Shibboleth

[Herbert Stahlke]

I think it shows rather one's lack of membership.  Lack
of palatalization on
the part of an Ephraimite in Joshua 12 was fatal.  The
word is also used in
Freshman Writing courses to label that set of errors
that clearly identify a
student as not able to write academic English.

Herb Stahlke

 ----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark A Mandel" <mam at THEWORLD.COM>

> On Tue, 19 Feb 2002, GSCole wrote:
>
> #In recent years, as 'Made in America' has become
something of a
> #shibboleth, more than one car sales person has told
me that a vehicle
> #with a doorplate that indicates an origin in either
Mexico or Canada is,
> #in fact, made in America.
>
> I wouldn't call that a shibboleth. A lie, maybe, or a
stretch; but a
> shibboleth is more like a password, a usage (in the
original Biblical
> story, a pronunciation) that demonstrates the user's
in-group
> membership.
>
> -- Mark A. Mandel
>    Linguist at Large