Now Playing at the Move-α-plex!—The Trill Hunter & Conan the Librarian SpecGram Vol CLXII, No 4 Contents

IPA Code Puzzle II
Enchanted Household

by Mary Shapiro
Truman State University

As in Beauty and the Beast, an enchantment has turned some of our friends into household items, some lightly disguised and others completely transformed. Transcribe the following items into IPA (phonemically) and perform the specified magical sound changes to undo the spell. The incantations will have no effect on half of the items, as they were not part of the original enchantment.

a.bath     h.dish     o.pan     v.spoon
b.bowl     i.frame     p.pen     w.stool
c.ceiling     j.hearth     q.pillow     x.stove
d.couch     k.knife     r.plate     y.TV
e.counter     l.knob     s.scissors     z.wall
f.crib     m.lamp     t.shelf
g.cushion     n.napkin     u.sink

At the start of the word: both voiceless bilabial stops and the labiovelar glide become a voiced palatal affricate; a voiceless alveolar fricative is inserted before any voiceless alveolar stop; a voiceless labiodental fricative becomes alveolar.

At the end of the word: voiceless alveolar stops and interdental fricatives become voiceless velar stops; liquids and vowels are deleted (but only one final sound per word may be deleted).

Everywhere: liquids are deleted after a consonant; both the voiced bilabial stop and the voiceless glottal fricative become a bilabial nasal; mid front tense vowels become low; and all +back, -high vowels become /o/ except before /r/.

Yes, I know these aren’t phonetically plausible changes. It’s magic!

If you can complete the puzzle and send your solutions to the editors of SpecGram by October 15th, 2011, you could win a SpecGram magnet of your choice. The correct solution and winners, if any, will be announced in the November issue of Speculative Grammarian.

The solution to July’s IPA Code Puzzle I—Animals in Disguise is below:

a.Abe → ape     h.Fred     n.Kyle → goat     u.Noam → pope
b.Ben → pet     i.Greg     o.Manny → pony     v.Pete → pet
c.Brock → dog     j.Horace
(Suspiciously
close to horse...)		     p.Mel → pet     w.Raj → dog
d.Cain → goat     q.Mickey → piggy     x.Ted
e.Chett     k.Jay → goat     r.Neil → pet     y.Tony
f.Cole → goat     l.Joe → goat     s.Newt → pet     z.Zac → dog
g.Doug     m.Joel → goat     t.Nick → pig

The prize-winning puzzlemeisters below will each receive a SpecGram magnet of their choice for having their answers selected from among the correct (or nearly so) entries.

• Joseph Henderer • Adam Hesterberg • Lexie Bryan •

Now Playing at the Move-α-plex!—The Trill Hunter & Conan the Librarian
SpecGram Vol CLXII, No 4 Contents