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Newsgroups: rec.puzzles,news.answers,rec.answers Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!gatech!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!uunet!questrel!chris From: chris@questrel.com (Chris Cole) Subject: rec.puzzles Archive (language), part 18 of 35 Message-ID: <puzzles/archive/language/part2_745653851@questrel.com> Followup-To: rec.puzzles Summary: This is part of an archive of questions and answers that may be of interest to puzzle enthusiasts. Part 1 contains the index to the archive. Read the rec.puzzles FAQ for more information. Sender: chris@questrel.com (Chris Cole) Reply-To: archive-comment@questrel.com Organization: Questrel, Inc. References: <puzzles/archive/Instructions_745653851@questrel.com> Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1993 06:05:50 GMT Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Expires: Thu, 1 Sep 1994 06:04:11 GMT Lines: 2202 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.puzzles:25002 news.answers:11522 rec.answers:1922 Archive-name: puzzles/archive/language/part2 Last-modified: 17 Aug 1993 Version: 4 ==> language/english/pronunciation/homophone/trivial.p <== Consider the free non-abelian group on the twenty-six letters of the alphabet with all relations of the form <word1> = <word2>, where <word1> and <word2> are homophones (i.e. they sound alike but are spelled differently). Show that every letter is trivial. For example, be = bee, so e is trivial. ==> language/english/pronunciation/homophone/trivial.s <== be = bee ==> e is trivial; ail = ale ==> i is trivial; week = weak ==> a is trivial; lie = lye ==> y is trivial; to = too ==> o is trivial; two = to ==> w is trivial; hour = our ==> h is trivial; faggot = fagot ==> g is trivial; bowl = boll ==> l is trivial; gell = jel ==> j is trivial; you = ewe ==> u is trivial; damn = dam ==> n is trivial; limb = limn ==> b is trivial; bass = base ==> s is trivial; cede = seed ==> c is trivial; knead = need ==> k is trivial; add = ad ==> d is trivial; awful = offal ==> f is trivial; gram = gramme ==> m is trivial; grip = grippe ==> p is trivial; cue = queue ==> q is trivial; carrel = carol ==> r is trivial; butt = but ==> t is trivial; lox = locks ==> x is trivial; tsar = czar ==> z is trivial; vlei = flay ==> v is trivial. For a related problem, see _The Jimmy's Book_ (_The American Mathematical Monthly_, Vol. 93, Num. 8 (Oct. 1986), p. 637): Consider the free group on twenty-six letters A, ..., Z. Mod out by the relation that defines two words to be equivalent if (a) one is a permutation of the other and (b) each appears as a legitimate English word in the dictionary. Identify the center of this group. -- clong@remus.rutgers.edu (Chris Long) ==> language/english/pronunciation/oronym.p <== List some oronyms (phrases or sentences that can be read in two ways with the same sound). ==> language/english/pronunciation/oronym.s <== Phrases: a name an aim a nice man an ice man a notion an ocean append up end bang cat bank at be quiet Beek Wyatt bean ice be nice bee feeder beef eater beer drips beard rips buys ink buy zinc catch it cat shit catch ooze cat chews Cato Kay toe damn pegs damp eggs field red feel dread forced air four stair fork reeps four creeps form ate four mate freed Annie free Danny grade A gray day grasp rice grass price great ape grey tape her butter herb utter hiatus Hy ate us homemaker hoe-maker I scream ice cream I stink iced ink it sprays it's praise it swings its wings keep sticking keeps ticking known ocean no notion lawn chair launch air may cough make off new Deal nude eel new direction nude erection night rate nitrate pawn shop paunch op peace talks pea stalks pinch air pin chair play taught plate ought plum pie plump eye scar face scarf ace seal eyeing see lying see Mabel seem able see the meat see them eat seize ooze see zoos sick squid six quid slide rule sly drool standards-based standard-spaced stay dill stayed ill that's tough that stuff the suns rays meet the sons raise meat thing call think all tour an two ran tulips two lips twenty six ones twenty sick swans we'll own we loan well done other weld another white shoes why choose yelp at yell Pat your crimes York rhymes youth read you thread Sentences: A politician's fate often hangs in a [delicate / delegate] balance. Any [grey day/grade A] would be bad news for one professor I know. Are you aware of the words you have [just uttered / just stuttered]? He would kill Hamlet for [that reason / that treason]. How did you do in the [contest / Kant test]? I don't know how [mature/much your] people enjoy such a show. I have [known oceans/no notions] that you yourself couldn't imagine. I like [sadder day/ Saturday]. If you listen you can hear the [night rain / night train]. I'm taking [a nice / an ice] cold shower. Oh, no! [This guy/The sky] is falling! Reading in the library is sometimes [allowed / aloud]. [Some others / Some mothers] I've seen... That reflects the [secretariat's sphere / secretariat's fear] of competence. That's the [biggest hurdle / biggest turtle] I've ever seen! The [stuffy nose / stuff he knows] can lead to problems. Where is the [spice center / spy center]? [White shoes: / Why choose] the trademark of Pat Boone[./?] You'd be surprised to see a [mint spy / mince pie] in your bank. See also: the archive entry "telegrams" References: Barry, W J, 1981, Internal Juncture and Speech Communication, Arbeitsberichte. Institut fu"r Phonetik. University of Kiel. Vol 16. Brandreth, Giles, _The Joy of Lex_, 1980, New York: William Morrow and Co., pp. 58-59, who coined the word "oronym" Cutler & Butterfield, Rhythmic Cues to Speech Segmentation. Evidence from juncture misperception, 1992, Journal of Memory and Language, Vol 31(2) 218-236 Provides materials in context frames where the alternative segmentations lead to one Vs two word parsings: in furs Vs infers. Grice, Martine and Hazan, Valerie, 1989, The assessment of synthetic speech intelligibility using semantically unpredictable sentences, Speech, Hearing and Language, Work in Progress, University College London. The inferior quality of the synthetic speech often caused more than one type of error at once (bright eye -> dry tie). Hoard, James E., `Juncture and syllable structure', Phonetica 15, 1966, 96-109 Hockett, Charles F. Hockett, _A Course in Modern Linguistics_, New York: Macmillan, 1958, 54-61 Lehiste, Ilse. 1960. An acoustic-phonetic study of internal open juncture. Phonetica 5 (supplement). pp. 5-54. Nakatani L. H. & Dukes, K.D., 1977, Locus of Segmental Cues to Word Juncture, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol 62, pp 714-719 and Price P, Ostendorf M, Shattuck-Huffnagel S & Fong C (1991) "The use of prosody in syntactic disambibuation" JASA 90 (6) pp2956-2970. It has some good examples, ==> language/english/pronunciation/phonetic.letters.p <== What does "FUNEX" mean? ==> language/english/pronunciation/phonetic.letters.s <== FUNEX? (Have you any eggs?) SVFX. (Yes, we have eggs.) FUNEM? (Have you any ham?) SVFM. (Yes, we have ham.) FUMNX? (Have you ham and eggs?) S,S:VFM,VFX,VFMNX! (Yes, yes: we have ham, we have eggs, we have ham and eggs!) CD ED BD DUCKS? (See the itty bitty ducks?) MR NOT DUCKS! (Them are not ducks!) OSAR, CDEDBD WINGS? (Oh yes they are, see the itty bitty wings?) LILB MR DUCKS! (Well I'll be, them are ducks!) In Spanish: SOCKS. (Eso si que es.) ==> language/english/pronunciation/rhyme.p <== What English words are hard to rhyme? "Rhyme is the identity in sound of an accented vowel in a word...and of all consonantal and vowel sounds