The emphasis at the cost of life

In October 1937, the then President of the Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo came up with a simple way to recognize Haitian immigrants on the border of the country.
He told distribute Dominican soldiers on a sprig of parsley (perejil in Spanish). People pointed to the grass and asked only one question: "What is?" Those for whom Spanish was the mother, uttered the sound "r" in the middle of a word thunderously - they were released as "their».

In those who uttered "p" guttural, in the French manner, we recognize Haitians - they were condemned to death. These ethnic cleansing in history known as "parsley massacre».

Incidentally, the dictator Trujillo was not the first and not the only one who used the method of separating friend from foe with just one word. Such words-passwords even has its own term - "Shibboleth," which is mentioned in the Bible.

Judges tells mezhduusobits drevneizrailskimi between the tribes of Ephraim and the Gileadites:

"And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan from Ephraim, and when those Ephraimites which were escaped said," Let me go over, "the men of Gilead said unto him, Are you an Ephraimite? He said no. They said to him, "Say now Shibboleth," and he said: "sibbolet" and could not otherwise utter. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan. And there fell at that time of Ephraim forty-two thousand. " (Judges 12, 5-6)

Today, word-Shibboleth is also used, but fortunately, not with the horrendous, bloody purposes. In English, for example, they are now considered to be determinants of aristocratic origin and social status - the so-called «U English».

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