List of shibboleths

This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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 and persecution

Dutch (Flemish) - French

Schild en vriend: On May 18, 1302, the people of Bruges killed the French occupants during a nocturnal surprise attack. According to a famous legend, they stormed into the houses where they knew the tenants were forced to board and lodge French troops serving as city guards, roused every male person from their bed and forced them to repeat the challenge "schild en vriend" (shield and friend). The Flemings pronounced 'Schild' with a separate "s" /s/ and "ch" /x/" (see also "Scheveningen", later in this section) and 'vriend' with a soft 'vee' and a toneless Germanic 'ahr'. The French would pronounce Schild as "skild" and Vriend as "Frrriend" with a hard 'eff' and a French rolling R. Invariably, every 'French' that failed the test was stabbed on the spot, still in his nightgown. Because the signal for the uprising, the matinus bells from the cities churches and monasteries, this became known as the Bruges Matins or Brugse Metten. Like the name of the massacre, the story may have been influenced by the Sicilian uprising mentioned below.
The problem with this legend is that in medieval manuscripts of that time, a shield is referred to as Skilde like in ancient English and Scandinavian. Therefore it is sometimes said that the words must have been "'s Gilden Vriend" meaning "Friend of the Guilds". The combination of the 's and the g in Gilden would create a gr-facto /sx/.

Italian/Sicilian - French

Ciciri (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. Both the Italian soft c /tʃ/, and the Italian r, were (and are still) difficult for the French to pronounce.

Polish-German

Soczewica, koło, miele, młyn ("Lentil, wheel, grinds [verb], mill)": 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. 'Ł' (velarized alveolar lateral approximant) and initial voiceless /s/ are both difficult to pronounce for Germans.

Catalan - Spanish

The Catalan sentence [Setze jutges d'un jutjat mengen fetge d'un penjat] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) [ˈsɛd͡zə ˈʒud͡ʒəz ðuɲ ʒu'd͡ʒat 'meɲʒəɱ 'fed͡ʒə ðum pəɲ'ʒat] ("Sixteen judges of a court eat the liver of a hanged man") was used by the defenders of Barcelona to distinguish the besieging ethnic Spanish [1] (native Castilian speakers) during the War of Spanish Succession (1701–1714). The same device is also mentioned as having been used much earlier, by the 14th century Almogàver mercenaries of the Catalan Company, active in Greece, to distinguish Turks [2] from Catalans. These other groups found it difficult to pronounce the /z/, /ʒ/ and /d͡ʒ/ sounds. Oral tradition has added several different endings to the sentence.

Castilian Spanish - dialects and Portuguese

In the Paraguay War (1864–1870), Brazilian soldiers would identify Paraguayan citizens by having them say the word [pão] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), meaning "bread". Non-native Portuguese speakers have great difficulty making the ão sound — instead, they would say pan or pao (without the nasalization indicated by the tilde).
During the Cuban War of Independence, prisoners caught by the insurgents were asked to pronounce the word "garbanzo" ([gaɾˈbanθo] in Castilian Spanish). Cubans pronounced the /ɾ/ as /l/, and /θ/ as /s/, resulting [galˈbanso]. Therefore they were considered as traitors.
The Spanish word perejil (parsley) was used as a shibboleth by Dominican Republic strongman Trujillo against Haitian immigrants at Río Massacre. See [3].

Frisian - Dutch

Bûter, brea, en griene tsiis; wa't dat net sizze kin, is gjin oprjochte Fries (example) means "Butter, bread and green cheese, who cannot say that is no real Frisian" was used by the Frisian Grutte Pier during a Frisian-Dutch war (1515-1519). Ships whose crew could not pronounce this properly were usually plundered.

Finnish - Russian

[Yksi] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help): 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 members of the White Guard. (Source: Heikki Ylikangas, Tie Tampereelle, ref. at http://www.uta.fi/koskivoimaa/valta/1918-40/venalai1.htm])
[Höyryjyrä] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help): (IPA: [høyryjyræ], 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 /h/ is particularly hard for Russian speakers, since the same sound does not exist in Russian; analogous Russian sounds /g/, /ɦ/ and /x/ are distinguishable.

