holla

I've made it to Greece, and I'm going to attempt the bloggin' thing. I'm not entirely certain how the space will be used except that I do want some sort of written evidence of my escapades. It's great to be back in Europe, and the place is still much the same way I left it, the shower is hand held and you still can't flush toilet paper. Coming back has been really exciting and it was amazing to see the Greeks again, they still entertain me. The village is not exactly Athens, but it's nicely relaxing and I've inherited the Greek mother I never had.

In other news, I've been reading a book about the evolution of the English language, The Mother Tongue, and it's quite interesting. One of the things that it discusses, although only in passing, are shibboleths, which are words that can betray a persons origins. The way that people pronounce words is often indicative of their place of birth/where they grew up, and this can be used to determine the nationality etc. They have a rich history, particularly in military use, when people want to identify enemies easily, but seems prone to backfiring. It's said that the Irish used a shibboleth to determine between the Catholic and Protestants in order to determine the treatment of anyone taken into custody. The Catholics say "H" as aitch while the protestants say haitch, which would seem to make identification simple for either side. Of course one would presume that each side learned this and one would pronounce "H" in the way that suited them, but the idea is pretty.

Where it gets interesting is in the identification of regional dialects and accents, where the shibboleths of only a few words, as low as ten, can place people quite accurately as to where they grew up. It's funny to think how much baggage we carry from our upbringings, with pronunciation being the least of them. With the increased mobility of our societies people are dropping these accents and the mindsets that come along with them. We're moving closer and closer to true homogeneity, where whatever diversity that exists in America will be swallowed up into the media that allows us to spread ideas so quickly. The net can do that, despite its seemingly opposing ability to bring people with esoteric ideas together in order to cultivate and preserve them. It'll be nice to see which wins out, and whether the information age will finally unite us or splinter us.