Terminators: Wordplays for Ideas & Insights
Scientific Shibboleths: Agar, Protein, Aluminium
Shibboleth is ancient Hebrew for "stream," but its modern meaning
derives from its biblical use as a test to distinguish among two
peoples. The Gileadites pronounced the word "shibboleth" while the
Ephraimites pronounced it "sibboleth." In science today the
pronunciation of some words can clue you in to where people come from.
Agar is spelled the same on both shores of the Atlantic, but the
British tend to say "aygar" with a long "a" and in the Americans tend
to say "ahgar." In my experience, the British tend to make the word
"protein" into three syllables and a homonym to "protean" while
Americans tend to say "proteen." Some distinguishing words differ in
both spelling and pronunciation. In Britain, the element with atomic
number 13 is spelled aluminium and pronounced with the emphasis on the
third of five syllables; in the US it is spelled "aluminum" and
pronounced with the emphasis on the second of four syllables.
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