Russian - Ukrainian

Paljanytsja: Ukrainian word "паляниця" ([pɐlʲɐˈnɪʦʲɐ]) 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 [pəlʲɪnʲiʦə]. The word "paljanytsja" was also used during World War II by Ukrainian nationalists to identify Russians. See [4].

Japanese - Korean

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 - being accused of well poisoning. Japanese people pronounce initial g as [g] and medial g as [ŋ], whereas Koreans pronounce the two sounds as [k] and [g] respectively.
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.

Dutch - German

Scheveningen (example): Dutch people pronounce this word with separate "s" IPA: [s] and "ch" [x], while German people pronounce sch as [ʃ]. The Dutch Resistance used this to ferret out Nazi spies and defectors during the liberation of their country in World War II.
Likewise allied patrols in the just liberated areas of the Netherlands used the word Nijmegen to quickly distinguish between (blond and blue-eyed) Dutch natives and (equally blond and blue-eyed) German soldiers who changed into civilian clothes to evade capture. Locals raised in Dutch would have no problem with the Dutch ij (pronounced as aye) and the toneless g ("ch" /x/) while Germans would pronounce the sounds like /i:/ and /g/, or completely revert to 'Nimwegen', the city's name in Germany.

Language/culture specific passwords

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". This caused problems for German Jews serving in the U.S. Army.
Similarly during Operation Chariot the British raiders used the challenge "War Weapons Week" and the countersign "Welmouth", likewise unpronounceable by most Germans.
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 supposedly 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.^{[citation needed]}
During the Israeli War of Independence, Israeli army passwords were often chosen to contain 'p' sounds, which native speakers of Arabic can rarely pronounce properly.

Humorous shibboleths

[Olin seitsemän vuotta sedälläni kodossa renkinä] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (Finnish for "I spent 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] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), which means "I spent seven years a servant in a hole, lying on my back" — certain connotations of being a sex slave.
[Kurri etsi jarrua murkkukasasta] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ("Kurri looked for a brake in the ant pile."). The Finnish phoneme rolled R [r] in general is considered a "shibboleth" between standard Finnish 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 looked for a Jallu (porn magazine) in a pile of dicks."
West-Flanders: In West-Flemish native speakers are said to shun the Dutch "ch" /x/ (as in the Scottish 'Loch') Instead they pronounce both the Dutch 'g' and the 'ch' as a soft 'h'. In a continuing urban legend an unspecified pastor of some unspecified West Flemish church wants to impress his flock by celebrating mass in flawless 'civilized' ABN Dutch. His 'civilized' Dutch consists out of pronouncing a 'ch' and 'g' correctly as /x/ (instead of the 'h' as West-Flemish dialect does). However to be absolutely sure, he also starts pronouncing the 'h' as /x/ even if he should keep pronouncing it as a 'h'. The effects are hilarious: Instead of praying for "De hele kerk" (the whole church) he ends up praying for "de gele kerk" (the yellow church) and the holy virgin ("de heilige maagd") becomes "de geilige maagd" (The virgin in heat). Finally he ends his sermon in asking what should be "de goede hulp van de Heer" (the good help of the Lord). Instead he asks for "de goede 'gulp van de geer" : the good trowser opening of the manure (see hypercorrection).
Germany: [Oachkatzlschwoaf] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is used to tell true Bavarians and Austrians from non-natives, mostly northern Germans. [Eekkattensteert] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is jokingly used by northern Germans to expose Bavarians. Both words mean "squirrel tail".
The German word "Streichholzschächtelchen" (small matchbox) is also used to jokingly identify non-native German speakers.
Switzerland: The word "Chuchichäschtli" is generally used to identifiy native Swiss German (dialect) speakers and to try members of the other national language communities (French-, Italian- and Romansh-speakers) or foreign nationals (especially Germans and Austrians). The word means "(small) kitchen cupboard" in diminutive-loving Swiss German dialect and contains three consecutive "ch" /x/ (as in the Scottish 'Loch') separated by vowels. The translation in standard German would be "Küchenkästlein".

