April 18, 2024 • 11 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: author and linguist Arika Okrent!
Join host A.J. Jacobs and his guests as they puzzle–and laugh–their way through new spins on old favorites, like anagrams and palindromes, as well as quirky originals such as “Ask Chat GPT” and audio rebuses.
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"The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs" is distributed by iHeartPodcasts and is a co-production with Neuhaus Ideas.
Our executive producers are Neely Lohmann and Adam Neuhaus of Neuhaus Ideas, and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts.
The show is produced by Jody Avirgan and Brittani Brown of Roulette Productions.
Our Chief Puzzle Officer is Greg Pliska. Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello, Puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast the group hug.
At the end of your very special puzzle episode, I
am your host, AJ Jacobs, and today's guest is the
wonderful Erica Okrant. She's a linguist, journalist and author of
(00:26):
Highly Irregular, Why Tough Through, and Doe Don't Rhyme, and
other odyssees of the English language. Welcome Erica, great to
be here.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
So, Erica. This puzzle today is inspired by a book
that you wrote before, Highly Irregular, called In the Land
of Invented Languages, which received a rave review in The
Washington Post from author AJ Jacobs.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I that is great.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I read it and I loved it, and it was
it was so fun. And it is about all sorts
of languages, including Esperanto and oh you talk about a
cling on insult. You talk you learned cling on? So
which is I believe something like your mother has a
smooth forehead?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, watch it. Watch what you're saying there. I know
that one.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Well, do you remember how to say it in klingon?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Coub in your head? I don't remember the rest of it.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
There were so many cub something like that.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It will come to me.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
I'm insulted. Well, I also remember that Esperanto, the the
language meant to unite the world, split up into several
warring sects of different types of Esperanto, which always made
me sad. But maybe a commentary on human.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Behavior most most utopian movements do that.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Oh so crushing. But a wonderful book and the inspiration
for this puzzle, which was not written by me, but
was written by our chief puzzle Officer, Greg Pliska, who
has come up from the puzzle lamp to give you
this special treat.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Welcome Greg, Thank you. Aj I always like being let
out of the lab once in a while. And Erica,
thanks for doing this with us. I realized you two
also have in common that you both have been speakers
at the Wonderful World of Words weekend at Mowonk Mountain House.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
It is wonderful.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
It has written some of my favorite books, including Land
of Invented Languages. All that aside, I have to admit
this puzzle is not about any actual languages, natural or invented,
but instead we're playing with one of the suffixes that
is often used to form the names of languages. Ish okay, right,
(02:57):
it's like English and Irish and span and so on.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
For some reason, when you said that, I thought of
something I had heard once about ferbie Ish, the language
of the furbies.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
That was the first.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
So the first one that came to my mind with ish.
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Why furbish, and if you did it again, you would
be refurbish.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Well, in this game, each answer is a word that
ends with ish. I'll give you a clue to that
word and a clue to the fake or invented language
that sounds the same. So for example, it's a word
that means to hold deer, or it's the language of
the seats at a table.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Ooh, okay, okay, I get it to hold deer, and
the seats at a table are chairs, so chaer ish. Okay.
I was trying to think of a nationality, and that's
not what you're doing here, exactly.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
None of the languages they're totally invented as languages of
things like chairs. So they would speak cherish, which is
also sounds just like the word to cherish. So that's
an example.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
So Furbish will not be in here. I didn't give
anything away with that, okay.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Yeah, furbish will not appear in this puzzle. No, no
actual languages have been harmed in the making of this puzzle,
except perhaps English has been slaughtered slightly. But here we go.
All right, your first one, it's garbage, or it's a
language spoken in massage parlors.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Okay, trash, garbage, massage parlors. Oh, it is rubbish.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Rubbish, rubbish, exactly, the language spoken in the massage parlor.
All right, here's another one. It's easily frightened. Or it's
the language spoken during sketches on SNL.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Okay, there's a lot of stuff going on here. Easily frightened, scared,
a timid oof. Okay, let me switch over to this.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
It's another word for a sketch like you would have
on Saturday Night last.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Okay, that's helpful.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Skittish, skittish, skittish, exactly language spoken earing sketches on SNL.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
By the way, I once wrote an article about SNL
and they got angry at me for using the word
skit because skit has a negative like a high school production.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
So fair point. I retracted the clue spoken during sketches
in my high school daughter's.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Sorry Lorn.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Yeah, now, town he'll never be a guest on the show.
