Re: P- and Q-Celtic (was Re: Reasonable sound changes.)

Steven Williams wrote:
>  --- Rodlox <Rodlox@...> wrote:
>
>> if I may ask...what is a /shibboleth/ ?
>
>
> It's a biblical thing; I forgot which book of the
> Bible, but it's in the old Testament and probably in
> the first five books (Numbers, maybe?). Basically, two
> armies were fighting, and the two peoples spoke the
> same language, so they used the word /shibboleth/
> ('small stream' or something like that) to tell
> whether the person was a friend or foe.
>
> Friends would pronounce it something like /shibboleth/
> and foes /sibbolet/. A very interesting aside.
I've mentioned this before, but I'll mention it again.

Here's an interesting page[1] on the topic of Shibbolethisation. Even if
the process itself turns out to be nothing but rubbish, it's useful from
a conlanging and conculturing point of view.

K.

[1] http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/Shibbolethisation.html