group whose dialect included such a sound.
In modern parlance, the term is used for phrases that are used in a similar way—only members who belong to a certain group can use them "correctly." More loosely, "shibboleth" is also sometimes used for words or phrases that form part of the specialized jargon of a group, and reveal their users as members of a group.
- And the Gileadites seized the passages of the Jordan before the Ephraimites; and it was so, that when those Ephraimites who had escaped said, "Let me go over," that the men of Gilead said unto him, "Art thou an Ephraimite?" If he said, "Nay," then said they unto him, "Say now 'Shibboleth.'" And he said "Sibboleth," for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him and slew him at the passages of the Jordan; and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand. (Judges 12:5-6, King James Version of the Bible)
Some shibboleths
- Scheveningen: Dutch people pronounce this word beginning with separate "s" [s] and "ch" [x]; a German would pronounce sch as [ʃ] = SAMPA [S]. The Dutch Resistance used this to ferret out Nazi spies during World War II.
- Ripley/ripply: If any distinction is made between the two words by a native speaker (rip-lee vs. rip-ul-ee), one will almost certainly not be made by a native speaker of Japanese. Either pronunciation would be very difficult to say properly as the English distinction between the R and L sounds is not present in Japanese.
- Leghorn: Allegedly, this word was used as a shibboleth during a war between the Chinese and Japanese, since the Japanese pronounced it as 'reghorn' (not being able to pronounce l), and the Chinese as 'legholn' (not being able to say English r). In fact, both Japanese and Chinese only have one phoneme /r/ (and no /l/ phoneme), with different allophones.
- Höyryjyrä: Finnish soldiers in World War II would use this as a password, as none but a true Finnish native speaker could properly say this word, which contains a difficult combination of Finnish ö, y, and ä vowels as well as the Finnish r.
- Fish and chips: Australians and New Zealanders sometimes tease each other on its pronunciation, usually as a joke. To Australians, it sounds like Kiwis pronounce it "fush and chups", while Kiwis hear Australians say "feesh and cheeps".
- The Spanish word perejil (parsley) was used as a shibboleth by Dominican Republic strongman Trujillo. See http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_2003/ling001/shibboleth.html
- Professor Tolkien referred to the change of fl (SAMPA T) to s in his Elvish Quenya language as the Shibboleth of Fëanor, for the King's son Fëanor considered this decided change as an insult to his dead mother fierindë who was now generally referred to as Serindë.
See also
External links
fy:Tongbrekkerssechje nl:Schibbolet
