The Language Lover's Puzzle Book (A World Tour of Languages and Alphabets in 100 Amazing Puzzles)

Whether you’re a crossword solver, cryptogram fan, Scrabble addict, or Sudoku savant, The Language Lover’s Puzzle Book is guaranteed to tease your brain and twist your tongue. Puzzle master Alex Bellos begins in Japan, where we can observe some curious counting:



boru niko = two balls

tsuna nihon = two ropes

uma nito = two horses

kami nimai = two sheets of paper



ashi gohon = five legs

ringo goko = five apples

sara gomai = five plates

kaba goto = five hippos



Now, how do the Japanese say “nine cucumbers”?*

a) kyuri kyuhon

b) kyuri kyuko

c) kyuri kyuhiki

d) kyuri kyuto



Bellos finds the intrigue—and the human element—in a dizzying array of ancient, modern, and even invented tongues, from hieroglyphs to Blissymbolics, Danish to Dothraki. Filled with unusual alphabets, fascinating characters, and intriguing local customs for time-telling, naming children, and more, this is a bravura book of brainteasers and beyond—it’s a globe-trotting, time-traveling celebration of language.



*The word endings depend on shape: Flat things end in -mai and spherical things end in -ko. Cucumbers are long things (like ropes and legs), so they end in -hon. The answer is (a)! 

This book title, The Language Lover's Puzzle Book (A World Tour of Languages and Alphabets in 100 Amazing Puzzles), ISBN: 9781615198047, by @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@, published by The Experiment (November 9, 2021) is available in paperback. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.

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