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What 74-year history Crossword says abOuT the language we use.
The world may become more globalized, but the venerable puzzle now relies less on international worlds and place names.
TRAINED Americans consider themselves cosmopolitan group we follow the conflict in Ukraine between Kiev and Donetsk, and can probably point to them on a map We appreciate bibimbap and paella, we are trying to say with an appropriate focus Some of us can identify the work of Igor Stravinsky, Youssou N'Dour and Ai Weiwei the rest of us will get them on Wikipedia now.
But we are more than our parish generation of grandparents as an indicator of the New York Times crossword puzzle.
Courtesy of Will Shortz, the crossword game Times editor, recently I downloaded all the crosswords February 1942 journal, the puzzle began at the end of 2015, I created a algorithm to find all pairs of 2,092,375 clues and answers for foreign language words and place names outside the United States.
The results are imperfect because the puzzles can be difficult and there is much overlap between the English and foreign words, but the general trend is clear that the puzzle now uses a third less indices and non-English answers he did at his peak in 1966, and is two-thirds less than international benchmarks its peak in 1943.
For many years, the puzzle EXPECTED Americans educated to know the German word for with mit and the Latin word vir man, for example, these words have all disappeared from puzzle solvers were supposed to know the details of military operations America, as a battlefield of the mountain in 1943 and deceptively etna, since the answer is actually a Japanese war cry forever Korea in 1951 Banzai Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, by contrast, appear in the busting just head more often in the United States sent troops to each country since the 1990s, puzzlers were sometimes invited to recognize Burkina ____ but in recent years they have received additional assistance, Burkina and African land in Burkina neighbor Niger, the answer is Faso.
Over generations, foreign words have increased in frequency, for example, ethnic food in the crossword time tracks well with broader cultural trends Tacos were first mentioned in the puzzle in 1963 by Mexican sandwich Sushi appeared in 1982 for the sauce soy sushi, dim sum in 1985 appetizer Chinese pasta and Thai food in 1993, popular Thai cooking churros were first included in the puzzle in 2011 Spanish pastry.
Other words also monitoring changes between languages used to be clued as Said French to say; since 1974, it refers almost exclusively to the telegraph Hora went from Latin to Spanish time hour for the Hebrew dance Uber car service is not as clued German preposition above or above.
I asked M. Shortz how he chose foreign language words to include.
I try not to be too dark, he says sometimes less common foreign words are allowed if cognates in English For example, I had Zool gico in an index, the answer was oso, which is Spanish for the bear, and the index was one in a podiatric Zool.
I suggest Madar and pedar words, which are cognates mother and Persian father could those words appear in the puzzle No, he said on blogs crossword, these would be strongly criticized as obscurities also solvers do hate.
Some obscure words are included, although Mr. Shortz gave the example of Oucalégon, which is Greek for a neighbor whose house is on fire He appeared twice in the puzzle once in the early 1960s, you never going to use that word, but it's interesting.
When Margaret Farrar was hired to start the Times crossword, two months after Pearl Harbor, the puzzle was designed as a sort of weekly news quiz, with a taste of news and general information, like the first puzzle page announced the first idea of the famous blind crossword general aligned with this mandate, referring to a British commander who fought in North Africa Wavell.
In the first puzzle four years, more than 15 percent of the indices included international geographical references Ms. Farrar irritated against emphasis on news of the puzzle, said M. Shortz, and reduces these references to 8 percent in the 1960 Small but distinct changes in the ratio can be detected with the arrival of each new puzzle editor Will a slight increase in Weng in 1969, a slight decrease with Eugene T Maleska in 1977 and another decline when M. Shortz took over in 1993 the international references now appear in about 5 percent of the indices of Western Europe represents one third of the international references, a bit lower than in previous decades.
On the day Ms. Farrar, French was still the first language of German international diplomacy was the most common native language in the US after English More Americans had studied Latin in school than any other language today, however, six times more Americans speak Spanish than french, and nine times speak Spanish than German by my analysis Almost nobody knows Latin Since 1995, enrollment in the prices of Spanish colleges was greater than the registration for all the other languages combined.
In the Times crossword, however, the Spanish exceeded Latina in the early 2000s M. Shortz said he never learned his Spanish language skills beyond words everyday that are common between English, comes fully years crossword My mother insisted that french was the international language, and I take it, he said, perhaps not coincidentally, french remains the language foreign most common in the puzzle, although its prevalence fell.
Waves of immigration brought many other languages in the United States and according to data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey, the third most common language spoken in the homes in Texas, after English and Spanish , is Vietnamese in Virginia, it is Korean across the 50 states, about 14 different languages occupy the second position or third.
A puzzle created from time New York Times crossword puzzle in 1942, using many foreign responses would fit.
So will we see Vietnamese or Korean in the New York Times crossword puzzle.
I want the puzzle to reflect our common culture, notes M. Shortz, which means that the answers and clues should have at least entered the general conversation before they appear after thinking a moment, M . Shortz noted that the puzzle included a Vietnamese word last year the index was Vietnamese pho soup.
It's a word I did not know there a few years ago, but is now fairly entrenched in American culture that I can expect American readers know with Vietnamese restaurants in many cities, it has become mainstream, at- he said recently, the puzzle added Vietnamese banh mi sandwich.
A clever puzzle in 1999 made foreign words its theme TCHU tzih, Ghiaccio, Leumi wai hua AI QOLI, Masern, akkulroalit k ttbullar Mandarins, Italian ice, Hebrew National, Hawaiian Punch, Persian carpets, rubella, Eskimo pies, Swedish meatballs A puzzle last year included the idea of the language in which the first six counting numbers tasi, lua, Tolu, F, lima and ono Samoan A puzzle the last year asked, Bula Fiji ___ Hawaii Aloha But these clues are few signs in foreign languages and responses peaked in the 1960s and now less than 4 percent.
Since the Times presented its crossword, many other aspects of American life have dramatically globalized international proportion of the US economy has doubled in the last half-century so has the percentage of Americans born in the abroad international voice calls have increased tenfold in 25 years sixteen million Americans use Google Translate every day we follow the world news in real time as it happens.
But we're more likely to encounter Uma as an actress 117 responses since 1990, and not as a Hindu goddess five answers, not since 1953. When we turn to the New York Times information pages to the puzzle page, the world fades.
What 74 years of history says abOuT Crossword language we use the New York Times, years, crosswords, history.