following it; with a difference in the sound of the consonant immediately preceding the accented vowel." (From The Complete Rhyming Dictionary by Clement Wood). Appropriately Wood says a couple of pages later, "If a poet commences, 'October is the wildest month' he has estopped himself from any rhyme; since "month" has no rhyme in English." ==> language/english/pronunciation/rhyme.s <== Unless noted otherwise, all words occur in Webster's Ninth Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Springfield, MA, 1986. NI3 = Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary NI2 = Merriam-Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition RHD = Random House Unabridged Dictionary + means slang, foreign, obsolete, dialectical, etc. Word Rhyme Assonance --------------- --------------------------------------- -------------------- aitch brache (NI2+), taich (NI2+) naish angry unangry (NI2+) aggry angst lanx beards weirds breadth death bulb pulp carpet charpit chimney timne, polymny (NI2+) cusp wusp (NI2) bust depth stepped eighth faith else belts exit direxit (RHD+) sexist fiends teinds, piends filched hilched (NI3+), milched (NI2) zilch filth spilth, tilth fifth drift film pilm (NI3+) kiln fluxed luxed (NI3+), muxed (NI3+) ducked glimpsed rinsed gospel hostile gulf pulse jinxed outminxed (?) blinked leashed niched, tweesht (NI2+) liquid wicked mollusk smallest mouthed southed month grumph mulcts bulks mulched gulched (NI3+) bulged ninth pint oblige bides oomph sumph (NI3+) orange sporange pint jint (NI2+) bind poem phloem, proem pregnant regnant purple curple (NI3+), hirple (NI3+) puss schuss rhythm smitham scalds balds, caulds (NI3+), faulds (NI3+) scarce clairce (NI2), hairse (NI2+) cares sculpts gulps silver chilver (NI3+) sixth kicks spirit squiret (NI2+) tenth nth bent tsetse baronetcy, intermezzi, theetsee tuft yuft twelfth health widow kiddo width bridge window indo, lindo wolf bulls ==> language/english/pronunciation/silent.letter.p <== For each letter, what word contains that letter silent? ==> language/english/pronunciation/silent.letter.s <== aisle comb indict handsome twitched halfpenny gnome myrrh business marijuana knock talk mnemonic autumn people psyche cinqcents forecastle viscount hautboy plaque fivepence write tableaux prayer rendezvous **** Unless noted otherwise, all words occur in Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Springfield, MA, 1961. ==> language/english/pronunciation/silent.most.p <== What word has the most silent letters in a row? ==> language/english/pronunciation/silent.most.s <== BROUGHAM (4, UGHA) for each letter AISLE, COMB, INDICT, HANDSOME, TWITCHED, HALFPENNY, GNOME, MYRRH, BUSINESS, MARIJUANA, KNOCK, TALK, MNEMONIC, AUTUMN, PEOPLE, PSYCHE, CINQCENTS, FORECASTLE, VISCOUNT, HAUTBOY, PLAQUE, FIVEPENCE, WRITE, TABLEAUX, PRAYER, RENDEZVOUS homophones, for each letter O(A)R, LAM(B), S(C)ENT, LE(D)GER, DO(E), WAF(F), REI(G)N, (H)OUR, WA(I)VE, HAJ(J)I, (K)NOT, HA(L)VE, PRIM(M)ER, DAM(N), J(O)UST, (P)SALTER, ?, CAR(R)IES, (S)CENT, TARO(T), B(U)Y, ?, T(W)O, ?, RE(Y), BIZ(Z) **** Unless noted otherwise, all words occur in Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Springfield, MA, 1961. ==> language/english/pronunciation/syllable.p <== What words have an exceptional number of letters per syllable? ==> language/english/pronunciation/syllable.s <== longest for each number of syllables one SCRAUNCHED [SQUIRRELLED (11)] two SCRATCHBRUSHED (14) one, for each letter ARCHED, BROUGHAMS, CRAUNCHED, DRAUGHTS, EARTHED, FLINCHED, GROUCHED, HAUNCHED, ITCHED, JOUNCED, KNIGHTS, LAUNCHED, MOOCHED, NAUGHTS, OINKED, PREACHED, QUETCHED, REACHED, SCRAUNCHED, THOUGHTS, UMPHS, VOUCHED, WREATHED, XYSTS, YEARNED, ZOUAVES two, for each letter ARCHFIENDS, BREAKTHROUGHS, CLOTHESHORSE, DRAUGHTBOARDS, EARTHTONGUES, FLAMEPROOFED, GREATHEART, HAIRSBREADTHS, INTHRALLED, JUNETEENTHS, KNICKKNACKS, LIGHTWEIGHTS, MOOSETONGUES, NIGHTCLOTHES, OUTSTRETCHED, PLOUGHWRIGHTS, QUICKTHORNS, ROUGHSTRINGS, SCRATCHBRUSHED, THROATSTRAPS, UNSTRETCHED, VERSESMITHS, WHERETHROUGH, XANTHINES, YOURSELVES, ZEITGEISTS shortest for each number of syllables two AA (2) three AREA (4) [O'IO (3)] four IEIE (4) five OXYOPIA (7) six ONIOMANIA (9) [AMIOIDEI (8)] seven EPIDEMIOLOGY (12) [OMOHYOIDEI (10)] eight EPIZOOTIOLOGY (13) nine EPIZOOTIOLOGICAL (16) ten EPIZOOTIOLOGICALLY (18) twelve HUMUHUMUNUKUNUKUAPUAA (21) **** Unless noted otherwise, all words occur in Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Springfield, MA, 1961. ==> language/english/pronunciation/telegrams.p <== Since telegrams cost by the word, phonetically similar messages can be cheaper. See if you can decipher these extreme cases: UTICA CHANSON MIGRATE INVENTION ANNUAL KNOBBY SORRY IN FACTUAL BEEN CLOVER. WEED LICHEN ICE CHEST FOREARM OTHER DISGUISE DELIMIT. CANCEL MYOCARDIA ITS INFORMAL FUNCTION. YEARN AFFIX, LOST UKASE, UGANDA JAIL, CONSERVE TENURES YACHT APPEAL. EYELET SHEILA INDIA HOUSE SHEILAS TURKEY. BOB STILT SEA, CANTANKEROUS BOAT, HUMUS GOAD IMMORTAL DECOS GUARD. MARY SINBAD SHEER TOURNEY AUGUSTA WIND NOCTURNE TOOTHBRUSH. WHINE YOSEMITE NAMES SOY CAN PHILATELIST. ALBEIT DETRACT UNIVERSE EDIFY MUSTAFA TICKET TICKET IN. ==> language/english/pronunciation/telegrams.s <== These are from an old "Games" magazine: UTICA CHANSON MIGRATE INVENTION ANNUAL KNOBBY SORRY IN FACTUAL BEEN CLOVER. You take a chance on my great invention and you'll not be sorry. In fact, you'll be in clover. WEED LICHEN ICE CHEST FOREARM OTHER DISGUISE DELIMIT. We'd like a nice chest for our mother; the sky's the limit. CANCEL MYOCARDIA ITS INFORMAL FUNCTION. Can't sell my ol' car dear; it's in for malfunction. YEARN AFFIX, LOST UKASE, UGANDA JAIL, CONSERVE TENURES YACHT APPEAL. You're in a fix. Lost your case. You goin' to jail. Can serve ten years. You ought to appeal. EYELET SHEILA INDIA HOUSE SHEILAS TURKEY. I let Sheila in their house; she lost her key. BOB STILT SEA, CANTANKEROUS BOAT, HUMUS GOAD IMMORTAL DECOS GUARD. Bob's still at sea; can't anchor his boat. You must go to him or tell the coast guard. MARY SINBAD SHEER TOURNEY AUGUSTA WIND NOCTURNE TOOTHBRUSH. Mary's in bed; she hurt her knee. A gust of wind knocked her into the brush. WHINE YOSEMITE NAMES SOY CAN PHILATELIST. Why don't you (why'n'ya) send me the names, so I can fill out a list. ALBEIT DETRACT UNIVERSE EDIFY MUSTAFA TICKET TICKET IN. I'll be at the track and I have a receipt if I must have a ticket to get in. Here are some others not from "Games": BRUISES HURT ERASED AFFORD ERECTED TOO Bruce is hurt. He raced a Ford. He wrecked it, too. ==> language/english/puns.p <== Where can I find a collection of puns? ==> language/english/puns.s <== garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/ts/tspun12.zip ==> language/english/rare.trigraphs.p <== What trigraphs (three-letter combinations) occur in only one word? ==> language/english/rare.trigraphs.s <== Here is a list of all the trigraphs which occur exactly once in the union of _Official Scrabble Words_ (First Edition), the _Official Scrabble Players Dictionary_ and _Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (Second Edition)_, together with the words in which they occur. The definition of "word" is a problematic. For example, lots of words starting deoxy- contain the trigraph `eox', but no others do. Should `eox' be on the list? Common words are marked with a *. aae baaed adq*headquarter headquarters ajs svarajs aqs talaqs bks nabks bze subzero cda ducdame dph*headphone headphones dsf*handsful dts veldts dzu kudzu kudzus ekd*weekday weekdays evh evhoe evz evzone evzones exv sexvalent ezv*rendezvous