# balkons u. die straszenbahn
st. schwarz
2025-11-15



















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# index

## abstract A: idee 1

In this paper I want to explore shibboleth phenomena in germanic
languages. I’ll try to find evidence for shibboleth occurences (which
can describe words that are typical in certain registers AND provide the
potential to appear differently in phonologic realisation or semantic
expression depending on the speaker, making them behave as specific
in-group markers) in yiddish and frisian language as well as in berlin
vernacular.

### inspiration

#### password parsley

The login to one of the protected pages of a random organisation
connected with our university is often carried out using a process known
as single sign-on. In this process, the username and password (our ZEDAT
*credentials*) are not transmitted to the page we want, but only the
confirmation from an instance such that our credentials are correct,
i.e., that we have provided the instance (the “guardian”) the correct
username and password to access the remote page (a corpus engine, a
library portal, or generally a remote application on the network that
only allows access to *affiliates* of certain educational institutions,
e.g.) Both sides, guardian and repository, agree that we are only
allowed access to the resources if we are who we claim to be. For
example, a student at the FUB. Or a partisan. Or a member of a secret
society. Or: a confidant of secrets. More precisely: a connoisseur of
the SHIBBOLETH.

### evidence

uljana wolf, etymologischer gossip: petersilie: one will no longer be
able to use the word unreflected after reading about the 20,000 Haitian
guest workers (cf. Wolf ([2021](#ref-wolf_etymologischer_2021))). The
word petersilie – parsley – /[perejil](#tofollow)/ is needed as a means
of access in order NOT to appear as a stranger to the community of
natives = to fall victim to the massacre. Anyone who pronounces it
\[pɛʟɛχɪʟ\] and not \[pɛʀɛχɪʟ\], as the locals do, will be murdered. So
it is good to know the pronunciation. Or to master it.

Something similar, though less drastic, can happen to people who, to
name just a few prominent examples, mispronounce [derrida](#tofollow),
[bourdieu](#tofollow), [accessoir](#tofollow) or, to return to the
subject, [shibboleth](#tofollow) (שִׁבֹּלֶת, cf. Sefaria
([2025](#ref-sefaria_judges_2025))) or, to begin the queries, say
\[balkoːɴ\] instead of \[balkɔɳ\] and /tram/ instead of /straszenbahn/.

### methods

Starting from a GPT provided bibliography (disclaimer:of which some
entries appear already familiar… keywords: shibboleth, group identity,
sociolinguistics), I’ll dive into corpora provided and intend to consult
speakers for their impressions. That may grow to a quantitative corpus
based study or either be limited to a qualitative field investigation. I
will not only search evidence in natural language but also in
literature, which may be easier accessible.

# References

<div id="refs" class="references csl-bib-body hanging-indent"
entry-spacing="0">

<div id="ref-arhammar_beitrage_2000" class="csl-entry">

Århammar, Nils. 2000. *Beiträge Zur Nordfriesischen Philologie*.
Nordfriisk Instituut.

</div>

<div id="ref-bailey_dialect_2002" class="csl-entry">

Bailey, Charles-James. 2002. “Dialect Recognition, Group Boundaries, and
Shibboleths.” *American Speech*.

</div>

<div id="ref-feitsma_saterfrisian_2010" class="csl-entry">

Feitsma, Anne. 2010. “Saterfrisian Sociolinguistic Situation.” *Nordic
Journal of Linguistics*.

</div>

<div id="ref-gorter_new_1994" class="csl-entry">

Gorter, Durk. 1994. “A New Sociolinguistic Survey of the Frisian
Language Situation.” *Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural
Development*. <https://doi.org/10.1080/03096564.1994.11784030>.

</div>

<div id="ref-heeringa_dialect_2001" class="csl-entry">

Heeringa, Wilbert, and John Nerbonne. 2001. “Dialect Distance and
Speaker Perception: The Case of Frisian.” In *Computer Methods in
Dialectometry*.

</div>

<div id="ref-heyen_digitale_2021" class="csl-entry">

Heyen, H. 2021. “Digitale Nordfriesische Kommunikation. \#Hokerbeest?”

</div>

<div id="ref-hoekstra_frisian_2022" class="csl-entry">

Hoekstra, Jarich. 2022. “Frisian Shibboleths: Phonological and Lexical
Markers of Group Identity.” *Us Wurk*.

</div>

<div id="ref-katz_shibboleth_2004" class="csl-entry">

Katz, Dovid. 2004. “Shibboleth Phenomena in Eastern Yiddish: Identity
and Group Boundaries.” *International Journal of the Sociology of
Language*.

</div>

<div id="ref-kvist_prosodic_2019" class="csl-entry">

Kvist, M. R. 2019. “Prosodic Features of North Frisian Dialects.” {PhD}
{Thesis}, University of Copenhagen.

</div>

<div id="ref-lonn_shibboleths_2010" class="csl-entry">

Lönn, Michael. 2010. “Shibboleths as Social Indexes in Germanic
Languages.” *Journal of Germanic Linguistics*.

</div>

<div id="ref-muller_berlin_2018" class="csl-entry">

Müller, Andrea. 2018. “Berlin Dialect as Shibboleth: Indexical Features
in Urban German.” *Zeitschrift Für Dialektologie Und Linguistik*.

</div>

<div id="ref-niebuhr_pointed_2015" class="csl-entry">

Niebuhr, Oliver, and Jarich Hoekstra. 2015. “Pointed and Plateau-Shaped
Pitch Accents in North Frisian (Fering).” *Linguistische Berichte*.
<https://doi.org/10.1515/lp-2015-0013>.

</div>

<div id="ref-sefaria_judges_2025" class="csl-entry">

Sefaria. 2025. “Judges 12.6. Sefaria: A Living Library of Jewish Texts
Online.”
<https://www.sefaria.org/Judges.12.6?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en>.

</div>

<div id="ref-trudgill_shibboleths_2006" class="csl-entry">

Trudgill, Peter. 2006. “Shibboleths and Social Meaning.” In
*Sociolinguistic Variation and Identity*. Oxford University Press.

</div>

<div id="ref-voeten_listener_2024" class="csl-entry">

Voeten, Chris, Anne-Fleur Pinget, Markus Kingma, Nora Stefan, and Hans
Van de Velde. 2024. “Listener Factors in Accent Recognition: A
Perceptual-Dialectology Study of Frisian.”

</div>

<div id="ref-wolf_etymologischer_2021" class="csl-entry">

Wolf, Uljana. 2021. *Etymologischer Gossip: Essays Und Reden / Uljana
Wolf.* 1. Auflage. Kookbooks Reihe Essay 7. Berlin: kookbooks.

</div>

</div>