A panalphabetic window is a stretch of text that contains all the letters of the alphabet
in order. It is a special type of
pangram
A pangram or holoalphabetic sentence is a sentence using every letter of a given alphabet at least once. Pangrams have been used to display typefaces, test equipment, and develop skills in handwriting, calligraphy, and keyboarding.
Origins
The ...
or
pangrammatic window
A pangrammatic window is a stretch of naturally occurring text that contains all the letters in the alphabet.
Shortest examples
The shortest known naturally occurring pangrammatic window was discovered in October 2014 through an automated processi ...
.
Natural-sounding panalphabetic sentences are not particularly difficult to construct; the following sequence of 132 letters by
Howard Bergerson
Howard William Bergerson (July 29, 1922 – February 19, 2011) was an American writer and poet, noted for his mastery of palindromes and other forms of wordplay.
Work
Bergerson's first volume of poetry, ''The Spirit of Adolescence'', was publi ...
is often quoted:
Considerably rarer are short, naturally occurring panalphabetic windows. Based on the
letter frequency
Letter frequency is the number of times letters of the alphabet appear on average in written language. Letter frequency analysis dates back to the Arab mathematician Al-Kindi (c. 801–873 AD), who formally developed the method to brea ...
distribution of a large corpus,
Mike Keith calculated the expected window size for English text to be around 3000 letters. His computer-assisted search of
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...
identified the shortest natural panalphabetic window as a 535-letter passage from ''The Alkahest'', a translation of
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...
's ''
La Recherche de l'Absolu'':
See also
*
Pangram
A pangram or holoalphabetic sentence is a sentence using every letter of a given alphabet at least once. Pangrams have been used to display typefaces, test equipment, and develop skills in handwriting, calligraphy, and keyboarding.
Origins
The ...
*
Pangrammatic window
A pangrammatic window is a stretch of naturally occurring text that contains all the letters in the alphabet.
Shortest examples
The shortest known naturally occurring pangrammatic window was discovered in October 2014 through an automated processi ...
References
{{reflist, refs=
[{{cite journal , last=Bergerson , first=Howard , date=August 1980 , title=Kickshaws , url=http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/wordways/vol13/iss3/12/ , journal= Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics , volume=13 , issue=3 , pages=175–186 ]
[{{cite book , last=Eckler , first=Ross , date=1997 , title=Making the Alphabet Dance: Recreational Wordplay , publisher=St Martins Griffin , page=160 , isbn=978-0312155803 ]
[{{cite journal , last=Eckler , first=A. Ross Jr., date=May 2010 , title=Howard Bergerson , url=http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/wordways/vol43/iss2/2/ , journal= Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics , volume=43 , issue=2 , pages=82–88 ]
[{{cite journal , last=Keith , first=Mike , date=February 2001 , title=Panalphabetic Windows in Literature , url=http://digitalcommons.butler.edu/wordways/vol34/iss1/23/ , journal= Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics , volume=34 , issue=1 , pages=74–76 ]
Pangrams