fhu cliffhung fjo fjord fjords fsp*offspring offsprings gds smaragds ggp*eggplant eggplants gnb signboard signboards gnp*signpost signposted signposting signposts gnt sovereignty gty hogtying gza*zigzag zigzagged zigzagging zigzaggy zigzags hds camanachds hky droshky hlr kohlrabi kohlrabies kohlrabis hrj lehrjahre hyx asphyxia asphyxias asphyxiate asphyxies asphyxy itv mitvoth iwy skiwy ixg sixgun jds slojds jje hajjes jki pirojki pirojki jym jymold kky yukky ksg*thanksgiving kuz yakuza kvo mikvoth kyj*skyjack skyjacked skyjacker skyjackers skyjacking skyjackings skyjacks llj killjoy killjoys lmd filmdom filmdoms ltd*meltdown meltdowns lxe calxes lzy schmalzy mds fremds mfy comfy mhs ollamhs mky dumky mmm dwammming mpg*campground mss bremsstrahlung muo muon muonic muonium muoniums muons nhs sinhs njy benjy nuu continuum obg hobgoblin hobgoblins ojk pirojki okc*bookcase bookcases ovk sovkhoz sovkhozes sovkhozy pev*grapevine grapevines pfs dummkopfs php ephphatha pss topssmelt pyj pyjama pyjamaed pyjamas siq physique physiques slt juslted smk besmkes spb*raspberries raspberry spt claspt swy swythe syg*easygoing szy groszy tux*tux tuxedo tuxedoes tuxedos tuxes tvy outvying tzu tzuris ucd ducdame vho evhoe vkh sovkhoz sovkhozes sovkhozy sovkhos vly vly vns eevns voh evohe vun avuncular wcy gawcy wdu*sawdust sawdusted sawdusting sawdusts sawdusty wfr bowfront wft ewftes xeu exeunt xgl foxglove foxgloves xiw taxiway taxiways xls cacomixls xtd nextdoor xva sexvalent yks bashlyks yrf gyrfalcon gyrfalcons ysd paysd yxy asphyxy zhk pirozhki zow zowie zwo*buzzword buzzwords zzs*buzzsaw ==> language/english/self.ref/self.ref.letters.p <== Construct a true sentence of the form: "This sentence contains _ a's, _ b's, _ c's, ...," where the numbers filling in the blanks are spelled out. ==> language/english/self.ref/self.ref.letters.s <== A little history of the problem, culled from the pages of _Metamagical Themas_, Hofstadter's collection of his _Scientific American_ columns. First mention of it is in the Jan. '82 column. Lee Sallows opened the field with a sentence that began "Only the fool would take trouble to verify that his sentence was composed of ten a's ...." etc. Then in the addendum to the Jan.'83 column on viral sentences, Hofstadter quotes Sallows describing his Pangram Machine, "a clock-driven cascade of sixteen Johnson-counters," to tackle the problem. An early success was: "This pangram tallies five a's, one b, one c, two d's, twenty- eight e's, eight f's, six g's, eight h's, thirteen i's, one j, one k, three l's, two m's, eighteen n's, fifteen o's, two p's, one q, seven r's, twenty-five s's, twenty-two t's, four u's, four v's, nine w's, two x's, four y's, and one z." Sallows wagered ten guilders that no-one could create a perfect self- documenting sentence beginning, "This computer-generated pangram contains ...." within ten years. It was solved very quickly, after Sallows' challenge appeared in Dewdney's Oct. '84 SA column. Larry Tesler solved it by a method Hofstadter calls "Robinsonizing," which involves starting with an arbitrary set of values for each letter, getting the true values when the sentence is made, and plugging the new values back in, making a feedback loop. Eventually, you can zero in on a set of values that work. Tesler's sentence: This computer-generated pangram contains six a's, one b, three c's, three d's, thirty-seven e's, six f's, three g's, nine h's, twelve i's, one j, one k, two l's, three m's, twenty-two n's, thirteen o's, three p's, one q, fourteen r's, twenty-nine s's, twenty-four t's, five u's, six v's, seven w's, four x's, five y's, and one z. The method of solution (called "Robinsonizing," after the logician Raphael Robinson) is as follows: 1) Fix the count of a's. 2) Fix the count of b's. 3) Fix the count of c's. ... 26) Fix the count of z's. Then, if the sentence is still wrong, go back to step 1. Most attempts will fall into long loops (what Hofstadter calls attractive orbits), but with a good computer program, it's not too hard to find a Robinsonizing sequence that zeros in on a fixed set of values. The February and May 1992 _Word Ways_ have articles on this subject, titled "In Quest of a Pangram, (Part 1)" by Lee Sallows. It tells of his search for a self-referential pangram of the form, "This pangram contains _ a's, ..., and one z." (He built special hardware to search for them.) Two such pangrams given in the article are: This pangram lists four a's, one b, one c, two d's, twenty-nine e's, eight f's, three g's, five h's, eleven i's, one j, one k, three l's, two m's twenty-two n's, fifteen o's, two p's, one q, seven r's, twenty-six s's, nineteen t's, four u's, five v's, nine w's, two x's, four y's, and one z. This pangram contains four a's, one b, two c's, one d, thirty e's, six f's, five g's, seven h's, eleven i's, one j, one k, two l's, two m's eighteen n's, fifteen o's, two p's, one q, five r's, twenty-seven s's, eighteen t's, two u's, seven v's, eight w's, two x's, three y's, & one z. It also contains one in Dutch by Rudy Kousbroek: Dit pangram bevat vijf a's, twee b's, twee c's, drie d's, zesenveertig e's, vijf f's, vier g's, twee h's, vijftien i's, vier j's, een k, twee l's, twee m's, zeventien n's, een o, twee p's, een q, zeven r's, vierentwintig s's, zestien t's, een u, elf v's, acht w's, een x, een y, and zes z's. References: Dewdney, A.K. Scientific American, Oct. 1984, pp 18-22. Sallows, L.C.F. Abacus, Vol.2, No.3, Spring 1985, pp 22-40. Sallows, L.C.F. Word Ways, Feb. & May 1992 Hofstadter, D. Scientific American, Jan. 1982, pp 12-17. ==> language/english/self.ref/self.ref.numbers.p <== What true sentence has the form: "There are _ 0's, _ 1's, _ 2's, ..., in this sentence"? The "'s" can be dropped if there is only one of any number. ==> language/english/self.ref/self.ref.numbers.s <== There are 1 0, 7 1's, 3 2's, 2 3's, 1 4, 1 5, 1 6, 2 7's, 1 8, and 1 9 in this sentence. There are 1 0, 11 1's, 2 2's, 1 3, 1 4, 1 5, 1 6, 1 7, 1 8, and 1 9 in this sentence. ==> language/english/self.ref/self.ref.words.p <== What sentence describes its own word, syllable and letter count? ==> language/english/self.ref/self.ref.words.s <== This sentence contains ten words, eighteen syllables, and sixty-four letters. ==> language/english/sentences/behead.p <== Is there a sentence that remains a sentence when all its words are beheaded? ==> language/english/sentences/behead.s <== Show this bold Prussian that praises slaughter, slaughter brings rout. ==> language/english/sentences/charades.p <== A ....... surgeon was ....... to operate because he had ....... ==> language/english/sentences/charades.s <== A notable surgeon was not able to operate because he had no table. ==> language/english/sentences/emphasis.p <== List some sentences that change meaning when the emphasis is moved. ==> language/english/sentences/emphasis.s <== Give what you WANT to her and keep the rest for yourself. Give what YOU want to HER and keep the rest for yourself. ==> language/english/sentences/pangram.p <== A "pangram" is a sentence containing all 26 letters. What is the shortest pangram (measured by number of letters or words)? What is the shortest word list using all 26 letters in alphabetical order? In reverse alphabetical order? ==> language/english/sentences/pangram.s <== The single-letter words that have meanings unrelated to their letter shapes or sounds, position in the alphabet, etc. are: a - indefinite article; on; in; at; to; he; him; she; her; they; them; it; I; have; of; all c - 100; cocaine; programming language d - 500 e - base of natural logs; eccentricity; enlarging