Shibboleth

Ashibboleth(/ˈʃɪbəlɛθ,-ɪθ/;Biblical Hebrew:שִׁבֹּלֶת,romanized:šībbōleṯ) is anycustomor tradition, usually a choice of phrasing or single word, that distinguishes one group of people from another.Historically, shibboleths have been used aspasswords, ways of self-identification, signals of loyalty and affinity, ways of maintaining traditional segregation, or protection from real or perceived threats.
The term originates from the Hebrew wordshibbóleth(שִׁבֹּלֶת), which means the part of a plant containinggrain, such as theearof a stalk ofwheatorrye;or less commonly (but arguably more appropriately)'flood,torrent'.
The modern use derives from an account in theHebrew Bible, in which pronunciation of this word was used to distinguishEphraimites, whose dialect used a different first consonant. The difference concerns the Hebrew lettershin, which is now pronounced as[ʃ](as inshoe).In theBook of Judgeschapter 12, after the inhabitants ofGileadunder the command ofJephthahinflicted a military defeat upon the invadingtribe of Ephraim(around 1370–1070 BC), the surviving Ephraimites tried to cross theriver Jordanback into their home territory, but the Gileadites secured the river's fords to stop them. To identify and kill these Ephraimites, the Gileadites told each suspected survivor to say the wordshibboleth. The Ephraimite dialect resulted in a pronunciation that, to Gileadites, sounded likesibboleth.In Judges 12:5–6 in theKing James Bible, the anecdote appears thus (with the word already in its current English spelling):
Shibbolethhas been described as the first "password" in Western literaturebut exactly how it worked is not known; it has long been debated by scholars of Semitic languages.It may have been quite subtle: the men of Ephraim were unlikely to be "caught totally napping by any test that involved some gross and readily detectable difference of pronunciation";On a superficial reading the fleeing Ephraimites were betrayed by their dialect: they saidsibbōleth.  But it has been asked why they did not simply repeat what the Gileadite sentries told them to say— "they surely would have used the required sound to save their necks",since peoples in the region could say both "sh" and "s"."We have yet to learn how the suspects were caught by the catchword".A related problem (akin tofalse positives) is how the test spared neutral tribes with whom the Gileadite guards had no quarrel, yet pinpointed the Ephraimite enemy.
Ephraim Avigdor Speisertherefore proposed that the test involved a more challenging sound than could be written down in the later biblical Hebrew narrative, namely thephoneme⟨θ⟩ (≈ English "th").  Present in archaic Hebrew (said Speiser) but later lost in most dialects, the Gileadites, who lived across a dialect boundary (the river Jordan), had retained it in theirs.  Thus, what the Gileadite guards would have demanded was the passwordthibbōlet.  The phoneme is difficult for naive users — to this day, wrote Speiser, most non-Arab Muslims cannot pronounce the classical Arabic equivalent — hence the best the Ephraimite refugees could manage wassibbōlet.Speiser's solution has had a mixed reception,but has been revived byGary A. Rendsburg.
John Emertonargued that "Perhaps [the Ephraimites] could pronounceš, but they articulated the consonant in a different way from the Gileadites, and their pronunciation sounded to the men of Gilead likes".  There is a range of ways of pronouncing the two phonemes.  "An old clergyman of my acquaintance used to say 'O Lord, save the Queen' in such a way that it sounded [to me] like 'O Lord, shave the Queen'", and analogies could be found amongst Hebrew users in modern Lithuania and Morocco.Berkeleyscholar Ronald Hendel agreed, saying the theory was supported by a document recently dug up near modernAmman.  It tended to show that, across the Jordan, the pronunciation of the phoneme "sh" was heard as "s" by Hebrew speakers from the opposite side of the river. "This is why Gileaditešibbōletis repeated by the Ephraimites assibbōlet: they simply repeated the word as they heard it".Other solutions have been proposed.
David Marcus has contended that linguistic scholars have missed the point of the biblical anecdote: The purpose of the laterJudeannarrator was not to record some phonetic detail, but to satirise the incompetence of "thehigh and mighty northern Ephraimites".  "The shibboleth episode ridicules the Ephraimites who are portrayed as incompetent nincompoops who cannot even repeat a test-word spoken by the Gileadite guards".
In modernEnglish, a shibboleth can have asociologicalmeaning, referring to anyin-groupword or phrase that can distinguish members from outsiders.It is also sometimes used in a broader sense to meanjargon, the proper use of which identifies speakers as members of a particular group orsubculture.
