List of Shibboleths - Humorous Shibboleths

Humorous Shibboleths

• Olin seitsemän vuotta sedälläni kodossa renkinä (Finnish for "I spent seven years at my uncle's home as a servant"). This is to tease Eastern Tavastians, who pronounce 'd' as 'l'. It becomes Olin seitsemän vuotta selälläni kolossa renkinä, which means "I spent seven years a servant in a hole, lying on my back" – certain connotations of being a sex slave.
• Kurri etsi jarrua murkkukasasta ("Kurri looked for a brake in the ant pile."). The Finnish phoneme rolled R in general is considered a "shibboleth" between standard Finnish and various types of speech defects. Small children usually learn the phoneme /r/ last, using /l/ instead. Older children can trick them to say "kulli etsi Jallua mulkkukasasta", "The cock looked for a Jallu (porn magazine) in a pile of dicks."
• West-Flanders: In West-Flemish native speakers are said to shun the Dutch "ch" /x/ (as in the Scottish 'Loch') Instead they pronounce both the Dutch 'g' and the 'ch' as a soft 'h'. In a continuing urban legend an unspecified pastor of some unspecified West Flemish church wants to impress his flock by celebrating mass in flawless 'civilized' ABN Dutch. His 'civilized' Dutch consists of pronouncing a 'ch' and 'g' correctly as /x/ (instead of the 'h' as West-Flemish dialect does). However to be absolutely sure, he also starts pronouncing the 'h' as /x/ even if he should keep pronouncing it as a 'h'. The effects are hilarious: Instead of praying for "De hele kerk" (the whole church) he ends up praying for "de gele kerk" (the yellow church) and the holy virgin ("de heilige maagd") becomes "de geilige maagd" (The virgin in heat). Finally he ends his sermon in asking what should be "de goede hulp van de Heer" (the good help of the Lord). Instead he asks for "de goede gulp van de geer": the good trouser opening of the manure (see hypercorrection).
• Germany: Oachkatzlschwoaf (tail of a squirrel) is used to tell true Bavarians and Austrians from non-natives, mostly northern Germans.
• The German word "Streichholzschächtelchen" (small matchbox) is also used to jokingly identify non-native German speakers.
• Switzerland: The word "Chuchichäschtli" is generally used to identify native Swiss German (dialect) speakers and to try members of the other national language communities (French-, Italian- and Romansh-speakers) or foreign nationals (especially Germans and Austrians). The word means "(small) kitchen cupboard" in diminutive-loving Swiss German dialect and contains three consecutive "ch" /x/ (as in the Scottish 'Loch') separated by vowels. The translation in standard German would be "Küchenschränkchen".
• The German sentence "Ich bin böse und knalle mit der Tür" (meaning "I am angry and slam the door") is often taught to Danish students in German class, due to the fact that, however innocent the sentence is in German, when spoken it sounds like Danish for "I am homosexual and fuck with bulls".
• Same for the French sentence " tous les moments courent." ( all the moments fly) - when listened to by a Romanian speaker it sounds the same as "Futu-le muma-n cur" (or "'tu-le muma-n cur" for the short version) which is a nasty curse aimed at "their mother's arse", as in "They hiked the price for gas again, tous les moments courent!")