Appendix:Shibboleths

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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

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Boston accent

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English accents

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New Zealand English

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Northern Irish English

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

Social shibboleths

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Southern USA accent

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

Alemannic German

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  • Chuchichäschtli (kitchen cupboard)
    • IPA(key): /ˈxʊxːiˌxæʃtli/
  • Audio:(file)

Bavarian

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Danish

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Dutch

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Finnish

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  • 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.

French

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

Georgian

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German

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Hebrew

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  • 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.

Portuguese

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Southern Brazilian accent

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Russian

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  • 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.)

Spanish

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Ukrainian

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  • 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

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