Shibboleths in fiction

Unionized: In his 1965 essay To Tell a Chemist Isaac Asimov claimed that one could distinguish a chemist from a non-chemist by asking a person to read the word "unionized" aloud. With no context given, he said that a chemist will pronounce it "un-ionized", but a non-chemist will pronounce it "union-ized". "Un-ionized" is in fact rarely used among chemists, who prefer "non-ionized" or "deionized", and they tend to read the word in the sense relating to trade unions.^{[citation needed]}
In his essay "The Shibboleth of Fëanor", J. R. R. Tolkien describes how the Noldorin Elves intentionally change the sound /θ/ to /s/ in the Quenya language. The king's son Fëanor considered this change to be an insult to his dead mother Þerindë whose name he likewise would have had to pronounce Serindë.
In the TV series West Wing in an episode 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.
The TV series Law & Order: Criminal Intent also features an episode titled "Shibboleth". In the episode, a serial rapist/murderer is identified largely because of his uncharacteristic enunciation of the /t/ sound in certain words; specifically, he does not pronounce it as an alveolar tap, [ɾ], between vowels in unstressed syllables (e.g., pronouncing the word "pretty," usually pronounced ['pɹɪ.ɾi] in normal conversation, as ['pɹɪ.ti]).
In the TV series The Wire, in the fourth season episode "Corner Boys", Felicia "Snoop" Pearson is seen discussing "Baltimore questions" with fellow gangster Chris Partlow in order to find rival drug dealers, freshly arrived from New York City, to kill. The idea is that anybody who grew up in Baltimore would know certain things about local popular culture that a recent arrival would most likely not know.
A TV commercial run by Tim Hortons features a family passing through Canadian customs coming from the United States. Without a passport, the Canadian driver says "rrrroll up the rrrrrrim to win" (a popular annual promotion run by the restaurant chain), properly rolling the "r". Another family, presumably not Canadian, fails to reproduce the phrase.

Other shibboleths

English shibboleths for native speakers or local natives

, Regional Vocabularies of American English

nuclear/nucular: The word "nuclear" ([ˈn(j)uː.kli.ə(ɹ)]) is sometimes pronounced "nucular" ([ˈn(j)uːkjə.lə(ɹ)]) in 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 Jimmy Carter and 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.
Lego: South Australians pronounce this as "Lago", which is infinitely humorous to Australians from other states. This and an unusual lengthening of "a" as in "castle" and "dance" (matching the southern English pronunciation) is due to the large number of English immigrants that settled there in the 1950s and 60s. Conversely, South Australians will point to the Melburnian practice of further shortening short vowels, so that the word "graph" becomes similar to the German "Graf".
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".
Pronunciation of letters of the alphabet:
- H: in Northern Ireland pronounced 'aitch' by Protestants, 'haitch' by Catholics, 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.
- Z: in North America pronounced zee in the United States; typically zed in Canada (as in the rest of the Commonwealth). 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. However, influences such as Sesame Street are spreading the "zee" usage into traditional "zed" areas.
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" (with non-rhotic pronunciation), often in the context of the stereotypical sentence, "Park the car at Harvard Yard", which gives many instances of this derhotacization.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Natives of this city usually pronounce the word 'water' [wʊɾɚ] instead of [wɑːɾɚ].
Regional vowels
- About: U.S. commentators (and popular culture) have drawn attention to the stereotypical Canadian pronunciation of about. While the American imitation of the stereotype (as seen, for example, in the film South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut) pronounces the word like "a boot", Canadians actually pronounce the word [əˈbʌʊt] which sounds more like "a boat", as compared to General American [əˈbaʊt]. 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.
- No: Residents of North Lincolnshire and to a lesser extent parts of East Yorkshire will be able to recognise a speaker from Hull as they will pronounce 'no' as 'nurr' (nurrr), whereas the surrounding accent tends towards 'naw' (gnaw).
- Tomato: UK pronunciation is usually [təˈmɑtəʊ], while US pronunciation is usually [təˈmeɪɾoʊ]. Ira Gershwin famously used this difference in the verse "You say to-may-to, I say to-mah-to".
- "Sauna": Scandanavians, and North Americans that reside in areas settled primarily by Scandinavians (chiefly the Norwegians of North Dakota and the Finns of Michigan's Upper Peninsula), pronounce the word as "sow-na". Those who reside elsewhere in the world almost exclusively pronounce it as "saw-na".

