Quinoa, Siobhan, Marylebone, Magdalene, Chorizo, bath, tomato, Worcestershire, Moog, Menzies, Chocolate Choux - all possible disasters, waiting to spring upon the unwary.

There are different types of shibboleth, but in today's world where many individuals find themselves communicating more through the written, than the spoken word, it's not uncommon to become intimately familiar with a concept or idea and yet only via written representation, never having to actually talk to anyone about it until perhaps many years later - this can be embarrassing since failure to adopt a culturally acceptable pronunciation of something can reinforce in-group/out-group prejudices, and give an appearance of ignorance, despite the speaker having the best intentions, and an otherwise well-rounded knowledge on a subject.

In fact, it's possible to appear to be completely ignorant in front of multiple groups, based not on the knowledge held in one's head, but the vocalisations used to express the same concept in front of different audiences. To further complicate matters, many group's preferred set of vocalisations are deliberately contrary to one another.

Thus, it is important to make people aware, at a socially contextual level, what vocalisations will identify one as part of the in-group, or otherwise - this could be an addition to the data provided within a dictionary, or might provide enough meat on which to hang a dictionary structured entirely upon promoting awareness of social context.

This ought to both inform the unwary, and serve to erode the problem into insignificance.
-- zen_tom, Mar 23 2016

Chocolate Choux https://www.youtube...watch?v=9YNSUTqEssg
[calum, Mar 23 2016]

The alternative is to indoctrinate your preferred nation (or indeed the world) into a single pronunciation of key words, as has been attempted by Peppa Pig, who has managed to get a four year old boy of my acquaintance to correct my culturally correct "garridge" to some abominable RP "garaaaahhhj". Kid got skelpt.
-- calum, Mar 23 2016


*Siobhan
-- notexactly, Mar 30 2016


Oops [notexactly] corrected.
-- zen_tom, Mar 31 2016


Making this information public defeats the purpose. These signals are used to separate the ignorant from the informed as relates to the social group, not the topic. In many online SJW circles it's fashionable to combine heavy sarcasm and intentionally poor spelling/grammar. For example: TRUMP IS REALLY TEH AWESOMENESS CUZ WOMENS IS BAD. The reader is expected to parse this either as someone unfamiliar with these circles (holy shit that poster is a complete moron) or familiar. (we're mocking those who disagree with us thusly)

These groups aren't trying to find the most informed but the most loyal to the group, so the artificial language barrier helps.
-- Voice, Apr 01 2016


One could accomplish this by speaking to some voice recognition software and altering what you tell it until it is recognized. Or typing in what you intend to say and having Microsoft Sam tell you.

More difficult would be trying to learn to emulate a regional accent, which you might if you were a spy or a poseur. Or an actor - there must be standardized ways actors accomplish this.
-- bungston, Apr 01 2016



random, halfbakery