g - acceleration of gravity; general ability; $1000; general audience i - one; unit vector in x direction; personal pronoun; in; aye j - one; unit vector in y direction k - 1000; 1024; strikeout; unit vector in z direction l - 50; ell; elevated railroad m - 1000; em; pica; an antigen of human blood n - an indefinite number; en; an antigen of human blood o - oh q - quality of oscillatory circuit R - one of the three Rs; restricted audience t - t-shirt u - upper class v - five w - w particle x - unknown quantity; atmospherics; adults only y - unknown quantity; YMCA z - unknown quantity; buzzing sound; z particle It is therefore advisable to exclude single-letter words, with the possible exception of 'a'. As always, word acceptability varies with the dictionaries used. We use these: 9C - Merriam-Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, 1986 NI3 - Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary, 1961 NI2 - Merriam-Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, 1935 OED - Oxford English Dictionary with Supplements, 1933 - 85 '+' indicates obsolete, dialectical, slang, or otherwise substandard word. Some exceptional pangrams: Using only words in 9C: Sympathizing would fix Quaker objectives. (5 words, 36 letters) Quick brown fox, jump over the lazy dogs. (8 words, 32 letters) Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs. (8 words, 32 letters) Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz. (7 words, 31 letters) The five boxing wizards jump quickly. (6 words, 31 letters) How quickly daft jumping zebras vex. (6 words, 30 letters) Dub waltz, nymph, for quick jigs vex. (7 words, 28 letters, Stephen Smith, from a palindrome by Gyles Brandreth) Quartz glyph job vex'd cwm finks. (6 words?, 26 letters) Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz. (6 words, 26 letters, Dmitri Borgmann) Using words in 9C and NI3: Veldt jynx grimps waqf zho buck. (6 words, 26 letters, Michael Jones) Using words in 9C, NI3 and NI3+: Squdgy fez, blank jimp crwth vox. (6 words, 26 letters, Claude Shannon) Using words in 9C, NI3, NI2 and NI2+: Phlegms fyrd wuz qvint jackbox. (5 words, 26 letters, Dmitri Borgmann) Some exceptional panalphabetic word lists: jackbox viewfinder phlegmy quartz (4 words, 31 letters, Mary Hazard) benzoxycamphors quick-flowing juventude (3 words, 36 letters, Darryl Francis) Some exceptional nearly panalphabetic isogrammatic word lists: blacksmith gunpowdery (2 words, 20 letters) humpbacks frowzy tingled (3 words, 22 letters) Some exceptional panalphabetic word lists with letters in alphabetical order: Using only words in 9C: a BCD ef ghi jack limn op querist ulva wax oyez (11 words, 37 letters) ABC defog hijack limn op querist ulva wax oyez (9 words, 38 letters) Using words in 9C and NI3: a BCD ef ghi jak limn op qres to uva wax oyez (12 words, 34 letters) ABC defy ghi jak limn op qres to uva wax oyez (11 words, 35 letters) ABC defy ghi jak limn opaquers turves wax oyez (9 words, 38 letters) scabicide afghani jokul manrope querist purview oxygenize (7 words, 51 letters) Using words in 9C, NI3 and NI3+: a BCD ef ghi jak limn op QRS to uva wax yez (12 words, 32 letters) ABC defy ghi jak limn op QRS to uva wax yez (11 words, 33 letters) ab cad ef ghi jak limn op qre stun vow ox yez (12 words, 34 letters) ABC defy ghi jak limn op querist uva wax yez (10 words, 35 letters) Using words in 9C, NI3, NI3+, NI2 and NI2+: ABC def ghi jak limn op qre struv wax yez (10 words, 32 letters) ABC def ghi jak limn opaquer struv wax yez (9 words, 34 letters) Using words in 9C, NI3, NI3+, NI2, NI2+ and the OED: ABC defog hij klam nop QRS tu vow XYZ (9 words, 29 letters, Jeff Grant) ABC def ghi jak limn op qres tu vow XYZ (10 words, 30 letters) ABC defog hij klam nop querist uvrow XYZ (8 words, 33 letters, Jeff Grant) ABC defyghe bij sklim nop querist uvrow XYZ (8 words, 36 letters) ABC defog hijack limnophil querist uvrow XYZ (7 words, 38 letters, Jeff Grant) Some exceptional panalphabetic word lists with letters in reverse alpha order: Using words from 9C: lazy ox ow vug tsar quip on milk jib hag fed cab a (13 words, 38 letters) lazy ox wave uts reequip on milk jihad gifted cabal (10 words, 42 letters) Using words from 9C and NI3: lazy ox ow vug tsar quip on milk jib hag fed caba (12 words, 38 letters) lazy ox wave uts roque pon milk jihad gifted caba (10 words, 40 letters) Using words from 9C, NI3 and NI2: zo yex wu vug tsar quip on milk jib hag fed caba (12 words, 37 letters) zo yex wave uts roque pon milk jihad gifted caba (10 words, 39 letters) All words are main entries in 9C except the following: 9C: ghi (at 'ghee') NI3: caba, fyrd, jak, opaquers, pon, qre(s), squdgy, uva NI3+: jimp, QRS (at 'QRS complex'), sklim, vox (at 'vox populi'), yez NI2: benzoxycamphors, jackbox, limnophil, quick-flowing, yex, zo NI2+: def, juventude, klam, quar, qvint, struv, tu, wuz OED: defyghe (at 'defy'), bij (at 'buy'), hij, nop, uvrow (at 'yuffrouw'), XYZ (at 'X') The first time I saw this pangram was in Gyles Brandeth's _The Joy of Lex_. It appeared there as: Waltz, nymph, for quick jigs vex Bud. (7 words, 28 letters, proper noun.) I always wondered why they didn't try modifying it as: Waltz, nymph, for quick jigs vex buds. (7 words, 29 letters, no proper noun.) However, why fast dances would irritate incipient flowers is beyond me, so I tried again: Waltz, dumb nymph, for quick jigs vex. (7 words, 29 letters, no proper noun, makes more sense.) However, sounds kind of sexist, and we can maybe chop off a letter and eliminate the sexism, although suffering some loss of sense: Waltz, bud nymph, for quick jigs vex. (7 words, 28 letters, no proper noun, makes less sense.) There are river nymphs and tree nymphs and mountain nymphs, so there can be nymphs of the aforementioned incipent flowers, right? Sense is a matter of opinion, so you can move the bud around or turn it into another imperative verb rather than a noun-as-adjective: Waltz, nymph, bud, for quick jigs vex. (7 words, 28 letters, no proper noun, sense is dubious.) [We've all heard of budding youth, right?] Waltz, nymph, for quick bud jigs vex. (7 words, 28 letters, no proper noun, sense is dubious.) [Yeah, we've all learned to dance a merry jig that looks like one of those infamous incipient flowers.] Dub waltz, nymph, for quick jigs vex. (7 words, 28 letters, no proper noun, came up with this on the spot and actually it looks pretty good!) [The idea being that a nymph, being in control of the soundtrack for a TV sitcom, has to change the music to which a grandmother is listening, from something from Ireland to something from Strauss.] -- Stephen Joseph Smith <sjsmith@cs.umd.edu> It is fairly straightforward, if time-consuming, to search for minimal pangrams given a suitable lexicon, and the enclosed program does this. The run time is of the order of 20 MIPS-days if fed `Official Scrabble Words', a document nominally listing all sufficiently short words playable in tournament Scrabble in Britain. I also enclose a lexicon which will reproduce the OSW results much more quickly. The results are dominated by onomatopoeic interjections (`pst', `sh', etc.), and words borrowed from Welsh (`cwm', `crwth') and Arabic (`qat', `suq'). Other lexicons will contain a very different leavening of such words, and yield a very different set of pangrams. Readers are invited to form sentences (or, less challenging, newspaper headlines) from these pangrams. Few are amenable to this sort of thing. -- Steve Thomas -----cut-----here----- #include <stdio.h> #include <ctype.h> extern void *malloc (); extern void *realloc (); long getword (); #define