Appendix:Shibboleths

This appendix lists shibboleths, in other words, expressions and phrases whose pronunciations are used to identify non-native speakers of a language or dialect or used as humorous tongue twisters that are difficult or impossible for non-native speakers.

English

Boston accent

• park the car in Harvard Yard
  • IPA^(key): /ˈpaːk ðə ˈkaː.(ɹ‿)ɪn ˈhaːvəd ˈjaːd/

English accents

• the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain

New Zealand English

• fish and chips/fish n' chips (sometimes jocularly spelt fush n' chups)
  • IPA^(key): /ˈfɘʃ ɘn ˈt͡ʃɘps/
  • exhibits the centralisation of /ɪ/ as [ɘ], merging with /ə/

Northern Irish English

• aitch vs. haitch
  • some consider aitch to be the form used by Protestants and haitch the form used by Catholics

Social shibboleths

• unionized
  • supposedly parsed as un- ion -ized by chemists and union -ized by others

Southern USA accent

• nice white rice
  • exhibits the monophthongisation of the diphthong /aɪ̯/ as [aː]

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Alemannic German

• Chuchichäschtli (“kitchen cupboard”)
  • IPA^(key): /ˈxʊxːiˌxæʃtli/

• Audio:

  (file)

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Bavarian

• Oachkatzlschwoaf (“squirrel tail”)
  • IPA^(key): [ˈoa̯xkat͡sl̩ˌʃwoa̯f]

• Audio:

  (file)

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Danish

• rødgrød med fløde (“red groats with cream”)
  • IPA^(key): [ˈʁœðˠˀˌɡ̊ʁœðˠˀ mɛ ˈfløːð̩ˠ]

• Audio:

  (file)

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Dutch

• schild en vriend ("shield and friend")
  • Used during the Battle of the Golden Spurs to identify Frenchmen in Bruges.
• 's-Gravenhage

• Audio:

  (file)

• Scheveningen

• Audio:

  (file)

  • Used during World War II to identify Germans from Dutch.

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Finnish

• yksi (“one”)
  • IPA^(key): /ˈyks̠i/
  • Used in the 1918 civil war to detect Russians among captured combatants.

• höyryjyrä (“steamroller”)
  • IPA^(key): /høyryjyræ/
  • Consisting of back-to-back phonemes (y, ä, ö; aspirated h, rolling r) hard for any non-native speaker to pronounce without an accent, it was used in WWII to detect Russians from intercepting spoken messages.

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French

• un bon vin blanc (“a good white wine”)
  • IPA^(key): /œ̃.bɔ̃.vɛ̃.blɑ̃/
  • Used to showcase the four French nasal vowels.

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Georgian

• ბაყაყი წყალში ყიყინებს (baq̇aq̇i c̣q̇alši q̇iq̇inebs, “The frog croaks in the water”)
  • Used to showcase the ejective consonants.

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German

• Streichholzschächtelchen (“little matchbox”)
  • IPA^(key): /ˈʃtʁaɪ̯ç.hɔl(t)sˌʃɛç.təl.çən/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Eichhörnchen (“squirrel”)
  • IPA^(key): /ˈaɪ̯çˌhœʁnçən/

• Audio:

  (file)

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Hebrew

• שיבולת / שִׁבֹּלֶת (shibólet, “ear of grain”).
  • The original shibboleth, mentioned in Judges 12:5–6 of the Hebrew Bible as a word that was used to detect Ephraimites fleeing a military defeat, because they couldn't pronounce it the way those from other tribes did.

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Portuguese

Southern Brazilian accent

• leite quente que dói nos dente ("hot milk that hurts the teeth")
  • IPA^(key): /ˈlej.te ˈkẽ.te ke ˈdɔj noz ˈdẽ.te/

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Russian

• доро́га (doróga, “road; path”) (Used to check German spies during World War II, German soldiers had difficulty pronouncing Russian /r/ and/or voiced consonants.) (Vasily Zaytsev, Behind the Volga there was no land for us. Sniper's Notes, First published in 1981.)
  • IPA^(key): /dɐˈroɡə/

  • Audio:

    (file)

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Spanish

• perejil (“parsley”)
  • IPA^(key): /pe.ɾe.ˈxil/
  • Used during the Parsley Massacre to identify Haitians in the Dominican Republic.

• Francisco
  • IPA^(key): /fɾãn.ˈsis.ko/ (Latin America)
  • IPA^(key): /fɾãn.ˈθis.ko/ (Spain)
  • Used during the Spanish American wars of independence by Colombians to identify Spanish officials from locals.

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Ukrainian

• паляни́ця (paljanýcja, “a type of bread”)
  • IPA^(key): /pɐlʲɐˈnɪt͡sʲɐ/.

  • Audio:

    (file)

  • During the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian war, this word was famously used by Ukrainians to identify enemy saboteurs. People from Russia struggle to pronounce it correctly, usually producing something like [pəlʲɪˈnʲitsə] on their first try, with the stressed /i/ being an especially noticeable mistake. The main difficulty for Russians is to pronounce a palatalised /t͡sʲ/, which is extremely rare, especially in such positions. Most Russians also tend to reduce an unstressed /ʲɐ/ to /ʲɪ/.

West Frisian

• bûter, brea, en griene tsiis; wa't dat net sizze kin, is gjin oprjochte Fries ("butter, bread, and green cheese; whoever can't say this is no genuine Frisian")
  • IPA^(key): /ˈbu.tər | ˈbrɪə | ən ˈɡriə.nə ˈtsiːs | ʋad dat ˈnɛt ˈsi.zə kɪn | ɪs ˈɟɪn ɔpˈrjɔx.tə ˈfriəs/

  • Audio:

    (file)

  • Used during the Frisian rebellion to identify non-Frisians.