Palindrome

In linguistics, a palindrome (ancient Greek παλίνδρομος palíndromos "running backwards") refers to words, word series or sentences which, when read backwards, produce exactly the same text or at least the same sense. Capitalization, word boundaries, and punctuation marks may need to be changed when reading backwards.

A word palindrome is a word that, when read backwards, produces the same word (e.g. mount). However, palindromes also include words that, when read backwards, make a different meaningful word (e.g. shelf - warehouse); in this case, the palindrome is a special form of anagram. In a sentence palindrome, the sentence is the same when read forwards as when read backwards. A palindrome can also consist of several sentences. There are even poems in palindrome form.

The linguistic concept of palindrome has been adopted in other fields, that is, palindromes do not necessarily have to consist of letters. For example, there are number palindromes (such as 2442). In computer science, a palindrome is a string of characters that is identical when read forwards or backwards. Genetics knows palindromic sequences in DNA or RNA chains. The mirror-symmetrical structural formula of some molecules can be understood as a palindrome-like representation of a chemical compound. There are also palindromes in the literature of notated music.

Palindromes in linguistics

Wordpalindrome

Examples

• Hannah
•  
• Otto
• Shelf storage
• Mount
• Relief pillar
• Pensioners

Otto, Reittier and Rotor are additionally Morse code palindromes, since they consist exclusively of symmetrical Morse characters. Examples of Morse code palindromes that no longer result in palindromes in Latin letters are du (- -, - -) or an (- -, - -).

The German lyricist and children's author Josef Guggenmos wrote a nursery rhyme about a giant whose name is also a palindrome: the giant "Mutakirorikatum".

According to the Guinness Book of Records of 1997, the longest German one-word palindrome is Reliefpfeiler with 13 letters. The compound is already mentioned as an example of palindromes in Meyer's Großes Konversations-Lexikon of 1905. Its "discovery" is often attributed to the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer - a claim that does not stand up to scrutiny, however. The word relief pillar is known almost exclusively as an example of palindrome, otherwise the technical term pilaster is preferred. Incidentally, longer than relief pillar is the 15-letter word retsina canister. The longest word palindrome of all languages, according to the Guinness Book of Records, is the Finnish word saippuakivikauppias ("soapstone seller") with 19 letters.

In some palindromes of the type shelf-storage (composition with word joint in the middle), an even more complex palindrome can be formed by inserting a suitable further palindrome in the middle, as next to: Shelf Secondary Warehouse. However, the meaningfulness of the result demanded in the definition is to be doubted in such cases, since words like Regalnebenlager do not occur in real language usage.

Set palindrome

Examples of German sentence palindromes

• Love is the victor; it is always active in suffering.
• A golden good virtue: never lie!
• Never threaten a horde!
• Erika only fires unfaithful fakirs.
• O genius, the Lord honor your ego!
• Did Tim never wear pants that light with a belt?

Examples of English sentence palindromes

• A man, a plan, a canal - Panama. - German: "A man, a plan, a canal - Panama." (With reference to the Panama Canal.)
• Madam, I'm Adam. - German: "Madam, I'm Adam." (With reference to Adam and Eve.)
• Never odd or even. - German: "Nie odd oder gerade." (Meaning even and odd numbers.)
• Was it a car or a cat I saw? - German: "Was das ein Auto oder eine Katze, was das ich gesehen habe?"

Japanese sentence palindromes

Artistic use

The classical philologist Friedrich August Wolf lost his professorship in 1806 when Napoleon abolished the University of Halle. He is thought to be the author of an elaborate Latin palindrome which, even when read backwards, remains a poem of correct distichs. Read forward, the text addressed to Napoleon is a prophecy of victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. Read backwards, it is the opposite: Napoleon's defeat in that battle is prophesied, and his name is no longer Bonaparte but Malaparte. However, this is only a palindrome in the broader sense, since the Latin poem is to be read backwards, not letter by letter, but word by word.

In 1968, the artist André Thomkins, with others, created palindromes in the style of street signs on the outside wall of the restaurant of the artist Daniel Spoerri. They dealt mainly, sometimes in an absurd way, with the theme of "food and cooking" in the broadest sense, for example: "pur ist syrup", "dreh mit forelle teller oft im herd", "bürle knurre grub milch - limburger runkelrüb" (ch = 1 letter). Inside the old town restaurant more palindromes were found. The restaurant at the Düsseldorfer Burgplatz does not exist any more. 21 of these palindrome signs can be seen today in the Giardino di Daniel Spoerri, an art and sculpture park in southern Tuscany.

In contemporary poetry, the palindrome is used as a stylistic device by individual authors, for example in the lyrics of Titus Meyer.

Other examples:

• The French writer Georges Perec wrote palindromes of well over 1000 words in the form of letters or poems that can be read entirely backwards.
• In 2003, musician Weird Al Yankovic recorded the song Bob, in which each line of lyrics forms a sentence palindrome. The song was a parody of Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues".
• The poet Anton Bruhin created the "Mirror Poems" in 2003. In 2005 his work 500 Typograms and 10,000 Palindromes was published. All 10,000 palindromes begin with "row" and end with "here".
• The writer Herbert Pfeiffer published a volume of palindrome poems in 1992 under the title Oh Cello voll Echo.

Curious

• Among the scientific names for genera and species in biology are some palindromes, see List of whimsical scientific names from biology.
• There are also internet addresses in palindrome form, if you disregard parts like http://www., for example ed.xozzox.de.
• In the song SOS by the pop group ABBA, the song title and also the name of the band is a palindrome.
• The puzzle author CUS traced the origin of the word palindrome back to Sarah Palin in his book Das sonderbare Lexikon der deutschen Sprache. In the same book, under the heading Phantom Words, he explained the nonsense of this claim.

Phonetic palindromes

A phonetic palindrome is a piece of spoken language that sounds approximately the same when spoken backwards. The backwards pronunciation is usually realized technically (backwards playback function of an audio program), since humans cannot speak exactly backwards. Mostly it concerns short speech sequences and constructed sentences. In order to achieve as much consonance as possible, the speaker may apply a slightly modified pronunciation at critical points.

Number palindromes

Number palindromes give the same value seen from the front as from the back (e.g. 151). Among them are also prime numbers (see prime number palindrome). Prime numbers that do not have the same value when read backwards, but do have a different prime number, are called mirp numbers.

Date palindrome

Very similar to the number palindromes are date palindromes, e.g. 20.02.2002 or 02.02.2020, and time palindromes, e.g. 13:31.

February 2, 2020 was a global palindromic day. The calendar date can be read from both sides according to the European notation (02/02/2020), the East Asian or ISO notation (2020.02.02 or 2020-02-02), and the US notation (02/02/2020). The last time this was the case was 11/11/1111. The next two global palindromic days are 12/12/2111 and 03/03/3030.