Ininformation technology,Shibbolethis a community-wide password that enables members of that community to access an online resource without revealing their individual identities. The origin server can vouch for the identity of the individual user without giving the target server any further identifying information.Hence the individual user does not know the password that is actually employed – it is generated internally by the origin server – and so cannot betray it to outsiders.
The term can also be used pejoratively, suggesting that the original meaning of a symbol has in effect been lost and that the symbol now serves merely to identify allegiance, being described as "nothing more than a shibboleth". In 1956,economistPaul Samuelsonapplied the termshibbolethin works includingFoundations of Economic Analysisto mean an idea for which "the means becomes the end, and the letter of the law takes precedence over the spirit."Samuelson admitted thatshibbolethis an imperfect term for this phenomenon.
Shibboleths have been used by different subcultures throughout the world at different times. Regional differences, level of expertise, and computer coding techniques are several forms that shibboleths have taken.
There is a legend that before theBattle of the Golden Spursin May 1302, theFlemishslaughtered every Frenchman they could find in the city ofBruges, an act known as theMatins of Bruges.They identified Frenchmen based on their inability to pronounce the Flemish phraseschild en vriend, 'shield and friend', or possiblygilden vriend, 'friend of the Guilds'. However, many Medieval Flemish dialects did not contain the clustersch-either (even today'sKortrijkdialect hassk-), and Medieval French rolled the r just as Flemish did.
There is an anecdote inSicilythat, during the rebellion of theSicilian Vespersin 1282, the inhabitants of the island killed theFrench occupierswho, when questioned, could not correctly pronounce the Sicilian wordcìciri'chickpeas'.
FollowingMayor Albert's Rebellionin 1312Kraków, Poles used thePolish languageshibbolethSoczewica, koło, miele, młyn('Lentil, wheel, grinds (verb), mill') to distinguish the German-speaking burghers. Those who could not properly pronounce this phrase were executed.
Bûter, brea, en griene tsiis; wa't dat net sizze kin, is gjin oprjochte Fries('Butter, rye bread and green cheese, whoever cannot say that is not a genuine Frisian') was a phrase used by theFrisianPier Gerlofs Doniaduring aFrisian rebellion(1515–1523). Ships whose crew could not pronounce this properly were usually plundered and soldiers who could not were beheaded by Donia.
Newspaper advertisements in 18th-century America seeking absconding servants or apprentices frequently used the shibboleth method to identify them.  Since most runaways were from the British Isles originally, they were identified by their distinctive regional accents, e.g. "speaks broad Yorkshire".  Studying a large number of these advertisements,Allen Walker Readnoticed an exception: runaways were never advertised as having London or eastern counties accents.  From this he inferred that their speech did not differ from the bulk of the American population.  "Thus in the colonial period American English had a consistency of its own, most closely approximating the type of the region around London".
In Japan during the 1923Kantō Massacre, in which ethnicKoreans in Japanwere hunted down and killed by vigilantes after rumors spread that they were committing crimes,shibboleths were attested to having been used to identify Koreans. The Japanese poetShigeji Tsuboiwrote that he overheard vigilantes asking people to pronounce the phrasejūgoen gojissen(Japanese:15円50銭,lit.'fifteenyen, fifty sen').If the person pronounced it aschūkoen kochissen, he was reportedly dragged away for punishment.Both Korean and Japanese people recalled similar shibboleths being used, includingichien gojissen(lit.'one yen, fifty sen').Other strings attested to werega-gi-gu-ge-go(Japanese:がぎぐげご) andka-ki-ku-ke-ko(Japanese:かきくけこ), which were thought difficult for Koreans to pronounce.
In October 1937, the Spanish word for parsley,perejil, was used as a shibboleth to identify Haitian immigrants living along the border in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican dictator,Rafael Trujillo, ordered the execution of these people. It is alleged that between 20,000 and 30,000 individuals were murdered within a few days in theParsley Massacre, although more recent scholarship and the lack of evidence such as mass graves puts the actual estimate closer to between 1,000 and 12,168.
During theGerman occupation of the NetherlandsinWorld War II, the Dutch used the name of the seaside town ofScheveningenas a shibboleth to tell Germans from Dutch ("Sch" inDutchis analyzed as the letter "s" combined with thedigraph"ch", producing theconsonant cluster[sx], while inGerman"Sch" is read as thetrigraph"sch", pronounced[ʃ], closer to "sh" sound in English).