Detroit Possessive S: In Detroit, Michigan and the surrounding areas, the possessive "s" is often added onto the end of the names of almost all stores, restaurants, companies, commercial establishments in general, and even churches. Of course, many establishments have such an "s" in their name, i.e. "Eat at Joe's", but Detroiters have the habit of adding this "s" even when it is not there, i.e. Meijer becomes "Meijer's", Ford Motor becomes "Ford's" and this is pushed to the absurd point where the "s" is added onto the end of company names that clearly cannot be a person's name: sometimes Walmart is referred to as "Walmart's."

Place name pronunciations

Many US cities and towns are named after larger cities elsewhere, yet have a locally different pronunciation of their name. Outsiders generally pronounce them as their more famous counterparts. For example, Havana, Florida, (locally [heɪˈvænə]; Versailles, Kentucky, Versailles, Ohio, North Versailles, Pennsylvania and Versailles, New York (all [vɹˈseɪlz] locally); assorted American locations named Cairo (locally [ˈkeɪɹoʊ]); Lima, Ohio, (locally [ˈlaɪmə]) and Lima, New York, locally [ˈlaɪˌmə], Berlin, New Hampshire (locally [ˈbɛɹlən]), and Iowa, Louisiana (locally "Eye-oh-ay").
Many English placenames act as shibboleths. Warwick, Norwich and Alnwick may be pronounced [wɔɹˈwɪk], [nɔɹˈwɪtʃ] and [ælnˈwɪk] respectively by Americans, when the local pronunciations are [ˈwɒɹɪk], [nɒɹɪtʃ], and [ˈænɪk].
Alachua County, Florida, USA: Frequently pronounced by non-locals with the stress on the third syllable. This Native American word is pronounced by locals with the stress on the second syllable. Oddly, the town of the same name is frequently pronounced by locals as [əˈlætʃəweɪ], perhaps to distinguish between reference to the town versus the county.
Albany, New York, USA: The first syllable is frequently pronounced by non-locals as Al (as in Alfred), while locals pronounce the first syllable as "All".
Appalachia: pronounced [æpəˈlæʧə] within the central portion of the region, particularly between North Carolina and West Virginia; usually pronounced [æpəˈleɪʃə] 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 ([ˈɑɹkənˌsɑː]), Kansans typically pronounce it as if the "Ar-" were a prefix added to the name of the state of Kansas.
Beaulieu, both place and hunt named after it, are pronounced Bewley.
Boise, Idaho, USA (the state capital) is generally pronounced by locals as [bɔɪˈsiː]. Most Americans, especially those far removed from Idaho, pronounce it [ˈbɔɪziː]. Conversely, Boise City, Oklahoma is pronounced like "Boyce."
Caldmore, Walsall, UK is pronounced by the locals a homophone of Karma.
Canberra, the national capital city of Australia, is locally and correctly pronounced "Can-bruh", yet is widely and incorrectly pronounced, often by people wanting to be derogatory of the national parliament or bureaucracy, as "KAN-ber-arr", "Kan-bear-rar", "Kan-Ber-rar", or "Kam-bra".
Chalybeate, Tennessee is pronounced by locals as [kliːbɪt] whereas outsiders may refer to it as [ʧælɪbiːti] or [ʧælɪbaɪt].
DuBois, Pennsylvania, USA . Locals pronounce it [dʊˈbɔɪz]. Non-locals usually pronounce it [dʊˈbwɑː] as in French.
Edinburgh in Scotland: liable to be pronounced "Edinburg" by Americans. The actual pronounciation is [ˈɛdɪnb(ə)rə], or 'Edin-burra'.
Forest City, North Carolina, USA: Locals tend to pronounce the city's name as "Far City", while visitors or new residents will pronounce the city's name the way it is spelled.
Greenwich, London is pronounced by locals as [ˈgrɪnɪʧ] whereas most Britons (including most non-native Londoners) pronounce it [ˈgrɛnɪʧ].
Gorinchem, in The Netherlands, is pronounced as the alternate spelling of its name: Gorkum.
Gough Street in San Francisco is pronounced "goff" by locals, but any of several alternative ways by visitors. Cartoonist Dr. Seuss played on this difficult combination of letters in his piece, "The Tough Coughs As He Ploughs the Dough": Each appearance of "ough" is pronounced a different way.
Houston Street, New York City, Houston County, Georgia, and Houston, Georgia, all USA: Locals pronounce the first syllable identically with "house" ([haustən]), while most visitors will employ the same pronunciation as in Houston, Texas ([hjustən]). 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.
Two USA towns with the name "Hurricane"—Hurricane, Utah and Hurricane, West Virginia—are both pronounced by locals as [ˈhɚɹəkɪn], identical to the British pronunciation of the word 'hurricane'. Others pronounce it as the American pronunciation of the word.
Launceston in Tasmania is generally pronounced - with three syllables - as "LON-seh-stun" (IPA: [ˈlɔnˌsestən]) or "LON-suh-stun" (IPA: [ˈlɔnsəstən]) by its inhabitants and other Tasmanians, but as "LORN-seh-stun" (IPA: [ˈloːnˌsestən] or "LORN-suh-stun" (IPA: [ˈloːnsəstən]) by "mainland" Australians ^{[citation needed]}.
