''Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics'' is a quarterly

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

recreational linguistics Logology (or ludolinguistics) is the field of recreational linguistics, an activity that encompasses a wide variety of word games and wordplay. The term is analogous to the term "recreational mathematics". Overview Some of the topics studied in l ...

, logology and

word play Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phonet ...

. It was established by

Dmitri Borgmann Dmitri Alfred Borgmann (October 22, 1927 – December 7, 1985) was a German-American author best known for his work in recreational linguistics. Early life Borgmann was born on October 22, 1927, in Berlin, Germany, to Hans and Lisa Borgmann. Fe ...

in 1968 at the behest of

Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lewis ...

. Howard Bergerson took over as

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

for 1969, but stepped down when

Greenwood Periodicals Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG), also known as ABC-Clio/Greenwood (stylized ABC-CLIO/Greenwood), is an educational and academic publisher (middle school through university level) which is today part of ABC-Clio. Established in 1967 as Gr ...

dropped the publication.

A. Ross Eckler Jr. Albert Ross Eckler Jr. (August 29, 1927 – December 9, 2016) was an American logologist, statistician, and author, the son of statistician A. Ross Eckler. He served in the US Army from 1946 – 1947. He received a BA from Swarthmore College wi ...

, a statistician at

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

, became editor until 2006, when he was succeeded by

Jeremiah Farrell Jeremiah (Jerry) Farrell (December 12, 1937, in Hastings, Nebraska—July 4, 2022, in Indianapolis, Indiana)

(

Butler University Butler University is a private university in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university has over 60 major academic fields of study in six colleges: the Lacy School of Business, College of Communic ...

). ''Word Ways'' was the first periodical devoted exclusively to word play, and has become the foremost publication in that field. Lying "on the midpoint of a spectrum from popular magazine to scholarly journal", it publishes articles on various linguistic oddities and creative use of language. This includes research into and demonstrations of

anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into ''nag a ram'', also the word ...

pangram A pangram or holoalphabetic sentence is a sentence using every letter of a given alphabet at least once. Pangrams have been used to display typefaces, test equipment, and develop skills in handwriting, calligraphy, and keyboarding. Origins The ...

lipogram A lipogram (from grc, λειπογράμματος, ''leipográmmatos'', "leaving out a letter") is a kind of constrained writing or word game consisting of writing paragraphs or longer works in which a particular letter or group of letters is a ...

tautonym A tautonym is a scientific name of a species in which both parts of the name have the same spelling, such as ''Rattus rattus''. The first part of the name is the name of the genus and the second part is referred to as the ''specific epithet'' in ...

univocalic A univocalic is a type of antilipogrammatic constrained writing that uses only a single vowel, in English "A", "E", "I", "O", or "U", and no others. Examples *One of the best-known univocalic poems was written by C.C. Bombaugh in 1890 using "O". ...

word ladder Word ladder (also known as Doublets, word-links, change-the-word puzzles, paragrams, laddergrams, or word golf) is a word game invented by Lewis Carroll. A word ladder puzzle begins with two words, and to solve the puzzle one must find a chain of o ...

palindrome A palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as the words ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date and time ''11/11/11 11:11,'' and the sentence: "A man, a plan, a canal – Panam ...

s and unusually

long words The longest word in any given language depends on the word formation rules of each specific language, and on the types of words allowed for consideration. Agglutinative languages allow for the creation of long words via compounding. Words co ...

, as well as book reviews, literature surveys, investigations into questionable logological claims, puzzles and quizzes,

mnemonics A mnemonic ( ) device, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory for better understanding. Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding, retrieval cues, and imagery ...

and a small measure of linguistically oriented fiction.

Willard R. Espy Willard Richardson Espy (December 11, 1910February 20, 1999) was an American editor, philologist, writer, poet, and local historian. Raised in the seaside village of Oysterville, Washington, Espy later studied at the University of Redlands in Ca ...

discovered ''Word Ways'' in 1972, and eventually used material from several dozen articles in his ''Almanac of Words at Play''

anthologies In book publishing Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed work ...

. The first of these included complete subscription details for ''Word Ways'', which generated so many inquiries that for decades the publishers were reluctant to change their address. In the November 2020 issue, editor Jeremiah Farrell announced that the publication of ''Word Ways'' would be suspended.

