• starman2112
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    9 months ago

    Depends on where you’re from. Judges 12:5-6.

    Basically one group of ancient middle easterners had the sh sound in their dialect, and another group didn’t. That first group used the word shibboleth as a way of testing which group someone was from. Nowadays, the word shibboleth just refers to that kind of test in general. Like someone from Massachusetts figuring out whether you’re a local based on how you pronounce scallop, or someone from Kansas asking you to pronounce “Arkansas”

    Although I have no idea how local that pronunciation is. It might be Wichita exclusive for all I know

    • Soku@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Dayum, what are the options with scallop? Is that the a you can pronounce as in that, hot or must? Which is the right one?

      • starman2112
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        9 months ago

        Most Americans pronounce the a as in “at” or “as,” Massholes (and some other new englanders) pronounce the a as in “awe” or “awl”

        The right one is the one that people in your region are used to. As a descriptivist, I believe that as long as people understand what you’re saying, there’s no wrong way to pronounce a word