Twin Places and Other Top Anagrams

180 TWIN PLACES AND OTHER TOP ANAGRAMS REX GOOCH Letchworth Garden City, Herts, England - The trigger for this article was finding a twin for a town mentioned by Darryl Francis (in the sense that one. El Canbaro, wa a permutatIOn of the letters of the other, Barcelona, W03-277). I thought it might be amusing to see how many twin places existed. as it seemed to be as good a basis for town twinning as the reasons often glVen for these e cuses for mayoral junketing. I was overwhelmed: more than one third (about three-quarters of a milhon) of all places participate in twins, but also nearly a quarter of a million exist In triplets, and so on. The most permutable sequence of letters can be arranged into 54 different places. the next Into 53 places, and so on . In alphomic form , the sets are: 54 places for AEILMS; 53 places for AAIKRS, 52 places for AAIMRT, AAINRT, AEIMNS, AEIMRS, and AEINST, and 51 places for AAGINR and AEILMR. Note that an A and an I always occur, together With an A or E. and frequently letters from R, Sand T. The S is of course useful for plurals or conjugation of verbs, as are letters to make the endings -OR, -ER, -ING etc, aod prefixes such as A-. aod UN-. ote also that all cases have exactly six letters, which was oot a restriction imposed by me. Longer sequences would seem. In theory, to give more scope for longer endings, such as -ING or - E S. and prefixes like ANT1-; but it may be that shorter words contain a greater mixture of letters. The full sourcing for the 54 case is given below, and the cases with 53 and 52 forms are given in compact form to save pace (but see next section for AEINST). 54 places for AEILMS or ISMAEL lisem. Turkey, 3r58, 40°58 Dar Amesil, Morocco, 29° 19, -10°06 AlbaOla,41°10,19°36 EI-Mi'sa, Jordan, 31°27, 35°4 1 Ezbet Ibrahim ' Abd el- ami, Egypt, 290)3, 30°57 Bab Emsila, Morocco, 35° 13, -5°34 Mohammad heykh 01 Eslami, Iran, 360)8, 51 "25 Esmali Sai, Afghanistan, 36° 18, 64°56 (lema . RUSSia, 56°38, 50°37 [smael Pinto, Colombia, 8°42, -76° 19 Laem i, Thailand. 9°23, 99°19 Rio Laisme, Venezuela, 8°50, -63°46 Bo ma and Herzegovina, 44°38, 18°39 Oued oua-n-Leimas, Algeria, 28°44, 6°55 Arbet Lemai , Western Sahara, 21 "23, -16°50 Lemasi, Greece, 38°12, 23°50 Lem ai. Thailand, 9"23. 99°19 Lemsia, Georgia, 43°0 1,42°40 ionte Lesima, Italy, 44°41 , 9° 15 Les Liames, France, 46°33, ) °57 Limae Point. Angola, -13°1 5, 12°39 Maesil, South Korea, 34°43, J25°56 Pulau-pulau Maisel, indonesia, -5"29, 1270)2 Maleis, Sudan, 6°31, 29°52 l\falesi. Croatia, 43°44, J 6°45 Maseil-seiJ, Philippines, ) 5°55, ) 20°53 Ma eli. India, 20°4 , 80°26 Masiel, Cameroon, 3°27, 12°36 ....::. Philippines. 14°48, 120°49 Meisal Lake, orway, 62°46, 8° 10 ungai Melais, Brunei, 4°50, I 14°59 Sidhirodhrornikos Stathmos felias, Greece, 39"33, 220)5 Mesali, Oem. Rep. of the Congo, 3°04, 21°17 Mesita, Finland, 63°45, 26°57 Eripia Ano Mileas Greece, 400 J4,22°16 Isla de Misael, Colombia, 7"20, _77°J 9 . fisale, DeUL Rep. of the Congo, -3"31, 17"38 Miseal, Ireland, 52°41, -6°46 COIDuoa fislea, Romania, 45°05,25°49 MseiJa, Algeria, 34°35, 4°34 alemi 'argay, Afghanistan, 33°46,69"31 Salime, Spain, 43°13, -6°50 o Rex Gooch 2004 181 Sameli, Ghana, 8°09, -2°01 Gor Selami, Western Sahara, 26°23 , -10°37 Sungai Semail, Malaysia, 3°11, 103°04 Semlia, India, 24°30, 74°22 Silema, Sierra Leone, 8°22, -I 1°05 Sliema Point Tower, Malta, 35°54, 14°30 Phumi Samlei, Cambodia, 10°57, 106°0 I Mallahet ' Ugret Selima, Egypt, 