toponymic query

[Alice Faber]

Jesse Sheidlower said:
>On Wed, Nov 12, 2003 at 11:58:31AM -0800, Geoffrey Nunberg wrote:
>>  I had the following query from a "Fresh Air" listener; can anyone
>>  help this correspondent? I very much doubt if the word he's looking
>>  for exists, but then I'm a stranger to the far reaches of toponymic
>>  terminology.
>
>It's not the specific question he's asking, but I'd tend to call
>such terms "shibboleths".
>

That was my first reaction as well. And it doesn't have to be
pronunciation either. Not two hours ago, someone posted to a
panix-internal newsgroup a news story from the SF Examiner in 1995
(Sept. 5, 1995, p. A1) detailing how some prison escapees from Utah
were apprehended in Berkeley; what aroused the suspicions of the
arresting officers was that they said "I'm from Frisco".
--
 =============================================================================
Alice Faber                                             faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                                  tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                                     fax (203) 865-8963