secret language PDF
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secret language This page intentionally left blank SECRET LANGUAGE BARRY J. BLAKE 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork #BarryBlake2010 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) FirstpublishedbyOxfordUniversityPress2010 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2009941610 TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby ClaysLtd.,StIvesPlc ISBN 978–0–19–957928–0 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 contents Illustrations ix Acknowledgements xi 1 Onbeingmysterious 1 2 Fromanagramstocrypticcrosswords 7 9 ANAGRAMS 14 PALINDROMES 18 SEMORDNILAPS 19 ACRONYMS AND ACROSTICS 25 WORD SQUARES 30 LIPOGRAMS AND UNIVOCALICS 33 CRYPTIC CROSSWORDS 3 Talkinginriddles 41 41 RIDDLES 60 THE REBUS 61 THE CHARADE 64 EQUIVOCATION AND PREVARICATION 70 RIDDLES FOR THE READER 4 Ciphersandcodes 72 78 STEGANOGRAPHY 82 SUBSTITUTION CIPHERS 97 TRANSPOSITION 100 CODES 102 TOWARDS A RANDOM KEY v contents 106 ONE-TIME PAD 108 SECRET COMMUNICATION IN THE COMPUTER AGE 110 FINAL WORD 112 CIPHERS TO SOLVE 5 Biblicalsecrets 114 114 KABBALAH 116 ANAGRAMS 116 CIPHERS 118 NOTARIKON 122 GEMATRIA 126 ONOMANCY 6 Wordsofpower 128 128 BELIEFS ABOUT LANGUAGE 139 LETTERS AND SYMBOLS 145 MAGIC WORDS AND FORMULAS 152 TEXTS OF POWER 161 ICONICITY 7 Wordstoavoid 171 172 NAMES OF HUMANS 185 IN-LAWS 191 OTHER AVOIDANCE 8 Jargon,slang,argot,and‘secretlanguages’ 195 197 JARGON 200 SLANG ‘ ’ 211 ARGOTS AND SECRET LANGUAGES 9 Theeverydayoblique 241 244 POLITENESS AND THE LIKE 246 DELIBERATE OBSCURITY 249 HUMOUR 250 EUPHEMISM 257 ABUSIVE LANGUAGE vi contents 260 SPEAKING IN OPPOSITES 263 OXYMORA AND OTHER CONTRADICTIONS 10 Elusiveallusions 265 265 LITERARY ALLUSIONS 280 ALLUSIVE NAMES 283 PARODY AND SATIRE 289 ALLUSIVE BRAINTEASERS 11 Finale 291 Appendix:answerstotheproblems 298 Selectbibliography 304 Index 321 vii This page intentionally left blank illustrations 1 Shrinkingword 17 2 Acrosticcrossword 25 3 Wordsquare 26 4 Eulam(cid:2)osquare 26 5 Elohîmsquare 27 6 Satorsquare 28 7 Paternostercross 30 8 Crypticcrossword 39 9 Scytale 75 10 ApproximaterelativefrequenciesoflettersinEnglish 85 11 Vigenèresquare 89 12 DellaPorta’scipherandsteganography 93 13 Bacon’sbiliteralalphabet 95 14 Alberti’scipherdisk 96 15 Jefferson-typecipherdevice 97 16 Transposition 98 17 ADFGXcipher 99 18 ADFGXtransposition 99 19 Acodebook 101 ix
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