Re: OT: Detecting Language/Dielect Spoken

staving Michael Adams:
>Sort of had an idea, not really a Conlang, but close.
>
>How hard would it be to do a auditory sensor network or just listening
>points, at say check points in Iraq, as well as on phone lines (no legel
>protection there for listening in) to do a computer annalysis of someone
>speaking to detect they are not from Iraq or not likely from Iraq?
I've heard from a bilingual speaker (British-born Iraqi) that the Iraqi
dialect of Arabic is quite distinctive. I went to my friend's religious
wedding, which took place at the bride's parents' home. I sat in on the
male part of the ceremony, which consisted of the sheik reading out prayers
in Arabic, to which the groom and the bride's father made the appropriate
responses. (Meanwhile, my wife was in the female part of the ceremony, with
the bride, in a different room. This involved a lot of ululating and
throwing sweets, and sounded like a lot more fun). Not speaking any Arabic,
I couldn't follow what was going on very well, although I did catch a
reference to "Sharia", and the word "Amen". However, I heard from another
guest that even the Arabic speakers present had had a hard time following
it, as the sheik had perfomed the service in Modern Standard Arabic, and
most of them were Iraqi Arabic speakers.


>Is there such things are "Marker" sounds and words and like that can be
>listened for, that woule show that someone is not local?
>
I believe that the technical term for this is a "Shibboleth".

Pete

Reply