Shibboleth

"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." ()

• ''Lollapalooza'': Used in World War II by the United States military to distinguish Japan ese spies, who were unable to pronounce the Alveolar Lateral Approximant , giving an Alveolar Approximant instead.


• '' 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 {Link without Title} '')


• The Spanish word ''perejil'' (parsley) was used as a shibboleth by Dominican Republic strongman Trujillo . ''See {Link without Title} .''


• ''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 (pronounced "Tch")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 to distinguish the ethnic Spanish (native Castilian speakers) {Link without Title} 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 Frisia n 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-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.

• ''Olin seitsemän vuotta sedälläni kodossa renkinä'' ( Finnish ). "I was seven years at my uncle's home as a servant". This is to tease Eastern Tavastia ns, 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 {Link without Title} 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."


• ns and eastern Austria ns from non-natives, mostly northern Germans. ''Eekkattensteert'' is jokingly used by northern Germans to expose Bavarians. Both words mean "squirrel tail".

• ''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- Ion ized", whereas a non-chemist will pronounce it " Union -ized".


• In his essay "The Shibboleth of Fëanor", J. R. R. Tolkien describes how the Ñoldor in 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.

• ''between you and I'' (more properly ''between you and me''; "me" is Objective Case , suited for use in a Preposition al 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 Sentence s (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 ''and''s or ''but''s (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'')

• '' by many authorities, although the alternative pronunciation is common, having been used by Several U.S. Presidents and other politicians.


• ''ns and New Zealand ers 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 sounds like "fush and chups" to Australian ears and the Australian pronunciation has a longer vowel sound which sounds like "feesh and cheeps" to New Zealand ears.


• '' 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


• --- '' pronounced 'aitch' by Protestant s, 'haitch' by Catholic s, as per Hiberno-English . Also often pronounced 'haitch' in dialects of English spoken in the ethnically non-Anglo-Saxon English colonies of Africa , Asia , and the Pacific .


• --- ''; typically ''zed'' in Canada (as per Commonwealth English ). Known in American History and Popular Culture for distinguishing American males who fled to Canada from the US to escape the Military Draft in the 1960s .


• .


• Philadelphia , Pennsylvania : Natives of this city usually pronounce the word 'water' (WAH-ter) as 'wudder' (WUH-der).


• 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 {Link without Title} . 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.


• --- ''Tomato'': UK pronunciation is usually , while US pronunciation is usually or . Ira Gershwin famously used this difference in the verse "I say to-mey-to, you say to-mah-to".

• 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."


• '' ().


• '' 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."


• ''Couch'' Street in ).


• Detroit, Michigan : Residents stress the first syllable of this city's name; other Americans tend to stress the second. (Both ignore the "correct" French pronunciation.)


• ''Houston'' Street, , Texas (first syllable ). This is apparently because Houston Street refers to a man who bore the Surname Houston, and pronounced it in this way. The city bears the name of A Different Houston who pronounced his name in the way most visitors pronounce the street name.


• ''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."


• ''.


• ''.


• '' 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.


• '' (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).


• '' pronounce it differently ("kā·rō", "CARE-oe" or IPA )


• ''Gorinchem, in The Netherlands , is prounced as 'Gorkum', not as 'Gor-in-chem'.


• ''.)


• '' 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".


• '' region, as AUH-muh-ROO, a pronunciation borrowed from the local dialect of Māori . Most people from farther north in New Zealand pronounce both initial vowels separately, as o-UH-muh-ROO, borrowed from northern Māori dialects.


• '' 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.


• '' Puyallup, Washington '': This uniquely-named town is correctly pronounced "pew-ALL-up."


• ''.


• '' 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.


• '' 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 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.").


• 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 one 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".




English shibboleths for non-native speakers


• '' tend to mispronounce this phrase, since Arabic lacks v, p, and g.


• ''. 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.


• '''': 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?" {Link without Title}


• '' (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-, and offered to take a ''cadrega'' (/ka'drega/), unaware he was actually being offered just a chair (in Italian, ''sedia'' /'sɛdja/).


• 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 "tiramis''ù''" 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.




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


• Linguistics


• Phonology


• Shibboleth (Internet2)


• Tongue-twister


• U And Non-U English