Kieran Healy

Word Salad

Originating from who-knows-where (Uncle Jazzbeau is looking) but spreading fast comes the following:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe. ceehiro.

Language Hat was my source. There’s also a Slashdot story.

Now this is very neat. But the explanation—“we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe”—raises some questions. The original researchers may have answered them, of course, but a post’s reach should exceed its grasp or what’s a blog for? If the first and last letters must always be in the right place, then any word three letters long or less will always be spelled properly. Having those words around adds a lot of context to a sentence, helping the reader to process the other words. To really test the idea, we need samples of text where that kind of context is missing.

Recrsheears souhld csrncotut secntnees unisg olny wodrs edxcieneg terhe lttrees. Tihs wlil psoe seevral polrbems beaucse wwreell-ittn Esglinh sluohd nlurtaaly cointan mnay sorht wrdos iunidnlcg pvrn-eborses, gtienvie csaes, cncoeinvets and (howpos) penrpsoitois, aongmst many ohtres. Lnoegr wrods soluhd povre useufl when tteinsg tihs ieda. Fatiensnredg wdors dviorecd from hplfeul cnotext mhgit aslo mkae fnie cidenadats for (siht) iiulsocnn. Eelhapnt. Preorpritay. Mainargl. Avtrinmdatiise. Boyend. Caainnbl. Wree tsohe tcekriir tahn tpyical sentecens? Ppostecirve linigusts wlil fnid csnuotntrcig w-llromefed, ativce senetcens fere form tohse mnay hfepull sohrt wrods raehtr dcffiuilt. Tihs txet smees edecnive eonguh of (carp) taht ponit. Neevretslhes, linigstus slohud sitrve twoards tihs goal. Cvioncning sitedus msut searapte ecah slmal wdor’s cepvidnino-troxtg rloe from the (admn) sipecfic ieda taht praticular otparhghiroc tosntrianipsos gaurantee taht sesne wlil reiman eevn toughh itrnael snbairmclg occrus. Fanlily dleabielrty minlaaitpnug sacmrbled lteter oedrr sohlud make tihngs eevn mroe duffiilct. Raeeedrs wlil fnid wdros wtih vbres or (fcuk) cooatsnnns aaenrrgd ceiuoesctlnvy mkae uiansmnrbclg mroe dcffliiut.

(Tankhs to Jmaie Zainkswi and Pehobus for saciftoiimrbclan asstasince.)

Aoccdrnig to rsereach…

Aoccdrnig to rsereach at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteres are in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl…

So much for that.

Kieran Healy deconstructs the latest “fact” going around in “Word Salad.” The short version: Most commonly-used English words are short and any word of three or fewer letters cannot be scrambled, leaving quite a bit of context from which we…

It’s much simpler than that. It’s well established (since 1950 or so) that there’s only about 1.2 bits of information per character in an English word.

So throwing all the letters in a bag, especially when conserving the first letter, is more than enough information for people to puzzle out what the words are. It certainly takes me a lot longer to read the scrambled text.

See http://math.ucsd.edu/~crypto/java/ENTROPY/

for some history and a cool demonstration.

Excellent.

(I think you messed up the (admn) though, no? Shouldn’t it be (dman)?)

The initial extract I do near reading speed, with little focus, catching almost every word. Your long text I do slower than reading speed but still flowing, paying real attention, missing about 25% but still able to process. I got the last two of your isoolated words at that speed.
FWIW.

Cool site! Check out my new blog, Mousepads, Shoe Leather, and Hope – The Great Grassroots Campaign. Also, check out my Dean stores, The Great Grassroots Campaign and You Have The Power. The proceeds from the shop will be given to the new Generation Dean chapter on campus. If you feel like linking to any of the sites I gave you, I’d be happy to add a link to your site on my blog. Keep up the good work with your site.

Cool site! Check out my new blog, Mousepads, Shoe Leather, and Hope – The Great Grassroots Campaign. Also, check out my Dean stores, The Great Grassroots Campaign and You Have The Power. The proceeds from the shop will be given to the new Generation Dean chapter on campus. If you feel like linking to any of the sites I gave you, I’d be happy to add a link to your site on my blog. Keep up the good work with your site.

So good she posted twice.

Sorry about that. I must have clicked the button twice! Sorry!

interesting research. could you please tell me where i can get more information on this research as my slef and my group at uni wish to research into this as part of our psychology coursework. if any one knows any sites where i can get more information and similar research and theories on jumbed up passages could you please let me know on my email adress.
many thanks
somayya