Prompted by a recent PC and Pixel cartoon, Mark Liberman over at Language Log gives a quick overview of the state of ‘linguistic profiling’ technology. (”As you can see, the best of the systems are doing pretty well at recognizing languages, but not so well at distinguishing one dialect from another.”)
What’s especially interesting about the cartoon itself, however, is its close resonance with the related term shibboleth, which ‘refers to any distinguishing practice which is indicative of one’s social or regional orgin’.
The English term originates from the Hebrew word “shibboleth” (שיבולת) and derives from an account in the Hebrew Bible “in which pronunciation of this word was used to distinguish members of a group (the Ephraimites), whose dialect lacked a /ʃ/ sound (as in shoe), from members of a group (the Gileadites) whose dialect did include such a sound.”
Just as the victorious Gileadites subjected the retreating Ephraimites to a dialect test, to identify and kill those attempting to cross the Jordan River back into their home territory, the test in the PC and Pixel cartoon is administered by security personnel in an airport, with similar intent.
Though there is no overt reference to the War on Terror, the milieu in which this scene takes place is clearly that of a security culture. To the extent that a language test can be envisioned as a form security, without even the need for explanation or pretext, is itself reflective of how thoroughly ‘belonging’ has been detached from ‘origin’.
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