Ah, a concept that I understood but whose name I didn't know: the shibboleth (<- that's a Wikipedia link there!)

This initially came up while seeing the terrible Eytan Fox movie The Bubble, where a Palestinian man tries to pass as Israeli (because he's banging a man in the IDF). At one point the said IDF man he's banging asks why he doesn't " ( Read more... )

So another delayed Multilingual Monday. Yes, I actually have a fun reason ( Read more... )

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from the Wikipedia article on the nation of Eritrea:

There is one last native Jew in Eritrea, formerly from a community of hundreds in Asmara, whose ancestors had crossed from Aden in the late 19th century.[You know, I used to talk about being "the Jew" while growing up, but that was understandably with a bit of hyerbole. This man, however, is ( Read more... )