Words, words, words
On Hacker News they’re discussing a portmanteau generator. I wrote one too a few years ago and never got around to posting the results. Some of the better discoveries, loosely grouped by theme:
amountainous auburnt certaint clanguage cracket flightning havenue hybridge interpretty marqueen ravenue smotherapy spellet sportrait tracket
coarsenal navalanche smartial
ambulancet aprong sharpoon smalleable stackle stoolbox
localendar shalloween
cosmosis deternity ephemerald neveryone
advertisingularity brighteous davidity diasporadic freudianetics heavenue karmageddon leviathank parfaith plightning spheresy wheresy worthodox
accruelty apartner checkle chequestrian consultan commercenary entrepreneuropsychology evictim holocausterity interestitution moccasino neverthelessee
adolescentennial approximaternity maestrogen othermometry participaternity
adjourney answerve archivalry argumentality conferencephalomyelitis neglecture obstructure simplement translatency
alibido flaccident hasterisk pelvish risqueeze wienergy
blocket camisoleil chenillegal clocket eskimono fabrick fabulousy gartery marathong inspectator nudisturbance ploverall sconcept staffeta thighest thumble tranquilt
convictim misconductivity obtaint suspectator
gaffect hypocriteria insultan schooligan slightning videologue
frenchilada holocaustrian illinoisome tantamountain texasperating
amplifierce charmony chorde mnemonica perhapsody porchestra
cinnamong connectar gardenial saffront saffrontier scentral scoffee splate swallowance tasterisk wheath
blightning easiesta sweather weatherosclerosis
adepth comfortunate competentative difficultivate equalm indulgentle intelligentle misunderstandard respectacle respectrometer savantage
ambassadorable dissidentifier hormonetary parliamentality preferendum princessant scampaign spendulum suggestapo supremedy votingle
chancestry elephantom parallele pedigreen spheredity wheredity
pimplement plaqueous problemish scratchet
Here’s the code. Unlike Wordmerge, it doesn’t expect a subject word; it looks at all pairs in the dictionary instead and ranks the candidate portmanteaus by a notion of interestingness, letting you survey a whole dictionary worth pretty quickly. On the other hand this is less capable, in that it knows nothing about pronunciation, only spelling. There’s code using the CMU pronouncing dictionary elsewhere in the same languagetoys repo, which I never got around to incorporating into this program.
January 1
About these weird poems
(Or poem-like language artifacts.) The last couple of posts were built out of anagrams, every line an anagram of the title. It’s a fun challenge I fell short of, insofar as the results resemble mad ravings more than Homer.
I’d start with a phrase, like “Two thousand eleven A.D.”, and feed it to my generator. It emits a zillion anagrams sorted by naturalness — that is, by the cross entropy according to a bigram model of English (ordering the words within each anagram to minimize that score). The raw anagram generation is standard; the part applying the language model, I haven’t heard of anyone doing, though it can’t be a new idea; presumably the commercial anagram programs work the same vein. (I haven’t tried any.)
This reordering of the words and the lines helps a lot. I load it all into Emacs and scan the first pages, clipping any lines that look interesting. Some words may catch my eye in unsuitable anagrams, and I’ll search for them further. After a dozen or two clippings there’ll be a couple that want to go together — until it’s like a ridiculous crossword puzzle tantalizing with no solution, unless you’ll indulge a vague frantic wave in the general direction of a meaning. Or unless you have wordskill and fancier tools: focusing on the best few pages by the cross entropy still leaves the vast majority of interesting lines buried in the babble. I’d like to hear from serious anagrammatists how they do it.
So, I mentioned a subject for today. How’d it come out?
Two Thousand Eleven A.D.
Was haunted love noted?
A-wounded, let’s not have
A new love that sounded
As heaven would tend to —
To have owned and let us.
And those we don’t value,
As heaven would tend to:
None would have tasted
On haunted love, wasted
Soul want to have ended —
Would have to set an end,
As even death would not:
And thus we do not leave.
