Can you say Shibboleth for me?

watch from 2:58 to 6:42

First off, I really had to put this movie clip from the movie "Wit" with Emma Thompson, about an English professor undergoing chemotheraphy because it is just so great!  Also, the main character describes why, to her, language has such power, and why she loves it. 

When you look up the word "shibboleth" in the dictionary (I don't know if you've ever tried to do this), you get:

• a word or saying used by adherents of a party, sect, or belief and usually regarded by others as empty of real meaning
• a widely held belief
• a use of language regarded as distinctive of a particular class

If you've never heard of the term, I'd like to introduce to you using that last definition: "a use of language regarded as distinctive of a particular class."  I first heard it watching an episode of "The West Wing," a political t.v. show about a democratic president and his staff, but it actually stems from a biblical story found in Judges 12:4-6.  

The biblical story recounts a battle between the Gileadites and the Ephraimites during the time of the judge, Jephthah, in Gilead.  Basically, the Ephraimites told the Gileadites they were fugitives, and the Gileadites creamed 'em in battle.  In an effort to keep the Ephraimites from returning to their land, the Gileadites set up a blockade by the River Jordan, and would ask people crossing over if they were Ephraimites.  As the Honor Code was not in full force at the time, the people being asked would reply yes.  So the Gileadites got tricky.

They knew the Ephraimites did not have a "sh" sound in their dialect or language, so when asked to say the word "shibboleth" (meaning a flowing stream or a head of grain in Hebrew), they would pronounce it "Sibboleth," and thus be identified as Ephraimites, and then killed.  

This is when I first heard of "Shibboleth" (sorry I couldn't just put up the video, but for some reason it wouldn't upload to the blog; definitely watch it though - it's short and really great).  In the episode, President Bartlett later uses the word "shibboleth" to determine if a group of Christian refugees from China are actually Christian, and not trained to say so solely to get amnesty in the United States.  

The story kind of reminds me of those movies of the old speakeasies during the 20's, when you had to know the password to get in and be distinguished from those who might report the illegal activities going on inside.  

FDR's First Inaugural Address: "Nothing to Fear..."

The spoken language is a powerful tool for communication and, though it has its flaws, as Professor Burton pointed out, it also allows us to convey our emotions, to direct others (in the building of towers - in father and mother tongue), to inspire people to greatness, and to share beauty (as does Morgan's post on language and the Spoken Word poet, Sarah Kay).  When we want to share with someone bad news, we ask to speak to them in person.  When someone is breaking-up with their girlfriend or boyfriend, we expect them, out of politeness, to do it in person.  

When the president is inaugurated, he doesn't simply send out a draft of his speech to everyone to read - there is a band playing, a crowd silenced, and a man using all the expression he can convey trying to reassure us that we were right in our choice of the leader of our country.  We miss face-to-face interaction with friends and family, away at college, because we are designed to touch and see and experience things first-hand.  Oral language can be used as a tool to separate us, yes, as with "shibboleth" and "sibboleth," but it can also be a power to unite us, to get us up close and personal and present in other people's lives.    

Noah Webster once said, "Language is not an abstract construction of the learned, or of dictionary makers, but is something arising out of the work, needs, ties, joys, affections, tastes, of long generations of humanity, and has its bases broad and low, close to the ground.”