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Bonus 87: Secret codes and the joy of cryptic word puzzles
For almost as long as we’ve been writing things down, we’ve been trying to figure out ways of preventing unauthorized people from reading them. These days, the security aspect is often taken care of by computers, but a lot of the earlier human-solvable ciphers have instead become fun word puzzles.
In this bonus episode, Gretchen and Lauren get enthusiastic about secret codes and the word games we create based on them! We talk about using alternate symbols to encode messages like in semaphore, Morse code, and other code books we had as (budding linguist) kids as well as repurposing existing symbols like the Caesar cipher, ROT13, and cryptoquote puzzles. We also talk about cryptic crosswords, which aren’t technically a kind of cryptography but were used to recruit codebreakers for Bletchley Park in World War II, as well as Navajo, Choctaw, and other Native American code talkers who used their language skills to transmit messages in both world wars that were much harder to crack than a mere cipher.
Listen to this episode about secret codes and cryptic word puzzles, and get access to many more bonus episodes by supporting Lingthusiasm on Patreon.
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Get more from Lingthusiasm on Patreon...Bonus 87: Secret codes and the joy of cryptic word...
About Lingthusiasm
A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne.
Weird and deep conversations about the hidden language patterns that you didn't realize you were already making.
New episodes (free!) the third Thursday of the month.