Hey, it scanned! Try again?
Two Thousand Eleven
We have not done lust.
We hadn’t even soul to
Let us down to heaven:
We have untold notes.
We don’t have one lust,
Slow even unto death.
Not even a whole stud
Owned us to the navel.
Do not value the news.
Don’t love the new USA.
Shut down. Leave note.
I don’t plan to write any more of these, hurray.
April 24 2010
To Me in a Curt Pity
I am pretty. I count.
Court I my patient.
A curt pity—no time.
Put in a time to cry.
Me, I try to can it up.
Or I cut my patient.
React to impunity.
I to my aunt I crept.
Copy it in a mutter.
“Pure intimacy, tot.”
Cut a pity no merit.
Many to picture it.
May not picture it.
A minute pit to cry.
Time, act on purity:
Ripe, it may not cut.
April 24 2010
Information Overload
In an old favorite room
I flavored into a moron;
In a room not for a devil,
I learn to avoid no form.
I am not in overload for
One normal, idiot favor:
Fan mail or devotion or—
Or I, for one, am not valid.
To avoid moral inferno
I’m overlord of a nation;
For a liar, do not move in
A role of iron and vomit.
Void not, aloof mariner!
Vomit in an aloof order:
In motion, adore flavor,
In into a marvel of odor.
Learn of Monrovia! Do it!
Over-load, minion of art,
Or avoid online format
To avoid a mine forlorn.
April 8 2010
Quantitative Tolkien Studies
Let’s list, for each chapter of The Lord of the Rings, the words that most distinguish it from all the rest—one line per chapter:
families Westmarch Harfoots Smials Stoors Eriador copies copy
presents Sackville Bagginses joke spoons Proudfoot envelope eleventy
shears Ted hated grandmother Hal revenge hints similar
Gildor sold Inglorion Woodhall sale Lobelia Woody lunch
Maggot Farmer dogs Ferry clop waggon mushrooms farm
bath Bucklanders Brandy conspiracy Fatty Fredegar depends
willow Withywindle lilies hop bonfire willows hopping fluttering
Goldberry Tom nightly ding candle dillo wights derry
Lumpkin Hoy wight Tom jogging chilled Barrow hat
fiddle inn cow local Mugwort diddle tray comer
letter Nob Monday Underhill landlord reading Barley accident
Tinúviel Beren Thingol Bob Lúthien hemlock midges Gil
troll Glorfindel Ford clippety trolls bone Loudwater boot
Dúnadan Lindir cushions merrymaking flood mortals prow stupid
Radagast Isildur Galdor Dain Erestor Gil Galad Thror
snow Caradhras Redhorn flakes drift Hollin faggot specks
Moria Mines howls Sirannon tap edro Durin wolf
drum Balin Balrog beats Mazarbul corridor thongs pages
Haldir Nimrodel flet Silverlode Naith Cerin Rúmil Celebrant
Mirror magic pedestal bole Galadhon Caras basin fireworks
Celeborn Varda Valimar cakes hythe cram si maidens
boats log paddle Rapids Gebir portage Sarn voyage
Hen Lhaw Amon Tol Brandir lawn battlement mad
Parth Galen Rauros glade cloven boat fate bearer
trail Éothain tracks Wold walks trace Éomund Riddermark
Uglúk Grishnákh Isengarders Northerners Whiteskins untie swine
Treebeard hm Ents Entwives Ent hoom Bregalad rowan
haft darken capture prints Arod rags riddle shelf
Wormtongue Hama Gríma terrace Dwimordene Stormcrow neighed
Hornburg Gamling breach Erkenbrand Deeping Westfold Helm
caverns burial herdsmen heaps doubted Fords groves Isen
Huorns barrels Ents Quickbeam draughts Ent pipe arrived
Unsay rail injuries unmoved spell Orthanc remains Eorl
ball rigid palantiri bracken globe information captive palantír
rope knot fix Yess sss nook ells swear
stinks starve ourselfs rotting mires Wraiths gully wretch
oliphaunts Oliphaunt Lithui helps Stinker Ered lots bridges
fern taters pans rabbits coney stew brake herbs
quality Númenóreans Damrod mistress squirrel wiser arts Mablung
Anborn fish fissh sly protection declare Ithil shoot
