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Language Games

Chris Ledgard visits the International Linguistics Olympiad to look at the language and peculiarity of puzzles.

From Ancient Greece, to Saturday nights watching TV, word puzzles have fascinated people for thousands of years. Chris Ledgard takes us on a journey through the language of puzzles, from anagrams to Call My Bluff, and visits the International Linguistics Olympiad to meet to some of the sharpest puzzle-solving minds in the business.

Puzzle setter for The Guardian, Chris Maslanka, explains the secrets of puzzle setting; Marcel Danesi from the University of Toronto explains the Riddle of the Sphinx; and scientist Katherine Friedlander explains how you can improve your puzzle solving.

Producer: Melvin Rickarby.

Available now

28 minutes

Last on

Mon 26 Aug 2013 23:00

The Language of Puzzles

Can you come up with a better anagram for Word of Mouth than Chris Ledgard鈥檚:聽 Worm Food Hut?聽 Contact the programme via

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  • Tue 20 Aug 2013 16:00
  • Mon 26 Aug 2013 23:00

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