MAXWORD 26 int list[MAXWORD]; int lp; struct list { struct list *next; char *word; }; struct word { long mask; struct list *list; } *w; int wp; int wsize; char wordbuf[BUFSIZ]; char *letters = "qxjzvwfkbyhpmgcdultnoriase"; int cmp (ap, bp) struct word *ap, *bp; { char *p; long a = ap->mask, b = bp->mask; for (p = letters; *p; p++) { long m = 1L << (*p - 'a'); if ((a & m) != (b & m)) if ((a & m) != 0) return -1; else return 1; } return 0; } void * newmem (p, size) void *p; int size; { if (p) p = realloc (p, size); else p = malloc (size); if (p == NULL) { fprintf (stderr, "Out of memory\n"); exit (1); } return p; } char * dupstr (s) char *s; { char *p = newmem ((void *)NULL, strlen (s) + 1); strcpy (p, s); return p; } main (argc, argv) int argc; char **argv; { long m; int i, j; while ((m = getword (stdin)) != 0) { if (wp >= wsize) { wsize += 1000; w = newmem (w, wsize * sizeof (struct word)); } w[wp].mask = m; w[wp].list = newmem ((void *)NULL, sizeof (struct list)); w[wp].list->word = dupstr (wordbuf); w[wp].list->next = (struct list *)NULL; wp++; } qsort (w, wp, sizeof (struct word), cmp); for (i = 1, j = 1; j < wp; j++) { if (w[j].mask == w[i - 1].mask) { w[j].list->next = w[i - 1].list; w[i - 1].list = w[j].list; } else w[i++] = w[j]; } wp = i; pangram (0L, 0, letters); exit (0); } pangram (sofar, min, lets) long sofar; int min; char *lets; { register int i; register long must; if (sofar == 0x3ffffff) { print (); return; } for (; *lets; lets++) if ((sofar & (1 << (*lets - 'a'))) == 0) break; must = 1 << (*lets - 'a'); for (i = min; i < wp; i++) { if (w[i].mask & sofar) continue; if ((w[i].mask & must) == 0) continue; list[lp++] = i; pangram (w[i].mask | sofar, i + 1, lets); --lp; } } long getword (fp) FILE *fp; { long mask, m; char *p; char c; while (fgets (wordbuf, sizeof (wordbuf), fp) != NULL) { p = wordbuf; mask = 0L; while ((c = *p++) != '\0') { if (!islower (c)) break; m = 1L << (c - 'a'); if ((mask & m) != 0) break; mask |= m; } if (c == '\n') p[-1] = c = '\0'; if (c == '\0' && mask) return mask; } return 0; } print () { int i; for (i = 0; i < lp; i++) { struct word *p = &w[list[i]]; struct list *l; if (p->list->next == NULL) printf ("%s", p->list->word); else { printf ("("); for (l = p->list; l; l = l->next) { printf ("%s", l->word); if (l->next) printf (" "); } printf (")"); } if (i != lp - 1) printf (" "); } printf ("\n"); fflush (stdout); } -----and-----here----- ankh bad bag bald balk balks band bandh bang bank bap bard barf bark bed beds beg bend benj berk berks bez bhang bid big bight bilk bink bird birds birk bisk biz blad blag bland blank bled blend blight blimp blin blind blink blintz blip blitz block blond blunk blunks bod bods bog bok boks bold bond bong bonk bonks bop bord bords bosk box brad brank bred brink brinks brod brods brog brogh broghs bud bug bugs bulk bulks bump bumps bund bunds bung bungs bunk bunks burd burds burg burgh burghs burk burks burp busk by ch crwth cwm cwms dab dag dak damp dap deb debs debt deft delf delfs delft delph delphs depth derv dervs dhak dib dig dight dink dinks dirk disk div divs dob dobs dog dop dorp dowf drab draft drib dribs drip drop drub drubs drunk drunks dub dug dugs dung dunk dunks dup dusk dwarf dzo dzos fad fag falx fank fard fax fed fend fends fenks fez fib fid fig fight fink firk fisk fix fiz fjord fjords flab flag flak flank flap flax fled fleg flex flight flimp flip flisk flix flog flogs flong flongs flop flops flub flump flumps flung flunk flux fob fobs fog fogs fold folds folk folks fond fonds fop fops ford fords fork forks fox frab frank frap fremd fright friz frog frond frump frumps fub fud fug fugs fund funds funk funks fy fyrd fyrds gab gad gamb gamp gap gawk gawp ged geld gib gid gif gild gink gip gju gjus gled glib glid glift glitz glob globs glyph glyphs gob god gold golf golfs golp golps gonk gov govs gowd gowf gowfs gowk gowks graft graph grub grypt gub gubs gulf gulfs gulp gulph gulphs gunk gup gym gymp gyp gyps hadj hank hyp hyps jab jag jak jamb jap jark jerk jerks jib jibs jig jimp jink jinks jinx jird jirds jiz job jobs jog jogs jud juds jug jugs junk junks jynx kang kant kaw keb kebs ked kef kefs keg kelp kemb kemp kep kerb kerbs kerf kerfs kex khan khud khuds kid kids kif kifs kight kild kiln kilp kind kinds king kip klepht knag knight knob knobs knub knubs kob kobs kond kop kops kraft krantz kranz kvetch ky kynd kynds lav lev lez link luz lynx mawk nabk nth pad park pawk pax ped peg pegh peghs pelf pelfs penk perk perv pervs phang phiz phlox pig pight pix pleb plebs pled plight plink plod plongd plonk pluck plug plumb plumbs plunk ply pod polk polks pong pork pox poz prex prod prof prog pst pub pud pug pugh pulk pulks punk pyx qat qats qibla qiblas quark quiz sh skelf skid skrump skug sphinx spiv squawk st sunk suq swiz sylph tank thilk tyg vamp van vang vant veg veld velds veldt vend vends verb verbs vet vex vibs vild vint vly vox vug vugs vuln waltz wank welkt whack zag zap zarf zax zed zek zeks zel zig zigs zimb zimbs zing zings zip zips zit zurf zurfs ==> language/english/sentences/repeated.words.p <== What is a sentence with the same word several times repeated? Do not use quotation marks, proper names, a language other than English, or anything else distasteful. ==> language/english/sentences/repeated.words.s <== Five "had"s in a row: The parents were unable to conceive, so they hired someone else to be a surrogate. The parents had had a surrogate have their child. The parents had had had their child. The child had had no breakfast. The child whose parents had had had had had no breakfast. It is arguably possible to construct sentences with arbitrarily many repetitions of a word. For example: 1. Bulldogs fight 2. Bulldogs bulldogs fight fight. (i.e., bulldogs (that) bulldogs fight, (themselves) fight) 3. Bulldogs bulldogs bulldogs fight fight fight. (i.e., bulldogs (that) bulldogs (that) bulldogs fight, (themselves) fight, (themselves) fight) ... n. etc. ==> language/english/sentences/sentence.p <== Find a sentence with words beginning with the letters of the alphabet, in order. ==> language/english/sentences/sentence.s <== After boxes containing dynamite exploded furiously, generating hellish inferno jet killing laboring miners, novice operator, paralyzed, quickly refuses surgical treatment until veteran workers x-ray youth zealously. A big cuddly dog emitted fierce growls, happily ignoring joyful kids licking minute nuts on pretty queer rotten smelly toadstools underneath vampires who x-rayed young zombies. ==> language/english/sentences/snowball.p <== Construct the longest coherent sentence you can such that the nth word is n letters long. ==> language/english/sentences/snowball.s <== I do not know where family doctors acquired illegibly perplexing handwriting; nevertheless, extraordinary pharmaceutical intellectuality, counterbalancing indecipherability, transcendentalizes intercommunications' incomprehensibleness. If you add the condition that the letters in each word must be in inverse alphabetic order, you have: A zo fed upon solid toffee zyxomma. ==> language/english/sentences/weird.p <== Make a sentence containing only words that violate the "i before e" rule. ==> language/english/sentences/weird.s <== From the May, 1990 _Word Ways_: That is IE - Or, Is That EI? by Paul Leopold Stockholm, Sweden "Seeing wherein neither weirdly-veiled sovereign deigned agreeing, their feisty heirs, leisurely eyeing eight heinous deity-freightened reindeer sleighs, counterfeited spontaneity, freeing rein (reveille, neighing!); forfeited obeisance, fleeing neighborhood. Kaleidoscopically-veined foreign