Launceston in Cornwall, is pronounced "Lan-st'n", "Lan-s'n", "Lahn-st'n" or "Lahn-s'n" (always with only two syllables, unlike the Tasmanian town). Non-locals commonly mispronounce it as "Lawn-st'n".
Louisville, Kentucky, USA: Most people not from the Louisville area pronounce its name "Loois-ville,"^{[citation needed]} though some are aware of the silent s, but still pronounce it "Looey-ville." Louisville area natives, by contrast, tend to use one of several local pronunciations. "Loo-uh-vull", "Loo-vull", "Luh-vull", "Luh-uh-vul" or Loo-ville.".
A similar pronunciation applies to Mantua, Utah and Mantua, Ohio. Outsiders will pronounce it as the Italian city, where locals will say [mænəweɪ]
Manuka: A locality (not an actual suburb) of Canberra, national capital of Australia. Local pronunciation is with equal emphasis on each syllable; new arrivals can be identified by the pronunciation with emphasis on the middle syllable.
Marietta, Georgia, USA: This town was once called "May-retta" or "Mar-retta" by its residents and "Mary-etta" by those that are not from there. Since the rapid influx of newer residents staring in the 1980s, this is no longer true, especially in Eastern Marietta, where "Mary-etta" is now a more favored pronunciation.
Milngavie, Glasgow, Scotland: locally pronounced [mʊlgaɪ] but often pronounced [mɪləngæviː] by non-Glaswegians. (This is elaborated upon in the article on the town.)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada: English-speaking locals (and most Canadians) pronounce the name of the city as [mʌntɹiˈɑːl] whereas most Americans pronounce it as [mɔntɹiˈɑːl] . The same applies to the name Quebec, which is pronounced [kwɪˈbɛk] by most Americans, whereas local English speakers pronounce it [kəˈbɛk].
Newcastle upon Tyne in the North-East of England is pronounced [njʊˈkasɘl] by locals and many other natives of the North-East, but [ˈnjuːkɑːsɘl] in Standard English (equivalent to [ˈnjuːkasɘl] in the local pronunciation)
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA: Locals pronounce the city's name as [ˈnoʊlɪns] or sometimes [ˈnjɔːlɪnz], while outsiders tend to pronounce it as [nuː ɔɹˈliːnz].
Nevada: Nevadans say Neh-VAH-da, pronouncing the first A as in apple. Visitors often say Neh-VAA-duh, using the first A as in awful.
Norfolk, Virginia, USA: Long time residents tend to pronounce the city's name as [nɑːfʌk], while other locals will say [noʊɹfɪk]. Non-locals may pronounce it [nɔɹfɔɫk]. See Norfolk, England.
Oamaru, New Zealand: Pronounced locally, and by other natives of the Otago region, as [ɔməruː], a pronunciation borrowed from the local dialect of Māori. Most Māori speakers from farther north in New Zealand pronounce both initial vowels separately, as [oamaru], while non-Māori-speakers will pronounce it [əʊməruː] .
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 [ˈwɑːʃɪtɑː] by Arkansans, whereas non-locals would say [uːˈʧɪtɑː] or [ˈoʊʧɪtɑː].
Pawtucket, Rhode Island, USA: native Rhode Islanders pronounce the name of the city as [pəˈtʌkət] whereas non-natives will pronounce as [pɔˈtʌkət]."
Pierre, South Dakota, USA (also the state capital) is locally pronounced as "Pier" (as in "dock": [piːɹ]). Non-locals will pronounce it like the French name of the same spelling, [piˈeɹ]).
Puyallup, Washington: Pronounced phonetically as [puː'jæləp] by non-local speakers, but is pronounced by native Washingtonians as [pjuˈ(w)ɑːləp].
Ponce de Leon Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia, USA: Non-locals (especially those familiar with Spanish) will at first tend to pronounce this as the name of the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, while locals pronounce "León" much as the common Anglo given name ([liːɑːn]).
Sanquhar in Scotland: liable to cause difficulty for outsiders.
Tulalip, Washington: Locally pronounced [tʊˈleɪlɪp]; out-of-towners may pronounce it as [ˈtuːləlɪp].
Toronto, Ontario: Toronto natives will often drop the "r" and use long "a" sounds in place of the second and third "o's" sounding more like "Torana"
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Residents of British Columbia, or often other parts of Canada, will generally pronounce the first syllable as [væŋ] or "vang", displaying the consonant assimilation typical in English when [k] follows [n] (such as in "ankle" or "ranking"). English-speaking Americans and some Canadians from other regions tend to pronounce it [væn] ("van"), resisting assimilation to the following [k] sound.
Wayzata, Minnesota Wayzata, a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota is pronounced "Why-Zett-Ah" to the locals. Out of towners have trouble pronouncing it correctly.
Worcester, Massachusetts, USA: Whereas non-natives will often pronounce as [wɑɹsɛstɚ] or [wɑɹʧɛstɚ] the local pronunciation of this city name is [wʊstɹ], like the English city.
Yocona, Mississippi, USA: Most locals refer to the river and community as [jæknə] or [jɔkniː]. Non-locals may refer to it as [jəkoʊnə].