Some American soldiers in the Pacific theater in World War II used the wordlollapaloozaas a shibboleth tochallengeunidentified persons, on the premise that Japanese peoplewould often pronounce both letters L and Ras rolled Rs.In Oliver Gramling'sFree Men Are Fighting: The Story of World War II(1942) the author notes that, in the war, Japanese spies would often approach checkpoints posing as American orFilipinomilitary personnel. A shibboleth such aslollapaloozawould be used by the sentry, who, if the first two syllables come back asrorra,would "open fire without waiting to hear the remainder".Another sign/countersign used by the Allied forces: the challenge/sign was "flash", thepassword"thunder", and the countersign "Welcome".This was used duringD-DayduringWorld War IIdue to the rarity of thevoiceless dental fricative(th-sound) andvoiced labial–velar approximant(w-sound) in German.
DuringThe Troublesin Northern Ireland, use of the nameDerry or Londonderryfor the province's second-largest city was often taken as an indication of the speaker's political stance, and as such frequently implied more than simply naming the location.The pronunciation of the name of the letterHis a related shibboleth, with Catholics pronouncing it as "haitch" and Protestants oftenpronouncing the letter differently.
During theBlack Julyriots of Sri Lanka in 1983, many Tamils were massacred by Sinhalese youths. In many cases these massacres took the form of boarding buses and getting the passengers to pronounce words that had[b]at the beginning (likebaldiya'bucket') and executing the people who found it difficult.
In Australia and New Zealand, the words "fish and chips" are often used to highlight the difference in each country's short-i vowel sound [ɪ] and asking someone to say the phrase can identify which country they are from. Australian English has a higher forward sound [i], close to the y in happy and city, while New Zealand English has a lower backward sound [ɘ], a slightly higher version of the a in about and comma. Thus, New Zealanders hear Australians say "feesh and cheeps", while Australians hear New Zealanders say "fush and chups".A long drawn out pronunciation of the names of the citiesBrisbaneandMelbournerather than the typically Australian rapid "bun" ending is a common way for someone to be exposed as new to the country. Within Australia, what someone calls "devon", or how he names the size of beer he orders can often pinpoint what state he is from, as both of these have varied names across the country.
In Canada, the name of Canada's second largest city,Montreal, is pronounced/ˌmʌntriˈɔːl/by English-speaking locals. This contrasts with the typical American pronunciation of the city as/ˌmɒntriˈɔːl/.
In the United States, the name of the stateNevadacomes from the Spanishnevada[neˈβaða], meaning 'snow-covered'.Nevadans pronounce the second syllable with the "a" as in "trap" (/nɪˈvædə/) while some people from outside of the state can pronounce it with the "a" as in "palm" (/nɪˈvɑːdə/).Although many Americans interpret the latter back vowel as being closer to the Spanish pronunciation, it is not the pronunciation used by Nevadans. Likewise, the same test can be used to identify someone unfamiliar with southwestMissouri, as the city ofNevada, Missouriis pronounced with the "a" as in "cape" (/nɪˈveɪdə/).
During theRusso-Ukrainian War(2014–present), Ukrainians have used the wordpalianytsia(a type of Ukrainian bread) to distinguish between Ukrainians and Russians.
Afurtive shibbolethis a type of a shibboleth that identifies individuals as being part of a group, not based on their ability to pronounce one or more words, but on their ability to recognize a seemingly innocuous phrase as a secret message. For example, members ofAlcoholics Anonymoussometimes refer to themselves as "a friend of Bill W.", which is a reference to AA's founder,William Griffith Wilson. To the uninitiated, this would seem like a casual – if off-topic – remark, but other AA members would understand its meaning.
Similarly, duringWorld War II, a homosexualUS sailormight call himself a "friend of Dorothy", a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment of a stereotypicalaffinity for Judy GarlandinThe Wizard of Oz. This code was so effective that theNaval Investigative Service, upon learning that the phrase was a way for gay sailors to identify each other, undertook a search for this "Dorothy", whom they believed to be an actual woman with connections to homosexual servicemen in the Chicago area.Many cruise lines still host "Friends of Dorothy" meetings for LGBT guests to gather.
Likewise, homosexuals in Britain might use thecant languagePolari.
Mark Twainused an explicit shibboleth to conceal a furtive shibboleth.  InThe Innocents Abroadhe told the Shibboleth story in seemingly "inept and uninteresting" detail. To the initiated, however, the wording revealed that Twain was afreemason.
"Fourteen Words", "14", or "14/88"are furtive shibboleths used amongwhite supremacistsin the Anglosphere.
Colombian conceptual artistDoris Salcedocreated a work titledShibbolethatTate Modern, London, in 2007–2008. The piece consisted of a 548-foot-long crack that bisected the floor of the Tate's lobby space.
Salcedo said of the work: