Digital Commons Network^™

Restricted Letter Sets, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

In order to understand the limits of recreational linguistics, and in order to identify unsuspected possibilities for research, it is often desirable to map parts of the territory. This was the purpose of "The Word Surgeon's Compendium" in the August 1976 issue and "Words Within Words" in the May 1978 one, and this is the purpose of the present article. In contrast, the ten-year topical index in February 1978 was a global map of wordplay, containing no descriptive detail to justify the taxonomy used.

How To Collect Puzzle Books, William F. Shortz

Word Ways

Collecting puzzle books is the most interesting hobby I can think of. It beats collecting old Buddy Greco records and it sure licks stamps. I wish I could say it's the fastest growing pastime in America, but it isn't. In truth, I doubt there are more than a dozen of us in the field. What a shame there aren't more.

Long Words, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

I was recently presented with Unitotolinearmultisyllabification, a booklet limited to 50 copies written by Alfred Lubran and published by the Narbulla Agency of London in 1976. This book is devoted to long words.

The Poet's Corner

Word Ways

From time to time, Word Ways receives a variety of short poems related to recreational linguistics, some original, others previously published. As poetic output cannot be easily predicted, these will be presented on an irregular basis.

Fractals, Merlin X. Houdini Iv

Word Ways

Most of us have been accustomed to placing the entities in our lives, both mathematical and real, in spaces characterized by an integral number of dimensions. Thus, a line has one dimension, an area two dimensions, and a volume three dimensions. The Einsteinian space-time continuum has four dimensions, and some attributes of subatomic particles are most readily considered in spaces of six or more dimensions. Mathematically, it is possible to conceive of a space with an infinite number of dimensions.

Japlish Riddles, Philip M. Cohen

Word Ways

A couple of years ago, a craze for riddles swept Japan; this inspired an article by James Bailey in the August 22, 1975 issue of Tokyo Weekender, which A. Martin Cohen passed along to me. Many examples in the article are bilingual, or at least involve English loan-words.

One Million English Words, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

In exploring the recreational byways of the English language, the most important tool of the logologist is an unabridged dictionary. However, it is often exceedingly tedious to search through a dictionary for words with given properties; as a consequence, many specialized works have been developed to aid the logologist: positional word lists, reverse word lists, pattern word lists and the like. The purpose of this article is to acquaint the reader with a specialized word list which is indispensible in any study involving the relative frequency-of-appearance of words in English-language text.

All-Vowel Three-Letter Words, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

In previous Word Ways articles I have examined vowel trigrams and vowel tetragrams. Since so many vowel trigrams exist as parts of words and names, I wondered how many could exist as words or names in their own right. I use the term "vowel" to include six letters A, E, I, O, U an Y, though in several of the words presented in this article Y is clearly being used as a consonant. Could a significant proportion of the 216 all-vowel three-letter sequences be verified as genuine words or names?

Particular Particles, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

One of the most flavorful and intriguing characteristics of the English language is its penchant for joining locative particles to other parts of speech to form compounds. In the early development of the language, adverbs were prefixed to verbs to form compounds.

A Nine-Letter Positional List, Leslie E. Card

Word Ways

Inspired by John Meyer's challenge in "A Positional Word List" in the May 1978 Word Ways, I decided to look for nine-letter words in which the central letter takes each alphabetical value, and both four-letter ends are words. Finding this task too easy for most central letters, I decided to restrict myself to nonpattern words. This proved impossible for only J and Z; for Q, I was unable to find any suitable nine-letter word, even allowing repeated letters.

Kickshaws, William Sunners

Word Ways

A collection of linguistic kickshaws.

Answers And Solutions

Word Ways

Answers and solutions to the puzzles contained in this issue.

Hm To Shads In Up Tibet, Roger Hannahs

Word Ways

Recently, while browsing through an old bookstore, having finished the Erotica I ran into the Esoterica. There, on a toadstool table topped with a Victorian mirror, I found a small pamphlet or notebook, badly worm-torn and dog-eared, obviously a poorly-bound student's scratch pad.

Instructions To Authors

Word Ways

Instructions to authors wishing to contribute to future publications.

Back Cover

Word Ways

Back cover of this issue.

More Basic Questions Of Linguistics, Philip M. Cohen

Word Ways

In the spring of 1970, the Cornell linguistics faculty prepared a list of basic questions that graduate students could use as a guide for reading and study. Finding it incomplete, Prof. Charles Elliott prepared the following supplementary list.

Front Cover Ant Publication Information

Word Ways

The front cover and publication information of this issue.

Words Within Words, Maxey Brooke

Word Ways

For several years I have attempted to bring some order to the logological jungle. One result has been the classification of a group of recreations: words within words.

In the classic form of this wordplay, each letter int he parent word is used exactly once to form daughter words; furthermore, the letters of the daughter words appear in the proper order in the parents.

How We Bought A Dictionary, John Mcclellan

Word Ways

Our family has always prided itself on its literacy, so when we learned that our friend and neighbor, Foster Milburn, had purchased a 'dictionary' we were interested, of course: and after looking at his I decided that we too should own one. The hard part came in determining which dictionary, exactly, we should purchase. Inasmuch as this was a family project to be decided jointly, we sat down together one evening and went through a number of advertizements of dictionary companies -- and what a wealth of information we gathered!

Canadian Number Names, Jay Ames

Word Ways

Two recent articles in Word Ways have explored various relationships between United States place names and the cardinal numbers: Edward Wolpow's "Cardinal Numbers in Town Names" in the May 1977 issue, and Dmitri Borgmann's "From Zero to Infinity" in the February 1978 one. For earlier wordplay of this type, see also Borgmann's book Beyond Language, in which he lists US towns containing the cardinals from one through twelve.

Wright On!, Boris Randolph

Word Ways

This lipogrammatic crossword is in honor of Gadsby and its author. Look hard, and you will find that a particularly common symbol is missing throughout. A solution is found in back of this journal.

Game Of The Weak, Richard Lederer

Word Ways

English verbs are traditionally divided into two great classes, according to the way they form their past tense and past participle.

Colloquy

Word Ways

Webster's Dictionary defines colloquy as mutual discourse. Readers are encouraged to submit additions, corrections, and comments about earlier articles appearing in Word Ways. Comments received up to a month prior to publication of an issue will appear in that issue.

Unlipogramest, Lou P. Stigerman

Word Ways

Master eminent lipogrammatists are an enigma to most temperamental people, misinterpreting intentions to strain imagination's limits. Spelling must represent an emotional game, not a permanent serious pursuit. Illustrations aren't meant to tell us language as it appears in usage. Interesting, entertaining, strange, unsettling, sensational, gruesome, monstrous, mountainous, gargantuan interpretations are paramount.

The Paratransposition, Dmitri A. Borgmann

Word Ways

This article sets forth a theory of the alphabet which does for logology what Einstein's theory of relativity did for physics and astronomy: achieve a fundamental unification. In particular, it demonstrates how any English word or name can be related logologically to another one by a certain transformation of its letters.

Eating Words, Roger Hannahs

Word Ways

A collection of words and phrases associated with foods and drinks.

Palindromic Pangrams, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

A palindrome that contains every letter of the alphabet is called a palindromic pangram. In Dmitri Borgmann's book Language on Vacation there appears the follow example by Howard Bergerson.

The Forms Of Q, Palmer C. Peterson

Word Ways

I have always been fascinated by the letter Q. It is elusive. It is tantalizing. It is frustrating and recalcitrant. But with kindly and gentle persuasion it can be manipulated -- sometimes. I would guess that 99 per cent of the time it is followed by the letter U with another vowel or two. It is the other 1 per cent that makes it so interesting.

Sixteen Dictionaries, Darryl Francis

Word Ways

In the May 1977 Word Ways, Kickshaws guest editor Philip Cohen made a plea for more articles based on dictionaries other than Webster's Pocket, Collegiate and Unabridged. This article is a response to his plea, based on my extensive collection of English-language dictionaries.

Comparing Two Webster Printings, William Sunners

Word Ways

Contest enthusiasts (prize seekers) usually undertake gigantic projects in an effort to outsmart and outstrip their competitors in quest of some alluring cash awards. Because most puzzle promotions in the past used the Merriam-Webster dictionaries as their official word authorities, I made a page-by-page comparison of the 1937 and 1960 printings of the New International, Second Edition. To an avid prize-seeker, this undertaking seemed to be a "must" eighteen years ago. In the hope that other logologists might have some use for this information, I am reproducing the two lists in this article.