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From: jjchew@utcs.UUCP (John Chew)
Newsgroups: net.nlang,net.games
Subject: Re: Crossword puzzles
Message-ID: <404@utcs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 30-Jan-85 13:11:02 EST
Article-I.D.: utcs.404
Posted: Wed Jan 30 13:11:02 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 30-Jan-85 13:26:52 EST
References: <7727@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Reply-To: jjchew@utcs.UUCP (John Chew)
Distribution: net
Organization: University of Toronto - General Purpose UNIX
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Xref: utcs net.nlang:2444 

In article <7727@brl-tgr.ARPA> wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) writes:
> How common or prevalent are crossword (and similar) puzzles outside the
> English-speaking countries? 
> 
> Will Martin
> 
> USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin     or   ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA

The Japanese language is not suited to crossword puzzle design, and I have
never seen a Japanese crossword puzzle outside of a language course for
non-native speakers.

Problems include:
  1.  If you use the kanji (ideogram) script, words are very short (one, two,
three characters).  Think of trying to design an English xword puzzle where
a word would be split into boxes not by letters but by groups of letters that
carry meaning.  Sure, "Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" would
stretch into nine or ten boxes (pneumono/ultra/micro/scopic/silico/volcano/
coni/os/is), and you could start listing words across it, like "Pneumonia",
"Ultralight", "Microcomputer", etc. but is this fun?  (might be a bit of a
novelty, but it would wear thin, I think).
  2.  If you use the kana (syllabic) script, puzzles would certainly not be
difficult to design, owing to the nature of the vocabulary, but I can't really
see solving them being very interesting.  Again, think of a syllabic puzzle
in English.  The words aren't long enough.

Puzzles in the romanized script might be feasible.  If anyone knows any more
about them, I'd be interested in hearing from them.

-- 
university of toronto computing services:  john j. chew, iii
{decvax,ihnp4,utcsrgv,allegra!utzoo,linus!utzoo}!utcs!jjchew