# The Great Netherlands Shibboleth Hunt!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-netherlands-shibboleth-hunt/282505>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 1, 2005, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-netherlands-shibboleth-hunt/282505 "2005-01-01T01:28:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-netherlands-shibboleth-hunt/282505/1 "2005-01-01T01:28:22Z")

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In [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=286930) thread, _scheveningen_ was given as one word that Dutch Resistance fighters used during WWII to identify German spies – the theory being that Germans could not reproduce the peculiar Dutch pronunciation. My mother, a resistance fighter herself, had told me of another word, but I had forgotten it. I made my annual Christmas visit to San Diego, and asked her. She tells me she remembers using two, one of which she couldn’t recall, but the other was _schilderijen_ (I thought it had a [ui] sound, but I guess not). I don’t know what it means, but it’s a tricky one and no mistake. I’ll ask her Sunday whether her other shibboleth is _scheveningen_.

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**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-netherlands-shibboleth-hunt/282505/2 "2005-01-01T05:08:23Z")

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**Nametag** , did you have a question, here? Or had you intended to post this in a different Forum?

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**Author:** ![gum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bbe5ce/32.png) [@gum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gum)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-netherlands-shibboleth-hunt/282505/3 "2005-01-01T10:21:54Z")

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‘Schilderijen’ means: ‘paintings’, **Nametag**. Same hard GGG after the S as in Scheveningen.  
The ‘ij’ is used as _one_ letter here and sound a bit like the German ‘ei’ in ‘Mein’.

I can’t think of the ‘ui’ sound the resitance would use. Perhaps ‘Zuiderzee’?

A nice sentance would be: “Did you see the schilderijen at the Scheveningen museum? Yes, Scheveningen is a sea resort, but not on the _Zuider_zee”. [zee=sea]

[The Zuiderzee used to be a sea in the middle of the Netherlands. We made a sweet water lake out of it and it’s now called: ‘IJsselmeer’.] [lake=meer]

Gelukkig Nieuwjaar. [Happy New Year] 🙂

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**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-netherlands-shibboleth-hunt/282505/4 "2005-01-01T14:31:43Z")

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I’m not currently in the Netherlands, so I’m not sure it will do much good to look there.  
Not that I’ve _never_ been there, mind you, but I find it pays to move around a lot to foil plans to capture me.

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**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-netherlands-shibboleth-hunt/282505/5 "2005-01-01T19:04:49Z")

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> [@tomndebb](#):
>
> **Nametag** , did you have a question, here? Or had you intended to post this in a different Forum?

Well, it’s a belated answer to the GQ in the link, so I posted it here in a new thread so as to avoid bumping the old one.