This is the seventeenth 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 two parallel diagonals are given to provide a framework for filling in the answers.
Complete the puzzle and send your solutions to the editors of SpecGram by August 21st, 2025. The correct solution and solvers, if any, will be announced in the next issue.
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 R | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 1 | A | ||||||||
| 2 | S | ||||||||
| 3 | M | ||||||||
| 4 | U | ||||||||
| 5 | S | ||||||||
| 6 R | |||||||||
| 7 | A | ||||||||
| 8 | S | ||||||||
| 9 | K |
• Informal adjectival intensifier suffix.
• Adjectival derivational suffix.
• With voice, not silent.
• Interjection of dismay, or pests.
• Abbrev. you’ll read in recipes, rarely spoken.
• 𐤌.
• More typographical units, one being equal to the point size of the font or the width of a common, larger dash.
• Verb-
• You’d think The Moody Blues were in this musical genre, but no.
• [ʔm̰ɨ̰̃ː545].
• US Southern dialect term for cornbread.
• That which most commonly follows pince.
• “Transrational” linguistic experiments in sound symbolism and language creation by Кубофутуризм poets in the early 1900s.
• Why SpecGram exists, ostensibly.
• The subjective length of a late-
• A set of Dutch conjugation patterns used to determine the endings of 2nd sg./pl. & 1st/
• Nonverbal affirmative.
• 509 or 10, depending on who’s counting.
• ~Eng 3rd sg
• 1970s-
• A term rarely applied to members of the SpecGram Editorial Board.
• Temporal term from Latin, known best from Julius Caesar’s fateful line.
• Movie rating indicating that some material may not be suitable for children.
• A young female human.
• Two or more of the first item in 8 across.
• Semantic domain or conceptual field.
• Lexemes referring to culture-
• This is best when it goes up to eleven̈.
• ASCII-
• Doublet of advice, borrowed into English to refer to an “advice boat”.
• Unit of perceived loudness.
• A female yak.
• Vaulted church nook.
• One of the Norns.
• Place for wild animals or cozily reading linguistics textbooks.
• Eye dialect version of a speech verb.
• To take a class, but not really.
• A semivowel.
• Language code for arguably the most successful constructed language.
• “Water” in many languages of Sulawesi.
• Reduplicated relationship double negative.
• The eponymic speakers of Motherese.
• 157½°.
• Superlatives suffix, or US time zone.