It is derived from an episode in the Bible, when certain people were ferreted out by virtue of their inability to articulate something. Later legends describe similar episodes, but today this word is more likely to refer to shared cultural experience or culture-specific terms. What is this word, in what biblical context does it appear, and can you name a medieval event (one that inspired an opera) in which an example of this concept was supposedly used as a means of identification?

miffy42

Blimey is this a thesis or a question! LOL Feb 24 07, 5:43 PM

lanfranco

Oh, both, miffy. I'll be handing out a silver diploma. Feb 24 07, 5:46 PM

queproblema

I know the word for sure and the Scripture. Looking for the medieval event. Feb 24 07, 6:35 PM

queproblema

Oh, well, no diploma for me today. Here's a big help to somebody, and I'll check back to learn what the medieval event was. The word is "Shibboleth," and the story is told in Judges 12 of using it as a password. The bad guys couldn't pronounce it right. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibboleth Feb 24 07, 6:39 PM

lanfranco

Qp, you've got the word right, and if you'll just be patient enough to read through your entire site, you'll get the opera reference, too. I'll hold off on the diploma ceremony until that happens .... Feb 24 07, 7:33 PM

queproblema

Patience??? What's that? "Ciciri (Chickpeas): This was used by native Sicilians to ferret out Norman French soldiers in the late 1200s during an uprising (Sicilian Vespers) against Angevin rule. The Italian soft c /tʃ/ was (and is still) difficult for the French to pronounce." "One of Giuseppe Verdi's most musically acclaimed operas, Les vêpres siciliennes is based on this conflict." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Vespers Feb 24 07, 8:26 PM

lanfranco

That'll do. And now time for the diploma ceremony: Scroll down to the foot of this site and click on "midi sound file." Just imaginen that I'm there in my ridiculous robes to hand you your silver sheepskin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomp_and_Circumstance_Marches Feb 24 07, 8:50 PM

Arpeggionist

By the way, the "bad guys" referred to in Judges were not bad guys at all. The dispute was a political tribal dispute between the fighters of Menasseh (Menasheh in proper Hebrew) and the tribe of Ephraim. Tribal rivalries were very common in the time of the judges and at times the disputes escalated to the level of homicide and even genocide. Feb 25 07, 1:54 AM

queproblema

Well, Jephthah thought they were bad guys, and history is written by the winners. That particular dispute seems to have been between Jephthah and his followers (winners over the Ammonites) and the Ephraimites, who didn't help them win. It's rather convoluted. Were the Nazis bad guys? I know a man conscripted into Hitler's army as a teenager. He says the best thing that ever happened to him was being captured by the Americans. He's a very good guy, an upstanding, law-abiding, successful, naturalized American citizen. But I still call Nazis bad guys when I'm generalizing. (I also think the Nazis were "badder guys" than the Ephraimites...when I'm generalizing.) Feb 25 07, 2:27 AM

Arpeggionist

This is what I think the problem is - too much generalizing. Obviously there were good people and bad ones on the individual level. But feel a bit uncomfortable with negative generalizing. Richard Strauss wrote some pretty good pieces of music when he held his position in the Nazi party. Oscar Schindler saved hundreds of lives as an SS officer. I would go on, but it's really a topic for a chat board. Feb 26 07, 2:02 AM