All right, here's another one. It means slightly hungry. Or
it's the language spoken by chickens getting food in the barnyard.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Okay, it is. Oh, the chickens in the barnyard are pecking,
so it's peckish.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Pish exactly, actually said. It's a language spoken by actor
Gregory Gregory, all right, it's what an interior decorator helps
do to your home. Or it's a language spoken by
spore producing plants.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Okay, so the spore producing plants are mushrooms, fungus fungus ish.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
No, no, not those plants.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Oh, okay, spores. Uh. Oh, you know this is I'm
getting there in a very un conventional way. But Ferbyish
is taking me to furnish very good.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
I can't how did I don't know how ferby you
had interior decorator come and put Furbyish furbish.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
That's what I was thinking too, because I actually haven't
seen it. So yeah, refurbished to Furbyish to furnish. I
got you. I'm with you. There you go.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yeah. Instead of connecting it to my my vast network
of vocabulary through my entire life, I'm connecting it to
three minutes ago conversation, so that's.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
More immediate three minutes ago. All right, here's here's another one.
It's what one does to wrongdoers. Or it's the language
of the lowest form of comedy.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Oh well this, Yeah, the language of the lowest form
of comedy has got to be puns and it's punish.
Punish said like this, this show should be more appreciative of.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
That's right, I know you we are. We are biting
the hand that feeds us.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
There the whole puzzle is punish, right, I mean a
very bleak nature.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
We put the lowest form of comedy in quotes, so
you didn't see their quotes. But that's what some snobs
might say.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
All right, one more for you. It's a word meaning
put out a fire. Or it's the language spoken by
Gordon Sumner when he gives up his stage name.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
That's funny because I got the word right away and
I thought, oh, how are you possibly going to get
to X Sting for extinguish? But you found a way.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
There we go.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Congratulations.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Sting gives up his stage name and starts speaking speaking extinguish.
Nicely done, well done, Well done, you knock these right out.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Erica, Where can we read more of your delightful work
on the craziness of the English language?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Well, highly Regular is out? I should all so mentioned.
There is an audio book of Highly Irregular, and I
am the audiobook presenter, So if you enjoy the way
I'm talking and explaining things, you might enjoy listening to
the book Highly Irregular, where I get to pronounce all
these difficult things in there that they couldn't get anyone
(09:19):
else to do because it would be too much.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
What was the hardest word you had to pronounce?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Oh gosh, there was a lot of old English and
some Dutch words, stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Like that liket yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Those those old old English and Dutch words. Those can
be hard. But also Latin, because a lot of Latin.
You know, you've seen it in books a lot, but
you never say it, and you have no idea that
you've actually been pronouncing it in your head wrong this
whole time.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
To be fair, there is no one a lot. We
have no recordings of the Romans speaking Latin, so we
don't know for sure, do we.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
True we don't, But there is a large academic enterprise
devoted to figuring that out. And you do not want
to cross those guys.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That's right, we will not. Greg, do you have an
extra credit?
Speaker 3 (10:13):
I do have an extra credit, and I'm gonna throw
a little curveball to our listeners. This is not a
word ending with ish. It's using another common language suffix,
and I'm not even going to tell you which one,
but you can probably guess. There's a very common suffix
that makes up the name of many languages. And here's
(10:34):
your clue. It's a soft cow's milk fromage, or it's
a language spoken by people who are born feet first.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Okay, I like it. I'm going to think on that,
and in the meantime, puzzlers, please tune in next time
to get the answer, and don't forget to tell your
friends if you're enjoying the podcast, and we'll meet you
here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Hello, puzzlers, this is Greg pliska up from the Puzzle
Lab with the extra credit answer. From our previous show,
we played I rhymes with the great Erica okrant, in
which each answer is a pair of words that look
like they should rhyme, but they don't. And we gave
you a double extra credit. One clue was actor Connery's Levi's,
(11:32):
which of course are Sean's genes, and the other clue
was misplaces red flowers for Valentine's Day, and that would
be loses roses. We hope you didn't lose your roses
while listening to the Puzzler podcast, and we hope you'll
be back with us again for the next episode.
