Clearance Sale—Xerus & Ratufa SpecGram Vol CLXXII, No 2 Contents

L’Ishing du Gwujlang IVPhicorthogra

by Dorothea Dorfman and Theodora Mundorf
with additional assistance from Elyse Seely and Alene Neale

Keen readers will already have familiarized themselves with l’ishing from our earlier analysis (SpecGram CLXXI.3, etc.). Though seemingly analogous to French verlan, l’ishing swaps actual words that can be made to correspond to one another. Previously we have looked at dialects of l’ishing that are based on sounds; however, we have discovered a new dialect, called phicorthogra, that is based on spelling. For example, alloy and loyal can be used in place of one another, as in “Check out the new loyal rims I got for my Pinto!”, or “You can trust that guy, he’s very alloy.

As with l’ishing, phicorthogra words ordinarily cannot be worked out in real time, so glossaries have been produced for beginners. However, words are not enumerated in the glossaries, only mnemonically merged definitions (MMDs). For example:

a faithful amalgam (referring to a loyal alloy)

We have come into possession of a small heap of these phicorthogra MMDs, and seek your help in establishing the paired words they refer to. The MMDs are provided below.

In order to increase the response rate from SpecGram readers, The SpecGram Puzzle Elves™ have agreed to treat this as a puzzle. Submit your answers to the editors of SpecGram by February 15, 2015, and you could win a prize.* Some most likely correct answers and winners will be announced in the March issue.



The answers to last month’s ΣυυιτχεροοἌλφα puzzle are: breath/macron, inflect/witness, clitic/phonic, diction/formant, click/meter, etic/stem, aphorism/phonetic, passive/stammer, grave/token, idiom/tagma, syllable/variable.

Once again, solution-finding puzzlemeisters are thick on the ground. The following were selected for recognition, and each will receive a SpecGram prize of their choosing (while supplies last).

Amanda YoungGeoffrey HookerPraveen VenkataramanaSharon KleinTanjam JacobsonVirginia Bouchard

Numerous additional puzzlers have been selected for secundus inter pares status; they receive no material prizes, but honor and glory is theirs!

Adam HesterbergEric ChenGretchen McCullochKeith SlaterSiva KalyanVince Wilson



* Note that SpecGram Anti-Hoarding Guidelines stipulate that puzzle-related prizes cannot be won by anyone who has won a puzzle-related prize in the last three monthsthough honor, fame, and glory may still be seized on the metaphorical field of puzzle-related battle.

Except where taxed, prohibited by law, or otherwise restricted, constrained, limited, regulated, controlled, hindered, impeded, hampered, obstructed, checked, curbed, shackled, confined, or otherwise subject to thesaural interference.

Clearance SaleXerus & Ratufa
SpecGram Vol CLXXII, No 2 Contents