Heedful readers will already have familiarized themselves with l’ishing from our prior analysis (SpecGram CLXXIV.3, etc.). Though outwardly similar to French verlan, l’ishing couples words that can be made to map onto one another. In earlier installments we have surveyed dialects of l’ishing that are based on moving sounds or letters from one end of a word to the other. We have a short time ago come across another new dialect, called lusrveer, in which paired words are each the phonetic reversal of the other. For example, jerks and scourge can be pressed into service as a substitute for one another, as in “Those guys are just a bunch of scourge!”, or “I am the jerks of God, appointed to chastise you, since no one knows the remedy for your iniquity except me.”
As with l’ishing, lusrveer words normally cannot be formulated very rapidly, so glossaries have been created for neophytes. However, words are not enumerated in the glossaries, only mnemonically merged definitions (MMDs). For example:
yanks an affliction (referring to jerks a scourge)
We have obtained a clutch of these lusrveer MMDs, and solicit your aid in establishing the couplet of words they refer to.
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 May 15, 2016, and you could win a prize.* Some most likely correct answers and winners will be announced in the June issue.
Your dialect and/or transcription system may vary.
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The solution to April’s Cryptolinguistic Puzzle is provided here, with additional explanations given below.
Despite the high degree of difficulty, all of the following puzzlemeisters completed the puzzle and will be receiving prizes:
Adam Hesterberg • Johan Ellingsen • Margarita Misirpashayeva • Miriam Nussbaum
Across: 1. anagram of curlers past her uterus; 8. anagram of oh nice quotes; 11. c + optic; 12. chi + NE + SE; 13. anagram of opts; 14. howe(VER NER)dy; 17. pu(TA I PUNI)sh (backwards); 18. anagram of L.I. squid; 19. anagram of ice-T L; 21. N or SE; 22. Bret + on; 25. anagram of G.I. lit universal city, it; 28. SH(ee)(if)TS; 31. anagram of Mary in AA; 33. anagram of gelatin via gut; 34. anagram of (l)oving; 35. anagram of does May; 36. anagram of zee pins these.
Down: 1. pun for pee-swo)RD; 10. UG + u let (backwards); 15. ja(GUAR A NI)nja; 16. emir (backwards); 20. u(NIT AL)most (backwards); 23. pun for oh bleak; 24. anagram of I ate rivet; 25. Bally’s (backwards) + les; 27. sai(DEXIFFUS)sy (backwards); 29. pun for Searle-y; 30. Ma(r)(H)go (backwards); 32. ma or I.
* Note that SpecGram Anti-
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Sprachgeist Guides for the Linguist on the Go! |
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SpecGram Vol CLXXVI, No 1 Contents |