Hello, Puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast the group hug.
At the end of your very special puzzle episode, I
am your host, AJ Jacobs, and today's guest is the
wonderful Erica Okrant. She's a linguist, journalist and author of
(00:26):
Highly Irregular, Why Tough Through, and Doe Don't Rhyme, and
other odyssees of the English language. Welcome Erica, great to
be here.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
So, Erica. This puzzle today is inspired by a book
that you wrote before, Highly Irregular, called In the Land
of Invented Languages, which received a rave review in The
Washington Post from author AJ Jacobs.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
I that is great.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
I read it and I loved it, and it was
it was so fun. And it is about all sorts
of languages, including Esperanto and oh you talk about a
cling on insult. You talk you learned cling on? So
which is I believe something like your mother has a
smooth forehead?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, watch it. Watch what you're saying there. I know
that one.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Well, do you remember how to say it in klingon?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Coub in your head? I don't remember the rest of it.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
There were so many cub something like that.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It will come to me.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
I'm insulted. Well, I also remember that Esperanto, the the
language meant to unite the world, split up into several
warring sects of different types of Esperanto, which always made
me sad. But maybe a commentary on human.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Behavior most most utopian movements do that.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Oh so crushing. But a wonderful book and the inspiration
for this puzzle, which was not written by me, but
was written by our chief puzzle Officer, Greg Pliska, who
has come up from the puzzle lamp to give you
this special treat.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Welcome Greg, Thank you. Aj I always like being let
out of the lab once in a while. And Erica,
thanks for doing this with us. I realized you two
also have in common that you both have been speakers
at the Wonderful World of Words weekend at Mowonk Mountain House.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
It is wonderful.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
It has written some of my favorite books, including Land
of Invented Languages. All that aside, I have to admit
this puzzle is not about any actual languages, natural or invented,
but instead we're playing with one of the suffixes that
is often used to form the names of languages. Ish okay, right,
(02:57):
it's like English and Irish and span and so on.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
For some reason, when you said that, I thought of
something I had heard once about ferbie Ish, the language
of the furbies.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
That was the first.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
So the first one that came to my mind with ish.
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Why furbish, and if you did it again, you would
be refurbish.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Well, in this game, each answer is a word that
ends with ish. I'll give you a clue to that
word and a clue to the fake or invented language
that sounds the same. So for example, it's a word
that means to hold deer, or it's the language of
the seats at a table.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Ooh, okay, okay, I get it to hold deer, and
the seats at a table are chairs, so chaer ish. Okay.
I was trying to think of a nationality, and that's
not what you're doing here, exactly.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
None of the languages they're totally invented as languages of
things like chairs. So they would speak cherish, which is
also sounds just like the word to cherish. So that's
an example.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
So Furbish will not be in here. I didn't give
anything away with that, okay.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Yeah, furbish will not appear in this puzzle. No, no
actual languages have been harmed in the making of this puzzle,
except perhaps English has been slaughtered slightly. But here we go.
All right, your first one, it's garbage, or it's a
language spoken in massage parlors.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Okay, trash, garbage, massage parlors. Oh, it is rubbish.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Rubbish, rubbish, exactly, the language spoken in the massage parlor.
All right, here's another one. It's easily frightened. Or it's
the language spoken during sketches on SNL.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Okay, there's a lot of stuff going on here. Easily frightened, scared,
a timid oof. Okay, let me switch over to this.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
It's another word for a sketch like you would have
on Saturday Night last.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Okay, that's helpful.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Skittish, skittish, skittish, exactly language spoken earing sketches on SNL.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
By the way, I once wrote an article about SNL
and they got angry at me for using the word
skit because skit has a negative like a high school production.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
So fair point. I retracted the clue spoken during sketches
in my high school daughter's.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Sorry Lorn.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Yeah, now, town he'll never be a guest on the show.
