Natural Rotational Ambigrams

What's that? Ok, an ambigram is a word that reads the same (or reads something else) when turned in some way (reflected, rotated, etc).
Natural Rotational Ambigrams are a subset of that which I like to experiment with. They're rotational ambigrams (they look the same when you turn them over (rotate)) and they're natural in that they don't use any artistic alteration to create them, just a typical English text font. It helps to have non-D'Nealian a's ("hook" a's) since they look like e's (and vice versa) when rotated.

Anyhow, over several years I experimented more and more with what was possible, at different levels of rigor, and I haven't messed with it in a few years, so I might as well post what I came up with, right?
Here's some of my favorites. They aren't much, which gives you an idea of how hard this ended up being.

Single words:
  • I
  • o
  • nu
  • axe
  • ale
  • pod
  • mow
  • seas
  • haley
  • paled
  • saxes
  • sales
  • swims
  • solos
  • passed
  • sasses
Symbiotogram words:
  • pa/ed
  • ma/ew
  • yo/oh
  • aw/me
  • id/pi
  • my/hw (homework)
  • sol/los (spanish)
  • pep/dad
  • wow/mom
  • les/sal (names)
  • aid/pie
  • ail/lie
  • say/hes
  • hey/hay
  • any/hue
  • [ape/ade]
  • [ame/awe]
  • aha/eye
  • med/paw
  • mad/pew
  • may/hew
  • dew/map
  • pam/wed
  • hem/way
  • ped/pad
  • dow/mop
  • hew/may
  • pal/led
  • deal/leap
  • wool/loom
  • plow/mold
  • sumo/owns
  • lieu/nail
  • same/awes
  • spam/weds
  • [shep/days]
  • shed/pays
  • [shem/ways]
  • says/shes
  • hold/ploy
  • held/play
  • sail/lies
  • pail/lied
  • hems/sway
  • liem/wail
  • hems/sway
  • sans/sues
  • pans/sued
  • deus/snap (Latin)
  • pals/sled
  • ales/sale
  • pies/said
  • sled/pals
  • lead/peal
  • sped/pads
  • sheds/spays
  • salem/wales
  • dooms/swoop
  • [saids/spies]
  • passe/assed
  • ended/papau (new guinea)
  • sassed/passes
  • pallid/pilled
Phrases with one word which rotates into several words:
  • say seal leashes
  • a seal lease
  • a snow mouse
  • a pew madeas dill a ellipse
  • ewes sam a
  • i was semi
  • pa pie aided
  • six ale alexis
  • pa lies sailed
  • pass as sod possessed
  • pass as sod sip dispossessed
  • a sod pose
  • oil od polio
  • spun od pounds
  • a as see
  • pa as seed
  • papa as seeded
  • papa as unseeded
  • papa a sun unseeded
  • she puns sundays
  • he puns sunday
Some favorite phrases and weird sentences:
  • am I we?
  • undue woman pun
  • said I, "sale's Wed."| pam: sales, I: pies
  • ha! u owe a moo sound. p u no! so owe a money
  • aw, o, s-sue? aw, papa, a 'use as needed' means 'some'
  • "pep" pam says, "wow" | mom, shes wed dad
  • mom wailed: shes passed. says pa liem: wow
  • wow! hold pam, shes mad | pew says wed ploy, mom
  • spam made hay | hey, a pew weds
  • papa, a sun shed dew | mad pays unseeded
  • wow i was semi mad | pew i was semi mom
  • pa lies, says "'six ale' alexis? she's sailed."
  • sued sumo owns pans
  • we you loom wool no ham
And my favorite:
  • he puns "hey, hay!" sunday
q is a little more difficult since it has to be followed by a u, so the rotation has to have an n followed by a b!
  • play aqua as any hue seen beheld
  • aqua palm ode aye a heap owl eden be
  • an bed opaque
Taking it a little further (allowing j and r to be considered rotations of each other):
  • jazzer
  • jaded paper
  • her jay
  • [jem war]
  • a joys shore
  • pale aqua jewel llama ran bealed
  • soliloquy or John Bolilo's
  • a joshua an bed pa queeny sore
  • horseman bed open by sal lesh quad opaque was joy
And letting t be its own rotation (a plus might work better):
  • jaunt tuner
  • smart jews
Ok... so it's just weird. But kind of fun.
Maybe next I'll post the rotatable pictures I started doing to go with some of these.

Comments

  1. These are awesome!

    While some are nonsensical in a whimsical way, there are others which are plain clever.

    Personally I've done the 'jaded paper' and 'Sunday he puns' ones.

    nagfa

    ReplyDelete
  2. Found one natural ambigram we did, playing with the i-! combination.

    i passed !

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_n7G9w4iU7Kg/SNOhtqPlULI/AAAAAAAACck/AclJtHZH090/s400/i+passed.jpg

    nagfa

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks... fun stuff. It feels like hacking the English Language ;]

    ReplyDelete
  4. just an addition I just thought of:
    yawn
    u meh

    ReplyDelete
  5. You know, I've been working on a set for all letters,(except for P) and I think I have it. Here it is:
    Z'[epqwel]'X'M'A'[!d]'1'S'&'Ò'[V/N]'O'N'W'7'}|'[)+jbs]'I'H'D'£'3'G'@'g'V
    z'h'x'm'^'n'+'s'j'b'd'o'u'w'l'4'r'!'y'B'f'a'p'?'q'e
    Note: "sqrt(" means, "square root".
    Another note: you have to read the things in square brackets upside-down.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That was such an odd comment, yet I completely understood it.

      I'm not sure how you justify using lambda, pi, and square root symbol if you can't write the reply with them, but I think it's hilarious that you wrote the word representations of them upside down, even the N/A! ;]
      I'm surprised you didn't use ) for C, though, since that's my usual "cop out" when I need one.
      So I take it your goal was to make sure every character was represented by a single unique character which is why you have no P since d is already used for p.
      Pretty nice!

      Delete

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