Place name terms

San Francisco is referred to as "SF" or "The City" by its natives. Only tourists and people relocated to it refer to it as San Fran or Frisco. Similarly, residents of Los Angeles will usually not say "LA" when referring to their city.^{[citation needed]} To them, the term "LA" refers to the stereotypical Hollywood lifestyle.^{[citation needed]}
Another distinction between Northern California and Southern California lies in the way residents refer to freeways. Southern Californians will always insert the article "the" in usage such as "I was driving down the 405" but a Northern Californian would say "I was driving down 280."
People from New York City will typically give the borough they live in, rather than saying "New York" or "New York City"
The Minneapolis-Saint Paul area of Minnesota, USA is usually referred to as "The Twin Cities" by longtime residents or natives and Minneapolis usually refers to the city itself. Many outsiders refer to the entire area including the nearby and longer established city of Saint Paul as "Minneapolis". Natives of outstate (non-metro) Minnesota tend to truncate Twin Cities to "The Cities."
Long-term residents of the Boston area will refer to the inner beltway around the city as Route 128 even though most of the road signs now refer to it as I-95 (see Massachusetts Route 128).
Residents of the Washington, DC area refer to the city as "DC," rarely using the term "Washington." Tourists generally refer to the city as "Washington."

Non-English

Krai kai kai gai (ใครขายไข่ไก่) 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 [ˈʁøðgʁøːˀð mɛð ˈfløːðɛ]: The definitive test of one's mastery of the Danish language. No non-native is likely to pronounce the sentence (which means 'mashed strawberries with cream' in English) correctly due to the overwhelming amount of Danish phonemes.
Rugbrød : Danish for Rye bread, almost impossible for non-Scandinavians to pronounce due to the "soft" g and d and the Scandinavian letter ø.
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, containing only vowels. "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 [ˈχʊχiːˌχæʃtli] in Swiss German, meaning "little kitchen cupboard" is nearly unpronounciable for outsiders because of the frequent /χ/. Most Swiss would pronounce it /ˈxʊxɪxɛʃtli/ with velar fricatives.
The sentence a o'agnehm grean agstrichns Gartatihrle (a garden door painted in an awful shade of green) serves as a Swabian shibboleth. The consecutive nasal sounds are almost unspeakable for other German speakers.
A Czech or Slovak shibboleth is Strč prst skrz krk, meaning "stick the finger through the throat". This is usually used to verify whether someone is drunk or not. It is also a sentence made only of consonants.
[Estamos de huelga] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is a Spanish phrase meaning "We are on strike". The majority of Spaniards pronounce "huelga" (strike) as [ˈwelga]. Andalusians and Extremadurans, though, often pronounce the elsewhere silent /h/ and intermix /l/ and /ɾ/, pronouncing "huelga" like the Spanish word "juerga", as [ˈxweɾga]. 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) [mal] is pronounced "mar" (sea) [maɾ]. Similarly, Puerto Ricans change the sound of a mid-word /ɾ/ to an /l/, thus a Puerto Rican will say "I come from Puelto Rico".
In Spanish, most Argentinians and Uruguayans pronounce /ʝ/ as /ʒ/ or /ʃ/. This for example turns [arroyo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ([a'roʝo], stream) into [aˈroʒo] or [aˈroʃo].
Many businesses in the United States tout the bi-linguality of their workers with the advertisement "Hablamos español," literally meaning "we speak Spanish." However, the proper and grammatical phrasing "Se habla español," is often used by customers to distinguish between establishments that employ native and non-native speakers.
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 [ˈføra] (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 ([kaˈdrega]), unaware he was actually being offered just a chair (in Italian, sedia [ˈsɛdja]).+
