Cultural Shibboleth Thesaurus

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.