heights being seized, either reigned, sleight surfeited, therein; reinvented skein-dyeing; reiteratedly inveighed, feigning weighty seismological reinforcement." The above passage appears in a book on the ecological conservation measures of the enlightened plutocracies of antiquity, Ancient Financier Aristocracies' Conscientious Scientific Species Policies, by Creighton Leigh Peirce and Keith Leiceister Reid. . . . Any beings decreeing such ogreish, albeit nonpareil, homogeneity must be nucleic protein-deficient from sauteing pharmacopoeial caffeine and codeine! From an 'fgrep cie /usr/dict/words', with similiar words removed. ancient coefficient concierge conscience conscientious deficient efficient financier glacier hacienda Muncie omniscient proficient science Societe(?) society species sufficient A search through Webster's on-line dictionary produced the following exceptions: Word: *cie* Possible matches are: 1. -facient 2. abortifacient 3. ancien regime 4. ancient 5. ancientry 6. boccie 7. cenospecies 8. christian science 9. coefficient 10. concierge 11. conscience 12. conscience money 13. conscientious 14. conscientious objector15. deficiency 16. deficiency disease 17. deficient 18. domestic science 19. earth science 20. ecospecies 21. efficiency 22. efficiency engineer 23. efficient 24. facies 25. fancier 26. financier 27. genospecies 28. geoscience 29. glacier 30. glacier theory 31. habeas corpus ad subjiciendum32. hacienda 33. inconscient 34. inefficiency 35. inefficient 36. insufficience 37. insufficiency 38. insufficient 39. international scientific vocabulary 40. library science 41. liquefacient 42. mental deficiency 43. mutafacient 44. natural science 45. nescience 46. omniscience 47. omniscient 48. physical science 49. political science 50. precieux 51. prescience 52. prescientific 53. prima facie 54. proficiency 55. proficient 56. pseudoscience 57. rubefacient 58. science 59. science fiction 60. scient 61. sciential 62. scientific 63. scientific method 64. scientism 65. scientist 66. scientistic 67. secret society 68. self-sufficiency 69. self-sufficient 70. social science 71. social scientist 72. societal 73. society 74. society verse 75. somnifacient 76. specie 77. species 78. stupefacient 79. sub specie aeternitatis80. subspecies 81. sufficiency 82. sufficient 83. sufficient condition 84. superficies 85. type species 86. unscientific 87. valenciennes 88. vers de societe ==> language/english/sentences/word.boundaries.p <== List some sentences that can be radically altered by changing word boundaries and punctuation. ==> language/english/sentences/word.boundaries.s <== Issues topping our mail: manslaughter. Is Sue stopping our mailman's laughter? The real ways I saw it. There always is a wit. You read evil tomes, Tim, at Ed's issue. "You're a devil, Tom!" estimated sis Sue. ==> language/english/spelling/gry.p <== Find three completely different words ending in "gry." ==> language/english/spelling/gry.s <== Aside from "angry" and "hungry" and words derived therefrom, there is only one word ending with "-gry" in Webster's Third Unabridged: "aggry." However, this word is defective in that it is part of a phrase "aggry beads." The OED's usage examples all talk about "aggry beads." Moving to older dictionaries, we find that "gry" itself is a word in Webster's Second Unabridged (and the OED): gry, n. [L. gry, a trifle; Gr. gry, a grunt] 1. a measure equal to one-tenth of a line. [Obs.] (Obs. = obsolete) 2. anything very small. [Rare.] This is a list of 100 words, phrases and names ending in "gry": [Explanation of references is given at the end of the list.] aggry [OED:1:182; W2; W3] Agry Dagh (Mount Agry) [EB11] ahungry [OED:1:194; FW; W2] angry [OED; FW; W2; W3] anhungry [OED:1:332; W2] Badagry [Johnston; EB11] Ballingry [Bartholomew:40; CLG:151; RD:164, pl.49] begry [OED:1:770,767] bewgry [OED:1:1160] bowgry [OED:1:1160] braggry [OED:1:1047] Bugry [TIG] Chockpugry [Worcester] Cogry [BBC] cony-gry [OED:2:956] conyngry [OED:2:956] Croftangry [DFC, as "Chrystal Croftangry"] dog-hungry [W2] Dshagry [Stieler] Dzagry [Andree] eard-hungry [CED (see "yird"); CSD] Echanuggry [Century:103-104, on inset map, Key 104 M 2] Egry [France; TIG] ever-angry [W2] fire-angry [W2] Gagry [EB11] gry (from Latin _gry_) [OED:4/2:475; W2] gry (from Romany _grai_) [W2] haegry [EDD (see "hagery")] half-angry [W2] hangry [OED:1:329] heart-angry [W2] heart-hungry [W2] higry pigry [OED:5/1:285] hogry [EDD (see "huggerie"); CSD] hogrymogry [EDD (see "huggerie"); CSD (as "hogry-mogry")] hongry [OED:5/1:459; EDD:3:282] huggrymuggry [EDD (see "huggerie"); CSD (as "huggry-muggry")] hungry [OED; FW; W2; W3] Hungry Bungry [Daily Illini, in ad for The Giraffe, Spring 1976] iggry [OED] Jagry [EB11] kaingry [EDD (see "caingy")] land-hungry [OED; W2] leather-hungry [OED] Langry [TIG; Times] Lisnagry [Bartholomew:489] MacLoingry [Phillips (as "Flaithbhertach MacLoingry")] mad-angry [OED:6/2:14] mad-hungry [OED:6/2:14] magry [OED:6/2:36, 6/2:247-48] malgry [OED:6/2:247] man-hungry [OED] Margry [Indians (see "Pierre Margry" in bibliog., v.2, p.1204)] maugry [OED:6/2:247-48] mawgry [OED:6/2:247] meagry [OED:6/2:267] meat-hungry [W2] menagry [OED (see "managery")] messagry [OED] nangry [OED] overangry [RH1; RH2] Pelegry [CE (in main index as "Raymond de Pelegry")] Pingry [Bio-Base; HPS:293-94, 120-21] podagry [OED; W2 (below the line)] Pongry [Andree (Supplement, p.572)] pottingry [OED:7/2:1195; Jamieson:3:532] puggry [OED:8/1:1573; FW; W2] pugry [OED:8/1:1574] rungry [EDD:5:188] scavengry [OED (in 1715 quote under "scavengery")] Schtschigry [LG/1:2045; OSN:97] Seagry [TIG; EB11] Segry [Johnston; Andree] self-angry [W2] self-hungry ? Shchigry [CLG:1747; Johnson:594; OSN:97,206; Times:185,pl.45] shiggry [EDD] Shtchigry [LG/1:2045; LG/2:1701] Shtshigry [Lipp] skugry [OED:9/2:156, 9/1:297; Jamieson:4:266] Sygry [Andree] Tangry [France] Tchangry [Johnson:594; LG/1:435,1117] Tchigry [Johnson:594] tear-angry [W2] tike-hungry [CSD] Tingry [France; EB11 (under "Princesse de Tingry")] toggry [Simmonds (as "Toggry", but all entries are capitalized)] ulgry [Partridge; Smith:24-25] unangry [OED; W2] vergry [OED:12/1:123] Virgy [CLG:2090] Wirgy [CLG:2090; NAP:xxxix; Times:220, pl.62; WA:948] wind-angry. wind-hungry [W2] yeard-hungry [CED (see "yird")] yerd-hungry [CED (see "yird"); OED] yird-hungry [CED (see "yird")] Ymagry [OED:1:1009 (col. 3, 1st "boss" verb), (variant of "imagery")] This list was gathered from the following articles: George H. Scheetz, In Goodly Gree: With Goodwill, Word Ways 22:195 (Nov. 1989) Murray R. Pearce, Who's Flaithbhertach MacLoingry?, Word Ways 23:6 (Feb. 1990) Harry B. Partridge, Gypsy Hobby Gry, Word Ways 23:9 (Feb. 1990) A. Ross Eckler, -Gry Words in the OED, Word Ways 25:4 (Nov. 1992) References: (Many references are of the form [Source:volume:page] or [Source:page].) Andree, Richard. Andrees Handatlas (index volume). 1925. Bartholomew, John. Gazetteer of the British Isles: Statistical and Topographical. 1887. BBC = BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of English Names. Bio-Base. (Microfiche) Detroit: Gale Research Company. 1980. CE = Catholic Encyclopedia. 1907. CED = Chambers English Dictionary. 1988. Century = "India, Northern Part." The Century Atlas of the World. 1897, 1898. CLG = The Colombia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World. L.E.Seltzer, ed. 1952. CSD = Chambers Scots Dictionary. 1971 reprint of 1911 edition. Daily Illini (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). DFC = Dictionary of Fictional Characters. 