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] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)", missing accents, such as "tiramisu" instead of "[tiramisù] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)" and uncommon misspellings such as "mozarella" (mozzarella).
In Chile, the pronunciation of /tʃ/ as /ʃ/ is often associated with the lower classes. Hence, humorous phrases like "el shansho con shaleco" (corruption of "[el chancho con chaleco] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)", the pig with a sweater) denotes a person with a genuine lower class pronunciation, or just somebody impersonating it, in jest. It is a major problem for English teachers to make their Chilean students pronounce both sounds correctly.
The West Flemish dialect does not know the Dutch "ch" (/x/ as in the Scottish 'Loch') Instead West-Flemmings pronounce both the Dutch 'g' and the 'ch' as a soft 'h'. For instance they would pronounce the term "een gouden hart" (a heart of gold) as "een houden hart". Today, most West Flemings are sufficiently exposed to standard Dutch as to know there is a difference between the pronunciation of a 'ch' or 'g' and a 'h'. Folk tales however are full of examples of elder generation West-Flemmings, raised without much exposure to standard Dutch, who tried to speak 'civilized' ABN Dutch instead of 'peasant' dialect. Invariably they would just imitate the way they think Dutch should be spoken by pronouncing both 'ch', 'g' and 'h' as /x/ alike. When trying to pronounce the term "een gouden hart" above in Dutch, they now pronounce it as "Een gouden gart". Although they might succeed in convincing some equally ignorant countrymen that their talk is 'what the civilized people speak', more than often they would just amuse their listeners by pronouncing a word with a 'h' as a word with a /x/, completely altering its meaning. For instance they would ask "Geef mij mijn goed, ik ga naar de gaven." (Give me my good, I'm going to the gifts) instead of "Geef mij mijn hoed, ik ga naar de haven." (Give me my hat, I'm going to the harbor).
The German words [Streichholzschächtelchen] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (small box of matches), [Eichhörnchen] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (squirrel), [Fachhochschule] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (University of Applied Sciences) and [Strickstrumpf] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (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 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) is used to distinguish between native speakers of northern varieties of Mandarin from northern China, and native speakers of other Chinese varieties from central and southern China, including Jianghuai Mandarin, Southwestern Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, Min Nan, and so forth, most of which lacks the retroflex consonant sh /ʂ/.
A Polish shibboleth is [W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (in Szczebrzeszyn the beetle skirls in the reed).
In Finnish, shibboleths include [höyryjyrä] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) /ˈhøyryˌjyræ/ (steam roller) and the loanword [öljylamppu] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) /ˈøljyˌlampːu/ (oil lamp).
In Quebec French, the phrase [Je m'en câlisse] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (loosely: I don't give a fuck) is sometimes used as a shibboleth, distinguishing natives of France from Québecois.
The Mid and Northern Norwegian dialogue fragment "Æ e i a." "Æ e i a, æ å." ("I'm in A." "I'm in A, too." - proper Norwegian: "Jeg er i A." "Jeg er også i A." "A" refers either to the Norwegian naming of different classes of the same grade, or to the Labor Party) is near-impossible to reproduce for a non-Scandinavian, due to the use of the vowels Æ and Å. It is also very hard for a native speaker of another dialect to reproduce with the correct enunciations and pitch, often sounding grotesquely exaggerated.
Northern Norwegians also sometimes use "Fersk fisk, rakfisk" /fæ'ʂkfesk-ra'kfesk/ to distinguish between natives and "pretenders".
Korean (language) "ㄱ", and words involving them, are almost impossible to pronounce for non-natives. Thus, words involving the alphabet will translate into either g or k in English, first being weak accented, while latter is too much.
In Budapest, Hungary, many streets and localities were renamed during the time of the Communist regime. Some of those reverted to their original names or received completely new names after 1989. Especially in the nineties it used to be possible (and, to a lesser extent, it remains possible now) to recognize people who had lived in the city before 1950 (as they would use the old, original names and be over 50); people who moved into (or were born in) the city between 1950 and 1989 (they would use the Communist names); and people who were born after the mid-eighties or moved in after 1989, especially from farther away, as they would use the new, post-Cmmunist names and would not even know the Communist ones. Referring to "Élmunkás tér" (approximately "Foreworker square"), now known as "Lehel tér" (named after the Hungarian chieftain Lehel), would just get a blank look from a newcomer. "Ferenciek tere" ("Square of the Franciscans") used to be known as "Felszabadulás tér" ("Square of Liberation") in the Communist era and was often abbreviated to "Felszab tér". This abbreviated form is still used in 2007 among Budapest dwellers in their thirties because it is much shorter to pronounce than "Ferenciek tere", but newcomers typically do not know what place is meant. Interestingly, in at least one case using the Communist name was what gave the visitor away: the square known both in pre-Communist and post-Communist times as "Oktogon" was officially called "November hetedike tér" ("Square of 7 November"), but this name never really caught on; thus, if someone called the square that, they probably did not know the city well and had gotten the name from a map. Similar examples could probably be found from other parts of the country.
Native speakers of the Indonesian language generally use Indonesian as the name for the Indonesian language in English, whereas non-Indonesians often name it Bahasa Indonesia or, worse Bahasa--being either redundant or plain wrong since the word bahasa means "language" in Indonesian.
The Swedish city of Kristianstad (=city of (king) Kristian) is, by the locals, pronounced someting like Krichannsta', with the ch almost like in German, and with emphasis on the ann-syllable. Most persons that are not from this city will pronounce it the way it is spelled, with the emphasis on 'stad'.
The Israeli city of Haifa, whose name is pronounced as [χɛ'fa] by Hebrew-speaking locals (which is also the standard pronunciation), is often called ['χajfa] by Hebrew-speakers from other parts of Israel under the influence of its Arabic name.

Shibboleths in 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 a computer with a password. If the correct password is entered, the user is logged on; if an incorrect password is entered, the user can go no further. Creating this facility on a web site means that it has been 'shibbolized'.

Shibboleths in computing culture include the following:

People with first hand experience in software development mostly use code, email, and software as non-count nouns. Others (including newbies and managers) tend to pluralize as codes,^[1] emails, or sometimes "softwares".
Computer software hobbyists and hackers usually refer to their work as programming or coding, while others in salaried positions may refer to their job as software development or software engineering. Both major alternatives carry negative connotations to some members of opposing groups and their associates. (The debate centers on the level of complexity that should be implied to people who do not have the skills or time to evaluate for themselves.)
The spelling of the Perl programming language is occasionally used as a shibboleth; the all-uppercase spelling PERL (as it it were an acronym) is often considered incorrect. (Sometimes, a further distinction between "Perl" (the language) and "perl" (the interpreter for the language) is made.) See also Perl#Name.
The use of hacker as a complimentary term as opposed to its mainstream media pejorative definition. For more on this, see Hacker definition controversy.

References

^ "code". Jargon File. Retrieved 2006-12-01.