The eleven-square--take one.

At the end of my article "Hunting the Ten-Square" (May 2004 Word Ways) I said that about one million 11-letter words might suffice to have a 50-50 chance of finding a square. I have since conducted some more investigations using both formulae and programs, and conclude that more than two million words are needed to obtain a reasonable selection of squares. Taking my English vocabulary and adding world place names, etc., as in the article, then adding Graham Toal's 20 word lists in different languages, yields slightly more than one million 11-letter words: insufficient to stand a good chance of finding a square. I therefore paired up popular US forenames and family names (irrespective of whether such a person exists) to make 11-letter names, to obtain a total of over two million "words". Any squares found from this collection will tend to be heavy in personal names, with foreign words and place names also prominent; there may be an occasional English dictionary word! A consequence of the repeated combinations of such a large number of words is that the modified (and improved) 10-square program is more likely to take a millennium than a year. I trust that readers, understanding the magnitude of the task, will take this as a reasonable first attempt.

A A B D E S S A L A M    Aabd es Salam, Syria, 36[degrees]45'N,
                         40[degrees]17'E
A A R O N C O R O N A    Aaron Corona
B R E N D A N R U D D    Brendan Rudd
D O N F E R R E I R A    Don Ferreira
E N D E U T E S S E N    Toal List: Catalan
S C A R T A I T E L E    Toal List: Romanian
S O N R E I R E M O S    Toal List: Spanish "we will smile"
A R R E S T E R E N D    Toal List: Dutch inflection of arresteren, to
                         arrest
L O U I S E M E A D E    Louise Meade
A N D R E L O N D O N    Andre London
M A D A N E S D E N S    Madane's dens

Aaron Corona is to be found on http;//furuset.no/index.php?cat=2263a. Brendan Rudd of Star ID is listed in the AOL White Pages. Don Ferreira of Brentwood CA and Klamath Falls OR is listed in the AOL White Pages. Louise Meade of Lebanon IN and Wichita KS is listed in the AOL White Pages. Andre London of Douglasville GA is listed in the AOL White Pages. Madane is a family name on www.genealogytoday.com/sumame/finder.mv?Surname=Madane. Madane is also a place in Oio, Guinea Bissau. Madane's Dens is a manufactured phrase.

Using a similar measure of evaluation as before, this square scores about 35 points out of 55 (6 proper noun phrases scoring 3 points, 4 solid foreign words scoring 4 points, 1 manufactured phrase scoring 1 point). I would not anticipate finding a square scoring many more than 40 points. Confirmation of foreign words with their meanings would be appreciated.

REX GOOCH

Letchworth Garden City, Herts, England

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