SpecGram—Rasmus Rask Mini Puzzle XII

This is the twelfth Rasmus Rask puzzle, devoted to the original Mr. Charming Scandinavian Linguist. The puzzle is similar to a crossword puzzle, in that there is a grid for filling in words and phrases, and clues for the ACROSS and DOWN directions. However, all the squares in a Rasmus Rask puzzle are filled with letters, and the answers to the clues may (but are not required to) overlap. Clues for a particular row or column are given together, in the order they appear in the grid. No indication of the amount of overlap between clues is given. Letters spelling out RASMUS RASK along the diagonal are given to provide a framework for filling in the answers. Grey squares should remain blank.

Complete the puzzle and send your solutions to the editors of SpecGram by October 15th, 2021 and you could win a prize. The correct solution and winners, if any, will be announced in an upcoming issue of SpecGram.

⁰ R	¹	²	³	⁴	⁵
¹	A
²		S
³			M
⁴				U
⁵					S
						⁶ R	⁷	⁸	⁹
						⁷	A
						⁸		S
						⁹			K

Across

• Another name for a drowned river valley, borrowed from Galician.

• Likely onomatopoetic chihuahua noise.

• A Scotsman abroad may lang for hairth an ___.

• A dysenteric protozoan, sans ethel, American style.

• Blunt, Stone, Post, and Peel, familiarly, or, an assortment of dashes.

• Adding /-ɚ/ to the end of this word changes the pronunciation of the middle of the word from /oʊl/ to /ɑ/—because English spelling is ridiculous (it has no rules, only mild suggestions).

• A useful analogy: lie:lay::set:__—or is it the other way around‽ Arrgh!

• A holiday-making suffix.

• Apophonic mutation sometimes confused with 4 Down.

• Native name of a major European language: E____̃ol.

• A common plurale tantum in American English with a slightly different meaning in British English.

• “Will no one ___ me of this meddlesome example?” —Syntactician vexed by inconvenient data.

• Auxiliary language with fewer speakers than Esperanto, but more than Volapük.

• Productive compounding morpheme that can combine with any of finger, thumb, toe, head, brush, door, bed, coffin, or hang.

• This, like a preposition or participle, may dangle, though it is probably only a concern for those writing parsers for programming languages.

• Any of [ɑ, ɒ, ɤ, o, ɔ, u, ɯ, ʊ, ʌ].

Down

• A label for types of monkeys or types of blood.

• Cogito ergo ___ (trans.).

• A small demon, especially one that employs a commanding mood or incomplete past action.

• Romanization of the Gothic word for shoulder, or the English word for edible thighs and butts (at least in h-dropping dialects).

• A famously self-referential initialism.

• This person puts in hard work in service of a good cause.

• Apophonic mutation sometimes confused with 4 Across.

• One of Apple’s many iThings.

• Abbreviation for a particular groove separating two particular temporal gyri; it responds strongly when processing faces, voices, and language.

• Abbreviation/initials for a licensed health care provider, the Kirundi language, or a disgraced former US president.

• Dialectal word for a face, nose, or beak; with -y it means “nosey” on both sides of the Atlantic.

• Adjectival suffix that, amusingly, is not used in adjectival.

• Part of The Amazing Mumford’s magical catch phrase.

• It can be compact [+fun] or herniated [–fun].

• Somewhere between middle-aged and ancient, but homier.

• qindarka.

The answers to last month’s Seeing Double clues are: marker, perfect, middle, unproductive, suppletion, literal, finite, acoustic, pragmatic, patient, inclusive, mood, and function. Each word, like the authors’ names, contains one letter twice. They spell out reduplication.

Each of the puzzlemeisters below will receive some moderately desirable SpecGram merch of their choosing:

In addition, the following puzzlers have achieved the everlasting glory that comes with an honorable mention:

	Quick Tips for Linguists and the Linguistics-Adjacent—Haystie ad Weisz
	SpecGram Vol CXCI, No 2 Contents

Rasmus Rask Mini Puzzle XII

by Lila Rosa Grau