mould thorns staves silly glare darker tops packs
sneaking wink stairway wraith dad luminous false Stinker
lair den stench phial web spider webs released
Gorbag Shelob Lugbúrz Shagrat Ladyship Ya hoi belly
Beregond Ingold Bergil Forlong street beacons greetings Outlands
Halbarad Burg Erech Elladan seer oath fulfil renown
Hirgon Harrowdale Snowbourn Dwimorberg Starkhorn Stybba
retreat Denethor Grond garrison Pelennor Andros trenches livery
Ghân gorgun Elfhelm buri Éored Widfara Stonewain Drúadan
Mûmakil mace footmen Corsairs Snowmane Hirluin standard
bier Dínen Rath thou key hastened thy burn
Ioreth kingsfoil athelas sick herb malady perian overlooked
Pelargir Angbor Lamedon thousands prudence gulls deemed Lebennin
terms heralds lieutenant army Morannon tokens Gorgor Easterlings
Shagrat turret Snaga slit ores ladder torch aghast
Morgai tracker spur slave Carach Angren Udûn neat
cone Sammath Naur tearing toppled mouthful load parched
praise Gwaihir Landroval laita pure Eagles isle throne
Warden unrest kinswoman Húrin healer shieldmaiden sapling ye
wain beggar pouch Evenstar Arwen fairest Quickbeam Queen
Barliman troubles Nob Greenway Butterbur disturbed Common
ruffians Cotton Sharkey Lotho Shirriffs Pimple Boss Shirriff
Deputy Whitfoot married Elanor repair Mayor Rosie beloved
Here’s the code, of course without the input. I did this a year or two ago thinking it might make a sort of automatic LotR-in-one-page; while it didn’t work out that way—like, Frodo and the Ring get passed over for their very ubiquity—it does show some patterns to geek out on.
April 5 2010
Hello, iPad
I bought an iPad because multitouch interfaces are going to be big and I couldn’t wait to get started with them. Multitouch is for making things, not just consumption; someday soon people will boggle at the idea of getting real work done with just keyboard and mouse.
So today I tried working: adapting Kragen Sitaker’s online photo jigsaw puzzle to the multitouch interface. First hitch: iPad’s soft keyboard. You get a choice of three layouts: QWERTY, AZERTY, or QWERTZ. Dvorak typists are shit out of luck. There’s been a petition out for quite a while saying “Please, Apple, can we please have Dvorak on the iPhone?” which Apple has ignored. (It’s always been there on Macs.) There’s also some weird, not fully satisfactory third-party workaround adapting a Russian keyboard or something. (More when I try it.)
Second hitch: while tweaking Kragen’s web app, I created a variation of it with a different filename. Safari seems to give no way to edit the current URL except by retyping every character from the start. Pecking it out in QWERTY, paging back and forth between alphabet keys and punctuation. (You can copy/paste, but only one word, not the whole.) [Update: There is a way to do it. I don’t know whether I missed it in experimenting or Apple updated Safari. Thanks to xach for the tip.]
These are trivial complaints, except there’s no escape here in Apple-land: the layouts are the layouts and the browser is the browser. Someone could make a new app supplying an alternative input mechanism, just like on a open, programmable computer, except you can only run one app at a time—switching back and forth just to type is not going to win. Someone could make a browser with improved URL-bar editing, but with that sort of redundancy so frowned upon by the censors—well, do you want to try it?
Apple’s patent lawsuit tries to block my next workaround: buying from a competitor.
So far, the iPad is a beautiful appliance. Apple, I want to buy a computer. Don’t tell me a computer has to become a cesspool of complexity and malware. I know better.