All right, here's another one. It means slightly hungry. Or
it's the language spoken by chickens getting food in the barnyard.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Okay, it is. Oh, the chickens in the barnyard are pecking,
so it's peckish.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Pish exactly, actually said. It's a language spoken by actor
Gregory Gregory, all right, it's what an interior decorator helps
do to your home. Or it's a language spoken by
spore producing plants.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Okay, so the spore producing plants are mushrooms, fungus fungus ish.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
No, no, not those plants.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Oh, okay, spores. Uh. Oh, you know this is I'm
getting there in a very un conventional way. But Ferbyish
is taking me to furnish very good.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
I can't how did I don't know how ferby you
had interior decorator come and put Furbyish furbish.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
That's what I was thinking too, because I actually haven't
seen it. So yeah, refurbished to Furbyish to furnish. I
got you. I'm with you. There you go.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Yeah. Instead of connecting it to my my vast network
of vocabulary through my entire life, I'm connecting it to
three minutes ago conversation, so that's.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
More immediate three minutes ago. All right, here's here's another one.
It's what one does to wrongdoers. Or it's the language
of the lowest form of comedy.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Oh well this, Yeah, the language of the lowest form
of comedy has got to be puns and it's punish.
Punish said like this, this show should be more appreciative of.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
That's right, I know you we are. We are biting
the hand that feeds us.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
There the whole puzzle is punish, right, I mean a
very bleak nature.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
We put the lowest form of comedy in quotes, so
you didn't see their quotes. But that's what some snobs
might say.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
All right, one more for you. It's a word meaning
put out a fire. Or it's the language spoken by
Gordon Sumner when he gives up his stage name.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
That's funny because I got the word right away and
I thought, oh, how are you possibly going to get
to X Sting for extinguish? But you found a way.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
There we go.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Congratulations.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Sting gives up his stage name and starts speaking speaking extinguish.
Nicely done, well done, Well done, you knock these right out.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Erica, Where can we read more of your delightful work
on the craziness of the English language?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Well, highly Regular is out? I should all so mentioned.
There is an audio book of Highly Irregular, and I
am the audiobook presenter, So if you enjoy the way
I'm talking and explaining things, you might enjoy listening to
the book Highly Irregular, where I get to pronounce all
these difficult things in there that they couldn't get anyone
(09:19):
else to do because it would be too much.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
What was the hardest word you had to pronounce?
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Oh gosh, there was a lot of old English and
some Dutch words, stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Like that liket yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Those those old old English and Dutch words. Those can
be hard. But also Latin, because a lot of Latin.
You know, you've seen it in books a lot, but
you never say it, and you have no idea that
you've actually been pronouncing it in your head wrong this
whole time.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
To be fair, there is no one a lot. We
have no recordings of the Romans speaking Latin, so we
don't know for sure, do we.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
True we don't, But there is a large academic enterprise
devoted to figuring that out. And you do not want
to cross those guys.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That's right, we will not. Greg, do you have an
extra credit?
Speaker 3 (10:13):
I do have an extra credit, and I'm gonna throw
a little curveball to our listeners. This is not a
word ending with ish. It's using another common language suffix,
and I'm not even going to tell you which one,
but you can probably guess. There's a very common suffix
that makes up the name of many languages. And here's
(10:34):
your clue. It's a soft cow's milk fromage, or it's
a language spoken by people who are born feet first.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Okay, I like it. I'm going to think on that,
and in the meantime, puzzlers, please tune in next time
to get the answer, and don't forget to tell your
friends if you're enjoying the podcast, and we'll meet you
here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Hello, puzzlers, this is Greg pliska up from the Puzzle
Lab with the extra credit answer. From our previous show,
we played I rhymes with the great Erica okrant, in
which each answer is a pair of words that look
like they should rhyme, but they don't. And we gave
you a double extra credit. One clue was actor Connery's Levi's,
(11:32):
which of course are Sean's genes, and the other clue
was misplaces red flowers for Valentine's Day, and that would
be loses roses. We hope you didn't lose your roses
while listening to the Puzzler podcast, and we hope you'll
be back with us again for the next episode.
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