Digital Commons Network^™

Post Officialese, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

During many years of service with a New Zealand Post Office I made a point of jotting down any unusual words used in official correspondence, memoranda, or departmental publications. Here are a dozen of the most interesting terms, together with the context in which they appeared.

Calling A Cat A Cat, Leonard R. N. Ashley

Word Ways

Of course the French have some slang words and expressions borrowed from English or translating the English: tu parles (you said it) or avior deux cordes a son arc (to have two strings to one's bow). But really to know a language is to be able to come up with the appropriate word - and that may not be the one they taught you in school.

Competitive Word Squares, Peter Newby

Word Ways

The Pears Word Games Society (PWGS) recognizes five versions of the same basic game, though its members tend to restrict themselves to only one of these, the smallest. The National Puzzlers' League (NPL) has also played Competitive Word Squares but to a playing format that makes high scoring almost impossible.

The Palindromic Peace Process, Howard Richler

Word Ways

Recently, a tape has been discovered which record the final negotiating session of the Camp David Accord. Strangely, all utterances are palindromic sentences. This seems to suggest that language with frontward-backward symmetry can lead to world harmony.

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles in this issue.

A Classificiation Of Metalleges, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

According to Dmitri Borgmann's "Language on Vacation," metallege is a psychological term which has been adapted by logology to describe word pairs such as SALVE and SLAVE, or SKATE and STAKE. Perhaps a more descriptive term would be letter-swap transposals.

Back Cover

Word Ways

Back cover of this issue including instructions to authors.

Kickshaws, David Morice

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.

Manias, Alfred Lubran

Word Ways

In 1985, Alfred Lubran completed a 228-page book entitled Fears Phobias Philias Loves Manias Hates and Hurts (Human Behaviour), a compilation of lists of words accompanied by the briefest of descriptions. The following article excerpts the odder terms from one such list; if Word Ways readers welcome this, other such lists will be published in later issues.

The Case Of The Wrong Answers, Walter Shedlofsky

Word Ways

Monday, November 5th

"Thank you for coming, Lieutenant Jaminson. I am Captain Lemuel Grant. This is not a poetical matter. But I would appreciate your expertise."

Protestant Bible Translations In India: An Unrecognized Dialogue?, John B. Carman

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

During my first visit to Kyoto in the spring of 1980, I was given the privilege of attending a meeting of the committee of scholars supervising one of the two series of translations of Shinran Shonin's works now appearing in English. Except for Dr. Minor Rogers, an American scholar of Shin Buddhism, and myself, all the other participants were Shin Buddhists belonging to the "Western Temple" branch of Shinran's followers. Dr. Dennis Hirota, who has contributed several of the draft translations, is Japanese American. The rest of the group were Japanese. The procedure used by committee to review a draft, …

Translating, Teaching, Conversing: A Reflection In Response To The Essays Of Richard Desmet And John Carman, Francis X. Clooney

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

After reading "R. de Nobili as Forerunner of Hindu-Christian Dialogue" by Richard DeSmet, S.J., and "A Forgotten Dialogue: Protestant Bible Translations" by John B. Carman, one immediately recognizes the truth of Carman's insight that the Protestant Bible translators were engaged in a real encounter with Indian thought, even a true (though poorly documented and perhaps unintended) dialogue. Though their language skills were often minimal, and their interest in India's religions even less developed, their commitment to the project of translating the Bible provided numerous occasions for the missionaries and their pandits to search together for correct renderings of Biblical terms, …

Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 23 Number 4

Word Ways

Front cover and publication information for this issue.

The Shaming Of The True, Peter Newby

Word Ways

The theory that Shakespeare was not the author of the works attributed to him dates back to 1769, when on Herbert Lawrence was the first to suggest that Shakespeare had neither the knowledge nor the culture to produce these masterpieces of the English Language. It was not until 1857 that Bacon was first propounded as the only write of that period with sufficient competence to be the "true" author, William Henry Smith being the one who postulate this notion.

In Search Of The Ten-Square, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

It is exactly five years ago since "Ars Magna: The Ten-Square" appeared in Word Ways. This article exhibited several different kinds of regular 10-by-10 word square, including three variant "near-miss" efforts, one of which is shown below.