1963. EB11 = Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed. EDD = The English Dialect Dictionary. Joseph Wright, ed. 1898. France = Map Index of France. G.H.Q. American Expeditionary Forces. 1918. FW = Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary of the English Language. 1943. HPS = The Handbook of Private Schools: An Annual Descriptive Survey of Independent Education, 66th ed. 1985. Indians = Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. F. W. Hodge. 1912. Jamieson, John. An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language. 1879-87. Johnston, Keith. Index Geographicus... 1864. LG/1 = Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer or Geographical Dictionary of the World. 1888. LG/2 = Lippincott's New Gazetteer: ... 1906. Lipp = Lippincott's Pronouncing Gazetteer of the World. 1861, undated edition from late 1800's; 1902. NAP = Narodowy Atlas Polski. 1973-1978 [Polish language] OED = The Oxford English Dictionary. 1933. [Form: OED:volume/part number if applicable:page] OSN: U.S.S.R. Volume 6, S-T. Official Standard Names Approved by the United States Board on Geographic Names. Gazetteer #42, 2nd ed. June 1970. Partridge, Harry B. "Ad Memoriam Demetrii." Word Ways, 19 (Aug. 1986): 131. Phillips, Lawrence. Dictionary of Biographical Reference. 1889. RD = The Reader's Digest Complete Atlas of the British Isles, 1st ed. 1965. RH1 = Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged. 1966. RH2 = Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition Unabridged. 1987. Simmonds, P.L. Commercial Dictionary of Trade Products. 1883. Smith, John. The True Travels, Adventvres and Observations: London 1630. Stieler, Adolph. Stieler's Handatlas (index volume). 1925. TIG = The Times Index-Gazetteer of the World. 1965. Times = The Times Atlas of the World, 7th ed. 1985. W2 = Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition, Unabridged. 1934. W3 = Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged. 1961. WA = The World Atlas: Index-Gazetteer. Council of Ministires of the USSR, 1968. Worcester, J.E. Universal Gazetteer, Second Edition. 1823. Some words containing "gry" that do not end with "gry": agrypnia, agrypnotic, Gryllidae, gryllid, gryllus, Gryllus, grylloblattid, Gryllotalpa, gryllos, grypanian, Gryphaea, Gryll, Gryphaea, gryposis, grysbok, gryphon, Gryphosaurus, Grypotherium, grysbuck. Most of these are in Webster's Second also with one from Webster's Third Edition and one from the Random House Dictionary, Second Edition Unabridged. ==> language/english/spelling/j.ending.p <== What words and names end in j? ==> language/english/spelling/j.ending.s <== Following is a compilation of words ending in j from various dictionaries. Capitalized words and words marked as foreign are included, but to keep the list to a managable size, personal and place names are excluded. aflaj plural of falaj (Cham) benj variant of bhang - hemp plant (NI2) bhimraj the rachet-tailed drongo (F&W) Bhumij branch of Munda tribes in India (NI3) Chuj a people of Northwestern Guatemala (NI3) esraj an Indian musical instrument with 3 or 4 strings (OED2) falaj a water channel as part of the ancient irrigation system of Oman (Cham) Funj variant of Fung - a people dominant in Sennar (NI3) gaj Omanese coin (NI2) genj a common type of cotton cloth in Sudan (F&W) gunj a grannery in India (NI2) hadj variant of hajj (NI3) haj variant of hajj (NI3) hajilij the bito - a small scrubby tree that grows in dry parts of Africa and Asia (NI2) hajj pilgimage to Mecca (NI3) hij obsolete form of hie or high (OED2) Jubaraj variant of Yuvaraja - the male heir to an Indian pricipality (OED2) kaleej variant of kalij (NI3) kalij any of several crested Indian pheasants (NI3) kankrej guzerat - a breed of Indian cattle (NI3) kharaj a tax on unbelievers (NI2) Khawarij plural of Kharijite - a member of the oldest religious sect of Islam (NI3) khiraj variant of kharaj (NI2) kilij a Turkish saber with a crescent shaped blade (RHD) kurunj variant of kurung - the Indian beech (NI2) Maharaj variant of Maharaja - East Indian prince (OED2) munj a tough Asiatic grass (NI3) naranj Maldive Island name for mancala - an Arabian board game (CD) pakhawaj a doubleheaded drum used in Indian music (OED2) raj rule (NI3) saj the Indian laurel (NI2) samaj Hindu religious society (NI3) sohmaj variant of samaj (NI2) somaj variant of samaj (NI2) svaraj variant of swaraj (F&W) swaraj local self-government in India (NI3) taj a tall conical cap worn by Moslems (NI3) tedj variant of tej (OED2) tej Ethiopian mead (OED2) Viraj in Hindu Mythology, the mysterious primeval being when differentiating itself into male and female (F&W) Yuvaraj same as Jubaraj (OED2) Yuveraj same as Jubaraj (OED2) Yuvraj same as Jubaraj (OED2) zij Persian astronomical tables (F&W) This list is almost certainly not complete. For example, on page 187 of Beyond Language, Dmitri Borgmann has "Udruj" in a word list. What reference he dug this word out of is unknown; the combined efforts of the NPL electronic mailing list could not produce the source of this word. So additions to this list will be welcomed by the author. REFERENCES CD - The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, 1911 Cham - Chambers English Dictionary, 1988 F&W - Funk & Wagnall's New Standard Dictionary of the English Language, 1941 NI2 - Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, 1942 NI3 - Webster's Third New International Dictionary, 1981 OED2 - Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, 1989 RHD - Random House Dictionary of the English Language, 1966 --- Dan Tilque -- dant@logos.WR.TEK.COM ==> language/english/spelling/lipograms.p <== What books have been written without specific letters, vowels, etc.? ==> language/english/spelling/lipograms.s <== Such a book is called a lipogram. A novel-length example in English (omitting e) exists, titled _Gadsby_. Georges Perec wrote a French novel titled _La Disparition_ which does not contain the letter 'e', except in a few bits of text that the publisher had to include in or on the book somewhere -- such as the author's name :-). But these were all printed in red, making them somehow ``not count''. Perec also wrote another novel in which `e' was the only vowel. In _La Disparition_, unlike _Gadsby_, the lipogrammatic technique is reflected in the story. Objects disappear or become invisible. We know, however, more or less why the characters can't find things like eggs or even remember their names -- because the words for them can't be used. Amazingly, it's been ``translated'' into English (by Harry Mathews, I think). Another work which manages to [almost] adhere to restrictive alphabetic rules while also remaining readable as well as providing amusement and literary satisfaction (though you have to like disjointed fiction) is _Alphabetical Africa_ by Walter Abish. The rules (which of course he doesn't explain, you can't help noticing most of them) have to do with initial letters of words. There are 52 chapters. In the first, all words begin with `a'; in the second, all words begin with either `a' or `b'; etc, until all words are allowed in chapter 26. Then in the second half, the letters are taken away one by one. It's remarkable when, for instance, you finally get `the' and realize how much or little you missed it; earlier, when `I' comes in, you feel something like the difference between third- and first-person narration. As one of the blurbs more or less says (I don't have it here to quote), reading this is like slowly taking a deep breath and letting it out again. ---- Mitch Marks mitchell@cs.uchicago.edu ==> language/english/spelling/longest.p <== What is the longest word in the English language? ==> language/english/spelling/longest.s <== The longest word to occur in both English and American "authoritative" unabridged dictionaries is "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis." The following is a brief citation history of this "word." New York Herald Tribune, February 23, 1935, p. 3 "Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis succeeded electrophotomicrographically as the longest word in the English language recognized by the National Puzzlers' League at the opening session of the organization's 103d semi-annual meeting held yesterday at the Hotel New Yorker. The puzzlers explained that the forty-five-letter word is the name of a special form of silicosis caused by ultra-microscopic particles of siliceous volcanic dust." Everett M. Smith (b. 1/1/1894), President of NPL and Radio News Editor of the Christian Science Monitor, cited the word at the convention. Smith was also President of the Yankee Puzzlers of Boston. It is not known whether Smith coined the word. "Bedside Manna. The Third Fun in Bed Book.", edited by Frank Scully, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1936, p. 87 "There's been a revival in interest in spelling, but Greg Hartswick, the cross word king and world's champion speller, is still in control of the situation. He'd never get any competition from us, that's sure, though pronouncing, let alone spelling, a 44 letter word like: Pneumonoultramicrosopicsilicovolkanakoniosis, a disease caused by ultra-microscopic particles of sandy volcanic dust might give even him laryngitis." It is likely that Scully, who resided in New York in February 1935, read the Herald Tribune article and slightly misremembered the word. Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary, 1936 Both "-coniosis" and "-koniosis" are cited. "a factitious word alleged to mean 'a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica dust' but occurring chiefly as an instance of a very long word." Webster's first cite is "-koniosis" in the addendum to the Second Edition. The Third Edition changes the "-koniosis" to "-coniosis." I conjecture that this "word" was coined by word puzzlers, who then worked assiduously to get it into the major unabridged dictionaries (perhaps with a wink from the editors?) to put an end to the endless squabbling about what is the longest word. ==> language/english/spelling/most.p <== What word has the most variant spellings? ==> language/english/spelling/most.s <== catercorner There's eight spellings in Webster's Third. catercorner cater-cornered catacorner cata-cornered catty-corner catty-cornered kitty-corner kitty-cornered If you look in Random House, you will find one more which doesn't appear in Web3, but it only differs by a hyphen: cater-corner --- Dan Tilque -- dant@techbook.com ==> language/english/spelling/near.palindrome.p <== What are some long near palindromes, i.e., words that except for one letter would be palindromes? ==> language/english/spelling/near.palindrome.s <== Here are the longest near palindromes in Webster's Ninth Collegiate: catalatic footstool red pepper detonated locofocos red spider dew-clawed nabataean retreater eisegesis possessor stargrass foolproof ratemeter webmember ==> language/english/spelling/operations.on.words/deletion.p <== What exceptional words turn into other words by deletion of letters? ==> language/english/spelling/operations.on.words/deletion.s <== longest beheadable word P(REDETERMINATION) (16/15) longest for each letter (6-88,181,198,213,13-159,14-219,15-155,16-96,220, 17-85) APATHETICALLY, BLITHESOME, CHASTENING, DEMULSIFICATION, EMOTIONLESSNESS, FUTILITARIANISM, GASTRONOMICALLY, HEDRIOPHTHALMA, IDENTIFICATION, JUNCTIONAL, KINAESTHETIC, LIMITABLENESS, METHYLACETYLENE, NEOPALEOZOIC, OENANTHALDEHYDE, PREDETERMINATION, QUINTA, REVOLUTIONARILY, SELECTIVENESS, TREASONABLENESS, UPRAISER, VINDICATION, WHENCEFORWARD, XANTHOPHYLLITE, YOURSELVES, ZOOSPORIFEROUS longest beheadable down to a single letter PRESTATE (8) longest curtailable word (not a plural) (COUNTERMAN)D, (UNDERCOVER)T (11) longest curtailable down to a single letter LAMBASTES longest alternately beheadable and curtailable word ASHAMED (7) longest arbitrarily beheadable and curtailable (all subsequences words) SHADES (6) longest terminal ellision word D(EPILATION)S (11) longest letter subtraction down to a single letter STRANGLING, STRANGING, STANGING, STAGING, SAGING, AGING, GING, GIN, IN, I longest charitable word (subtract letter anywhere) PLEATS: LEATS,PEATS,PLATS,PLEAS,PLEAT shortest stingy word (no deletion possible) PRY (3) **** Unless noted otherwise, all words occur in Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Springfield, MA, 1961. ==> language/english/spelling/operations.on.words/insertion.and.deletion.p <== What exceptional words turn into other words by both insertion and deletion of letters? ==> language/english/spelling/operations.on.words/insertion.and.deletion.s <== longest word both charitable and hospitable AMY: AM,AY,MY;GAMY,ARMY,AMOY,AMYL shortest word both stingy and hostile IMPETUOUS (9) **** Unless noted otherwise, all words occur in Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Springfield, MA, 1961. ==> language/english/spelling/operations.on.words/insertion.p <== What exceptional words turn into other words by insertion of letters? ==> language/english/spelling/operations.on.words/insertion.s <== longest hydration (double reheadment) (D,R)EVOLUTIONIST (12/13) longest hospitable word (insert letter anywhere) CARES: SCARES, CHARES, CADRES, CARIES, CARETS, CARESS shortest hostile word (no deletion possible) SYZYGY (6) **** Unless noted otherwise, all words occur in Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Springfield, MA, 1961. ==> language/english/spelling/operations.on.words/movement.p <== What exceptional words turn into other words by movement of letters? ==> language/english/spelling/operations.on.words/movement.s <== longest word allowing exchange of letters (metallege) CONSERVATIONAL, CONVERSATIONAL longest head-to-tail shift SPECULATION, PECULATIONS longest double head-to-tail shift STABLE-TABLES-ABLEST longest complete cyclic transposal ATE-TEA-EAT (3) **** Unless noted otherwise, all words occur in Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Springfield, MA, 1961. ==> language/english/spelling/operations.on.words/substitution.p <== What exceptional words turn into other words by substitution of letters? ==> language/english/spelling/operations.on.words/substitution.s <== longest onalosi (substitution in every position possible) PASTERS: MASTERS,POSTERS,PALTERS,PASSERS,PASTORS,PASTELS,PASTERN shortest isolano (no substitution possible) ECRU longest word, all letters changed to other letters in minimum number of steps, yielding another word THUMBING-THUMPING-TRUMPING-TRAMPING- TRAPPING-CRAPPING-CRAPPIES-CRAPPOES longest word girders BADGER/SUNLIT, BUDLET/SANGIR (6) longest word with full vowel substitution CL(A,E,I,O,U)CKING (8) also Y D(A,E,I,O,U,Y)NE (4) longest words with vowel substitutions DESTRUCTIBILITIES, DISTRACTIBILITIES (17) longest word constant-letter-shifted to another PRIMERO-SULPHUR (7) arithmetical-letter-shifted DREAM-ETHER (5) constant-shift-with-transposal (shiftgrams) AEROPHANE-SILVERITE (9) longest word pair shifted one position on typewriter keyboard WAXIER-ESCORT (6) longest word pair confusable on a telephone keypad AMOUNTS-CONTOUR (7) **** Unless noted otherwise, all words occur in Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Springfield, MA, 1961.