The Lost Lexicographer: Ambrose Bierce, Beelzebub, and Documentary Linguistics—Book Announcement from Psammeticus Press SpecGram Vol CLXV, No 3 Contents

IPAlindromes IIFind the IPAlindrome!

Mary Shapiro
Truman State University

In the last installment, I introduced the idea of the IPAlindrome (based on phonemic and/or phonetic transcription rather than written English). This time, it’s up to you to uncover the IPAlindrome, based on the given paraphrases. The IPAlindromes here are all phonemic, ignoring allophonic variation introduced by aspiration, nasalization, etc. As last time, diphthongs are treated as single units.

E.g.,

(A pithy observation, not a full sentence.) When the mind is not sharp, using a trademarked chemical product to remove body hair leads to exsanguination.

Dull brain, Nair, blood.

Below are five more for you to figure out for yourself.

  1. (An imperative) Instruct people in the science of collecting and analyzing large quantities of numerical data, but do so in a dishonest way.

  2. (An imperative) Allow friend to purchase significantly fewer items from you.

  3. (Parallel imperatives, each one IPAlindromic.) Crowd around an explosive device, blow up an entire crowd.

  4. (Full declarative sentence with ellipses.) First person singular repeatedly takes small tastes of soft drink, relieves pressure on the bladder and watches carefully.

  5. (An imperative) Softly and sadly urge a loved one to familiarize him/herself with the writings of the most well-known figure in linguistics.

Complete the puzzle and send your solutions to the editors of SpecGram by September 15th, 2012 and you could win a SpecGram magnet of your choice. The correct solution and winners, if any, will be announced in the upcoming October issue.


R H Y T H M D A T A
S A D R A G O M E N
V A S E S L E N N Y
P S Y M P O S I U M
A C L A U S E O R O
W A L K T S O P E N
S P O O N E R I S T
S T O A I M P A L A
C U S S H I A T S U
E T Y M I C R E A K

In the last issue, Lila Rosa Grau offered up her “Rasmus Rask Puzzle IVA New Hope”. The solution is provided here, and the winners are below.

Tuuli MustasydänSiva Kalyan

Each will receive a SpecGram magnet of their choice. Honorable mention to Eric Chen.

The Lost Lexicographer: Ambrose Bierce, Beelzebub, and Documentary LinguisticsBook Announcement from Psammeticus Press
SpecGram Vol CLXV, No 3 Contents