Current editorial board

* Editor: Jeremiah Farrell, Butler University * Lacey Echols, Butler University * Kirstin L. Ellsworth, South Pasadena, California * Barbara Howes, Butler University * Katie Mohr, Wiley Publishing Company * David D. Wright, Hangzhou, China * Electronic Journal Publishing Assistant: Laina Ridenour, Butler University

References

{{Reflist, colwidth=30em, refs= {{cite journal, last1=Winkel , first1=Brian J. , year=1977 , title=Word Ways, a journal worth going your way , journal= Cryptologia , volume=1 , issue=3 , pages=232–234 , doi=10.1080/0161-117791832968 {{cite journal , last1=Zuckermann , author-link=Ghil'ad Zuckermann , first1=Ghil'ad , year=1998 , title=Lear's In Israel?, journal=Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics , volume=31 , issue=2 , pages=154–155 , url=https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/wordways/vol31/iss2/18/ {{cite journal , last1=Eckler , first1=A. Ross , year=1999 , title=Willard R. Espy, 1910–1999 , journal=Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics , volume=32 , issue=2 , pages=83–84 , url=http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/wordways/vol32/iss2/2/ {{cite journal , last1=Zuckermann , author-link=Ghil'ad Zuckermann , first1=Ghil'ad , year=2011 , title=Mnemonics in Second Language Acquisition , journal=Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics , volume=44 , issue=4 , pages=302–309 , url=https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/wordways/vol44/iss4/21 {{cite journal , last1=Eckler , first1=A. Ross , year=2010 , title=Look back! , journal=Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics , volume=43 , issue=3 , pages=167–168 , url=http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/wordways/vol43/iss3/6/ {{cite journal , last1=Eckler , first1=A. Ross , year=2010 , title=Word Ways: Making the alphabet dance (part one) , journal=Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics , volume=46 , issue=3 , pages=219–240 , url=http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/wordways/vol46/iss3/20 {{cite book , last=Evans , first=Rod L. , date=2012 , title=Tyrannosaurus Lex: The Marvelous Book of Palindromes, Anagrams, and Other Delightful and Outrageous Wordplay , location=London , publisher=Penguin Books , isbn=978-1-101-58863-5 {{cite book , last=Gardner , first=Martin , date=1995 , title=New Mathematical Diversions , url=https://archive.org/details/newmathematicald0000gard, url-access=registration , publisher=Mathematical Association of America , pag
248
{{cite book , last1=Gardner , first1=Martin , last2=Jennings , first2=Ken , author2-link=Ken Jennings , date=2010 , title=Colossal Book of Wordplay , publisher=Puzzlewright , isbn=978-1402765032 {{cite book , last=Campbell , first=T. , date=2013 , title=On Crosswords: Thoughts, Studies, Facts and Snark About a 100-Year-Old Pastime , publisher=Koehler Books , page=117 , isbn=978-1938467462 {{cite book , last=Lederer , first=Richard , date=1998 , title=The Word Circus , url=https://archive.org/details/wordcircusletter00lede , publisher=Merriam-Webster , isbn=978-0877793540 {{cite book , last=Espy , first=Willard R. , date=1975 , title=An Almanac of Words at Play , url=https://archive.org/details/almanachofwordsa0000unse , publisher=Clarkson Potter , isbn=978-0-517-52463-3 , url-access=registration {{cite book , last=Espy , first=Willard R. , date=1981 , title=Another Almanac of Words at Play , publisher=Clarkson Potter , isbn=978-0-233-97288-6 {{cite book , last=Espy , first=Willard R. , date=1982 , title=A Children's Almanac of Words at Play , publisher=Clarkson Potter , isbn=978-0-340-34852-9 {{cite book , last=Espy , first=Willard R. , date=1999 , title=The Best of an Almanac of Words at Play , url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780877791454 , publisher=Merriam-Webster , isbn=978-0-87779-145-4 {{cite news , author-link=Marc Abrahams , author=Marc Abrahams , title=Wordplay proves a fruitful area for research , url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/dec/17/higher-education-research-wordplay , newspaper=

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

, date=December 17, 2012 , access-date=October 22, 2014 {{cite encyclopedia , last1=Johnson , first1=Dale D. , last2=von Hoff Johnson , first2=Bonnie , last3=Schlichting , first3=Kathleen , editor1-last=Baumann , editor1-first=James F. , editor2-last=Kame'enui , editor2-first=Edward J. , encyclopedia=Vocabulary Instruction: Research to Practice , title=Logology: Word and language play , year=2004 , publisher=Guildford Press , isbn=978-1-57230-933-3 , pages=180

External links

Official website, including free online back issues and abstracts of recent issues
Butler University Literary magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1968 Magazines published in Indianapolis Quarterly magazines published in the United States Word games

Current editorial board

See also

References

External links