Scrooge's Humbug Dissected, Robert F. Fleissner

Word Ways

To Richard Armour (d. 1989), humorist par excellence "Scrooge thinks to himself as a man singularly lacking in what we readers see as sensitivity and compassion"

The Aeimnorst Problem, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

In the August 1989 Word Ways, Dmitri Borgmann's article "The ACEINORST Transposal Problem" brought the total number of transposals based on the letters ACEINORST to 55. Dmitri' article queried the extent of the transposability of the letters AEILNORST. In my article "The AEILNORST Problem" in the November 1989 Word Ways, I offered a total of 24 transposals using those nine letters. My article finished by suggesting that a very slightly different set of nine letters, AEIMNORST, was another fecund group.

Refractory Rhymes, Chris Cole

Word Ways

In the February 1976 Word Ways, Maxey Brooke defines rhyme as "the identity in sounds, of the accented vowels of words, usually the last one accented, and of all consonantal and vowel sounds following, with a difference in the sound of the consonants immediately preceding the accented vowels." Masculine rhymes have the final syllable accented, feminine rhymes have the penultimate syllable accented; and triple rhymes have the third-from-last syllable accented. Rhymes with the following consonants somewhat different are called vowel rhyme or assonance; rhymes with identical consonant sounds but slightly different vowel sounds are called off rhyme, …

Colloquy

Word Ways

A collection of responses to previously published articles.

Palindromic History Of Civilization, Howard Richler

Word Ways

It is common knowledge that man's ability to communicate sets him apart from other creatures. Only recently, however, has it been discovered that man has been using palindromes throughout the aeons. A paleontologist has interpreted one of the oldest cave murals ever found to be saying OG, GO.

5-By-5 Latin Word Squares, Leonard Gordon

Word Ways

To construct a Latin word square, make a word square out of words with non-repeated letters and rank the letters to each word by their alphabetic position (for example, ALICE-15423). If the ranking for horizontal words remains valid for the vertical words, then the square is Latin. The concept of Latin word squares was proposed by Dave Silverman in the August 1972 Kickshaws; in February 1973, Mary Younquist and Murray Pearce exhibited sever 4-by-4 Latin word squares, and Mary exhibited a 5-by-5 example with three invented but plausible "words."

Letter-Deletion Acrostics, Fraser Simpson

Word Ways

As a cryptic crossword constructor and solver, I see a lot of letter deletions: words that become other words when a single letter is deleted. Examples are SALUTED to SALTED, or MUFFING to MUFFIN.

More London Wordplay, John J. Bulten

Word Ways

With the aid of "The Wordbook," I have been able to increase somewhat Darryle Francis's collection of transposals, transadditions, and transdeletions on placenames in and near London. All words appear in either "The Official Scrabble Players' Dictionary" or Darryle Francis's article in the May 1990 Word Ways. Although there are not many new transposals, the number of transadditions and transdeletions has been significantly increased. Further contributions are welcome.

Ana-Gram-Mar Chains, Christopher Mcmanus

Word Ways

Words that break into two or more component words are the gist of many puzzles. Often the components conjure up an image unrelated to the compound: compare FAT ALLY to FATALLY, SAGA CITY to SAGACITY, CONDO NATION to CONDONATION, IMP LORE to IMPLORE, or BADGE RING to BADGERING. Such compound words are called charades.

Kickshaws, David Morice

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.

Cards, Dice, And Horses, Leonard R. N. Ashley

Word Ways

"The poetry of earth," one poet assured us, "is never dead": the poetry of gaming and gambling is not dead, either. Recently, writing about the mindset of gamblers in the Journal of Gambling Behavior, I had occasion to look closely at the slang. Here are some of its more "poetic" aspects. How many words and expression do you know?

Best Anagrams And Antigrams, O. V. Michaelsen

Word Ways

There are several criteria available for judging the quality of an anagram. To begin with, an anagram should be self-explanatory.

Logological Resistentialism, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

In his book "The New Official Rules" (Addison-Wesley, 1989), Paul Dickson has collected from correspondents a large number of aphorisms, principally of the following varieties:

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles in this issue.

Back Cover

Word Ways

Back cover of this issue including instructions to authors.