Haleivi and bzbody: from ancient times? Maybe, maybe not, but not likely into modern times. My zaide was a wandering litvak, and he, like the bnai binyamin, did not have a shin in his speech. I have met not a few sfardi that dont distinguish between shin smoli or yemani. The Radak on the shiboles/siboles passage writes: “… because they would mispronounce ( megamgemim) the letter shim, perhaps the air of their land caused them this, such as the people of France who don’t understand to pronounce a “sin” and read it like a tav rafeh”. Now we can unscientifically speculate, based on the end of Hoshea, that the residents of Jerusalem were gole to espania, and a large number of others, mostly not from Yehuda was the nucleus of galus Ashekenaz. A tangential support, is the greater distribution of Kohanim in the benei Mizrach. If the galus Ashkenaz, followed the Roman conqeust, that would put the orignal golim in Gaul, Rhine, and in the the British Islands, ( Bag-pipes are mentioned in Mishne Kelim) it is a slim possiblity that unique dialects of the outer settlements of bayis sheni persisted in the early wandering, and filtered through the “local influences” of later wanderings.( as in not having the authentic tav dagush either)
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