Shibboleth (IPA: [bl][1]) is any language usage indicative of one’s social or regional origin, or more broadly, any practice that identifies members of a group.

Origin

The term originates from the Hebrew word ?©, which literally means “stream, torrent”.[2] It derives from an account in the Hebrew Bible, in which pronunciation of this word was used to distinguish members of a group (like the Ephraimites) whose dialect lacked a // sound (as in shoe) from members of a group (like the Gileadites) whose dialect did include such a sound.

In the Book of Judges, chapter 12, after the inhabitants of Gilead inflicted a military defeat upon the tribe of Ephraim (around 1370-1070 BC), some Ephraimites crossed secretly into Gilead’s territory in an attempt to escape retribution. In order to identify and kill these disguised refugees, the Gileadites put each refugee to a simple test:

“And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay;
Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.” (Judges 12:5-6, KJV)

Modern usage

Today, in the English language, a shibboleth is any word or phrase that can be used to distinguish members of a group from outsiders. The word is also sometimes used in a broader sense to mean specialized jargon, the proper use of which identifies speakers as members of a particular group or subculture. For example, people who regularly use words like “grok” and “filk” in conversation are likely members of science fiction fandom. Shibboleths can also be customs or practices, such as male circumcision.

Cultural touchstones and shared experience can also be shibboleths of a sort. For example, people about the same age tend to have the same memories of popular songs, television shows, and events from their formative years. Much the same is true of alumni of a particular school, veterans of military service, and other groups. Discussing such memories is a common way of bonding. In-jokes can be a similar type of shared-experience shibboleth.

A shibboleth can also be the manner in which a word is spelled. In computer programming, for example, the Perl language is sometimes written PERL (in all capital letters, representing the backronym Practical Extraction and Report Language), which is a sign to Perl community members that the document lacks respect for the published materials, and is therefore from an outsider. This is frequently used to distinguish “good” job offers or books (ones that understand Perl culture and conventions) from “bad” ones. Likewise, writing Ada as ADA shows that the writer is unfamiliar with the Ada programming language, which was named in honor of Ada Lovelace. Similarly, Macintosh users can tell that anyone who comes into a Mac forum talking about a “MAC” or “MacIntosh” (with miscapitalized I) is an outsider or a newcomer.

For a quite extreme example of spelling as community shibboleth, see Leet.

Some shibboleths

Below are listed various examples of shibboleths. Note that many apocryphal shibboleths exist, and that since, by definition, shibboleths rely on stereotypical pronunciation traits, they may not accurately describe the speech of all members of the group in question.

On this day...

• April 23, 2014 - 2014
• Psalm 130:4-7 - 2011
• IMPOVERISHED MINISTRY OF JESUS - 2009
• Faith in the Valley - 2008
• Psalms 100:2 - 2008
• Job 19:26 - 2008
• Research - Two Other Disciples - 2007
• 4 Horseman - 2007
• Blessings or Curses - 2007
• Man’s Natural Nature Is Evil - 2007