Shibboleths

topic   Mon Oct 26, 2009 2:57 pm GMT
Shibboleths are used to distinguish native speakers from a region or country from other fluent speakers.

Can you give some other examples in your language?
http://learnalanguageortwo.blogspot.com/2009/02/shibboleths.html
Guest   Mon Oct 26, 2009 3:36 pm GMT
fried rice
Antimooner K. T.   Mon Oct 26, 2009 11:55 pm GMT
I think shibboleths are fascinating. The first recorded one was "Sibboleth" vs. "Shibboleth", I think. I don't know if has anything to do with "Shin" and "Sin" sounds, though.

Dutch people had at least a couple of shibboleths that they used to identify Germans who were trying to pass as Dutch citizens. I think one is a number-maybe 888, but I could be wrong. Dutch seems easy, but it has some tricky sounds for German and English speakers.

A lot of people who learn English never master our two "th" sounds. That probably "outs" some people even if their English is very good otherwise.
Antimooner K. T.   Tue Oct 27, 2009 3:30 am GMT