Friday open thread: shibboleths
May. 13th, 2022 01:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12I've got shibboleths on my mind right now, for various reasons. The main reason is this humorous video of stereotypes about my hometown, which includes mention of one of Canberra's most obvious shibboleths: the pronunciation of the name of the suburb 'Manuka,' which instantly makes it obvious whether the speaker is a Canberran or not. (The local pronunciation is 'MAAH-nuh-kuh', the second two syllables being unstressed vowels.)
So my question this week is: do you have any favourite shibboleths (whether from your own country/city/town/region, or just in general that you know about) — and, if so, what are they?
Other than Manuka, I'd say that quite a few Australian placenames are shibboleths, at least insofar as almost every British person I've met seems to mispronounce them. Australians say 'CAN-bruh,' and 'MEL-buhn' (the last syllables being unstressed vowels), whereas a lot of British people I've met say 'CAN-beh-ra,' and 'MEL-born.' (In general, it's safe to assume that in most multisyllabic words, Australians will use as many unstressed vowels as we can.) I would assume New Zealanders can pronounce these place names correctly, though. I also kind of think the fact that Australians use the word 'chips' to describe both the hot fried potato dish, and the room temperature snack food — relying on context to know which one is meant, and, if necessary, specifying hot chips — is almost a shibboleth as well.
Of course, the UK's own placenames are rife with shibboleths, many of which have tripped me up in the past as an immigrant.
What about you? Do you have any favourite shibboleths?
So my question this week is: do you have any favourite shibboleths (whether from your own country/city/town/region, or just in general that you know about) — and, if so, what are they?
Other than Manuka, I'd say that quite a few Australian placenames are shibboleths, at least insofar as almost every British person I've met seems to mispronounce them. Australians say 'CAN-bruh,' and 'MEL-buhn' (the last syllables being unstressed vowels), whereas a lot of British people I've met say 'CAN-beh-ra,' and 'MEL-born.' (In general, it's safe to assume that in most multisyllabic words, Australians will use as many unstressed vowels as we can.) I would assume New Zealanders can pronounce these place names correctly, though. I also kind of think the fact that Australians use the word 'chips' to describe both the hot fried potato dish, and the room temperature snack food — relying on context to know which one is meant, and, if necessary, specifying hot chips — is almost a shibboleth as well.
Of course, the UK's own placenames are rife with shibboleths, many of which have tripped me up in the past as an immigrant.
What about you? Do you have any favourite shibboleths?