31 °09, 33°05 Semali, Indonesia, -7°29, 110° 10 Silame, Guinea, II °41 , -I 1°56 Es-Slemia, Libya, 32°37, 12° 17 Pointe Smaile, Vanuatu, -16°38, 168° 14 53 places from KAISAR or AAIKRS AIKSAR AKASRJ AKRJAS AKSAIR ARASKI ASAKRI ASlRAK ASKJRA ASKRJA ISARAK KARASl KARIAS KARJSA KARSIA KASAIR KASRIA KlASAR KJRASA KISARA KRASAI RAISKA RAKASI RAKISA RASIKA RASKAI SAKAIR SAKARJ SAKIRA SAKRAI SARAIK SARKAI SIARAK SIKARA SKARAI SKARIA ARASKI, Estonia, is at www.eki.eelknnlamas_vy.htm ARKASI ISKARA KASARJ KSAIRA SAIKAR SARAKl ARSAKI KAISAR KASIAR RAASKJ SAIKRA SARJAK ASAKlR KARAIS KASIRA RAIKAS SAIRAK SARIKA 52 places from AIRT AM or AAIMRT AIR-TAM AlT MAR AMARIT AMARTI IMARAT IMATAR IMATRA IRMATA MARl AT MARITA MARTIA MATAIR MIATRA MIRATA MITARA MITRAA RAMATI RAMIAT RAMITA RAMTIA TAAMIR TAIMAR TAIRMA TAMIRA TIARAM TIMARA TRAI MA TRAMAI AMIRAT IRTAMA MATARI MRAIAT RATAMI TARAMI AMRATI MAITRA MATIRA MRATIA RATIMA TARIMA ARAMTI MARA IT MATRAI MTAIRA RATMIA TARMAI ARIMAT MARATI MIARAT RAITAM RJMATA TIA-MAR 52 places from AIRTAN or AAINRT AIRTAN ANATIR ANTARJ ANTlRA ARTANI ARTIAN ARTINA ATARNI INARAT INATRA INTARA NAIRAT NIARTA NITARA NTARJA NTIARA RATANI RATINA RATNAI RATNIA TANRAI TARANI TARIAN TARINA TIRANA TRAIAN TRAINA TRIANA ARANIT ATNAIR NARIAT RAINTA TAARIN TARNAI ARITAN ATRAIN NARJTA RANATI TAl RAN TIANRA ARNAIT ATRA I NARTlA RANITA TANAIR TIARAN ARNITA IA TAR NATIRA RANTAI TANARJ TINARA 52 places from AMIENS or AEIMNS AMIENS ANSEMI ASMINE EIMANS MAENSI MAINES MAISEN MANESI MASENI MASINE MEl SAN MENISA MIANES MINSAE MISANE NAMEIS NEMASI NE SIMA SAlMEN SAMEIN SEINAM SEINMA SEMANI SEMIAN SIMEAN SIMENA SINMAE SMAINE EMINAS MANIES MENSIA NAMESI SAMENI SENAMI IMENAS MANISE MESANI NAMIES SAMIEN SENMAI IMESAN MANSIE MESINA NAMISE SANIME SIAMEN ISMENA MASEIN MESNIA NA SIEM SAN-MEl SIMA E 52 places from MARIES or AEIMRS AM SERI ARMEIS ARMISE ASERJM MAISER MAISRE MARIES MARJSE MEISRA MERAIS MESARI MESIRA MISARE MIS ERA MREISA MSAlRE SAIRME SAMERJ SAMIER SAMIRE SEMIRA SERAMI SERJAM SERJMA SIRAME SMEIRA SMERJA SREIMA ERJMAS MASERI MESRAI RAMESI SAREMI SERMAI ERISMA MASIRE MESRJA REMASI SARIME SERMIA IMSERA MEIRAS MIASER REMISA SEMARJ SIMARE MAIERS MEISAR MIERAS RJMESA SEMIAR SIMERA • 182 Unrestricted Permutations The next natural step was to ask what would happen ifall words were allowed. The results were that 60%ofall words had no twin. The top result was 84 different permutation of AEINST (which i kinder to call TISA E, a word in all good dictionaries, and 3= in place names); 80 each for ASTIER (or AEINRST, the Franci equence) and SATlRE(AEIRST); 77 of REGAl (AEGI R) ; 74 ofGE IAL (AEIGL )andA GRIEST(AEGI R T,theBorgmannJGrantsequence);730f MIE S(AEIM , 3= in place names) and ARSI E (AE I RS); 72 oWE IAL (ADEI L); 71 ofRAI ED (A DEI R); 70 of ALI E (AEILNS); and 68 of ISMAEL (AEILMS, the top equence for place names). For the first time, there is a sequence of other than six letters, ie the even ofNA TIER. A, E, and I are always present, and RST are popular. Full sourci ng i given for TISA E, but ource in the last two cases are not given in detail if the word come from the IMA databa e, which i u ually the case. The top ca e, TISANE, is also one of the "52" cases which should have appeared above: I have gi en both place and non-place ource here, 0 that the one li st serves both purpo es. 84 words for AEINST or TISANE (including 52 place names, and 29 words from the OED, \ ith some words in both categories) aienst, OED arm 3a, 1489q Anesti, Uk (...truncated)