Special Supplemental Letter from the Editor SpecGram Vol CLVII, No η½ Contents

Summer Puzzle Mega Issue Solutions

Scrambled Linguist—Trey Jones

ნიკოლოზ იაკობის ძე მარი (though “Nicholas Marr” was also accepted).

Self-Defining Puzzle—Swivelhips Smith, D.Phil.

Knights of the Linguistic Roundtable—Fergus Falls-Brainerd

VOICELESSNESS

Lingo Jumble—Orang Pendek, D.Sc. and Orang Mawas, Litt.D.

Rebus—Wulfila Bruinne, M.F.A., Ph.D.

Be not a slave to words.

E’s-y Cryptogram—Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Erlösende Einigkeit

It is a strange world of language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water.

Linguistic Story Time—Abbernathy Ljunqvist, M.B.A.

cunning linguist

(This type of puzzle is an automynorcagram.)

IPA Analogies—Dr. Watalodabaloni Überwoggle, B.F.E.

close-mid front unrounded vowel : close-mid central unrounded vowel ::
    open-mid front unrounded vowel : open-mid central unrounded vowel
    e : ɘ :: ɛ : ɜ

alveolar nasal : retroflex nasal ::
    voiced alveolar plosive : voiced retroflex plosive
    n : ɳ :: d : ɖ

close front unrounded vowel : near-close near-front unrounded vowel ::
    close front rounded vowel : near-close near-front rounded vowel
    i : ɪ :: y : ʏ

voiced labialized velar approximant : voiceless labialized velar approximant ::
    voiceless glottal fricative : voiced labialized palatal approximant
    w : ʍ :: h : ɥ

close front unrounded vowel : close central unrounded vowel ::
    close back rounded vowel : close central rounded vowel
    i : ɨ :: u : ʉ

close-mid front unrounded vowel : mid central vowel ::
    open front unrounded vowel : near-open central vowel
    e : ə :: a : ɐ

open back unrounded vowel : open back rounded vowel ::
    bilabial nasal: close back unrounded vowel
    ɑ : ɒ :: m : ɯ

(The analogies are purely orthographic, not phonetic, and involve turning, reflecting, barring, converting to small caps, or adding a tail.)

Mars Linguists—Prof. Yamātārājabhānasalagām Ouroboros

It cannot be done.

(That is, the solution is the phrase: “It cannot be done”. It is not the case that the puzzle cannot be solved.)

Word Search—Marco Manni Quadi-Suebi und Al P. Engermanen

Cranberry is not in the table.

Drop Kick the Quote—Phil Trum, Doctor of Linguology

Quotation: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another. —Ambrose Bierce

Who’s Who in Linguistics—Dniester Ostrogoth, Ph.D. and Dnieper Ostrogoth, D.Phil.

SIEVERS
JONES
 MURRAY
   BOPP
  ZIPF
 VONHUMBOLDT
   GRIMM

    SWEET
  BLEEK
    MIKLOSICH
JESPERSEN
   PEDERSEN
  KRUSZEWSKI

       BLOOMFIELD
       ZAMENHOF
 JAKOBSON
FLENSBURG
   SAUSSURE
       SAPIR
        GRASSMAN
    HOCKETT

Verbing weirds language.

FonoFutoshiki III—Ulfheðnar ber Sarkur



The annoying floating grey dots are called the Hermann Grid Illusion, named after Ludimar Hermann.

HashiWordakero—Lacuna Mamihlapinatapai

Rasmus Rask Puzzle I—Lila Rosa Grau

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

Akróstichon—Dr. Dr. Fortina Haecceity, M.D., Ph.D.

Everything That Linguists Have Always Wanted to Know About Logic—Prof. D. Innere Form

NameSchoolFieldSymbolRank
AdeleWheat and Rice A&MSyntaxɔ3rd
BarneyMunich Institute for TechnologicalityHistorical Linguisticsʘ5th
ChloeCom Unity CollegeSemanticsə1st
DavidHarvyard UPhoneticsʃ4th
EmilyCornhell UPhonologyp’  2nd

Et Al.—Nick Williams

/fənɛtɪk krɪptəgræm/—Moko Dude, Ph.D.

/ɪŋglɪʃ ɪz wət ju gɛt frəm nɔrmənz traɪɪŋ tə pɪk ʌp sæksən gɜrlz/

(English is what you get from Normans trying to pick up Saxon girls.)

Verbal Arithmetic—Fnu Nmn Lnu, A.B.D.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
U O T G N A R E V C

Words of Dubious Roman Origin—Numerius Negidius et Aulus Agerius

Linguistic Equations—Prof. Lars Tyndskids and Dr. Jef Van Pijperzele

Famous Extracts—John Miaou

  1. Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution
    By Brent Berlin, Paul Kay
  2. An Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics
    By Henry Allan Gleason
  3. 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
    By Francis Grose
  4. Reading Saussure: A Critical Commentary on the Cours de Linguistique Générale
    By Roy Harris
  5. The Principles of the International Phonetic Association
    By the International Phonetic Association
  6. The Pronunciation of English
    By Daniel Jones
  7. Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs
    By Alan Henderson Gardiner
  8. The Sound Pattern of English
    By Noam Chomsky, Morris Halle
  9. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax
    By Noam Chomsky
  10. Introduction to Montague Semantics
    by David R. Dowty, Robert Eugene Wall, Stanley Peters

Crossword for Indo-Europeanists—Tim Pulju

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

Linguacrostic—Drs. Oniomania Succedaneum and Lex Quisquis, Ph.D.s

DIS(PLAY)FUL END(GAME)SOMELY—Maija Meikäläinen, Ph.D. and Matti Meikäläinen, J.D.

Double or Nothing—Schön “Sean” Kaunis, Ph.D.

Critical Readings in Linguistics Crossword Puzzle—Puzzle from Psammeticus Press

The solution to this puzzle is not readily available. While our intrepid Flo scored all the other puzzles, we were required to submit all potential solutions to this crossword directly to Psammeticus Press for evaluation. Despite submitting thousands of potential solutions, the only one considered correct was the solution submitted by H.D. Onesimus, Jr. Our records indicate that we did not transmit a potential solution for any H.D. Onesimus, Jr. Curious, that.

In any event, of the potential solutions we did submit, the one from SpecGram Puzzle Meister Sara Kessler was rated by PsPress to be 99.99999% correct. PsPress claims Sara did not meet the unstated eligibility requirements, which include owning all the relevant publications, including a Lingo. Since all Lingos have LoJack and none are in Israel, they know she doesn’t actually own one. Thus her solution is worth 0 points for the purposes of the contest.

PsPress refused to allow us to publish their solution to the puzzle, so we have reproduced Sara’s solution below. Individuals may purchase the 100% correct solution directly from PsPress for $250.

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

In appreciation of Sara’s efforts, we have awarded her a 75-year subscription to the print edition of our journal.

Special Supplemental Letter from the Editor
SpecGram Vol CLVII, No η½ Contents