# The letters are the initial letters of words of an English text, written as personal shorthand.

> Most likely: The letters are the initial letters of words of an English text, written as personal shorthand.

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/somerton-man/answers/ANS0CVC25VG1236/the-letters-are-the-initial-letters-of-words-of-an-english  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Questions](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions)[Somerton Man (Tamam Shud)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/somerton-man)[What are the five pencilled lines in the Rubaiyat?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/somerton-man/questions/QST0CVC20Z85TC8/what-are-the-five-pencilled-lines-in-the-rubaiyat)Answer

Answer · Somerton Man (Tamam Shud)

# The letters are the initial letters of words of an English text, written as personal shorthand.

The letters are the initial letters of words of an English text, written as personal shorthand.

**Most likely** Answers **1** questionPublished0

## Where it stands

**Most likely** Its tests supported it: two pieces of evidence for, one against. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

## What it predicts

- The letter distribution matches English word-initial letters better than any language's letters.
- A source text (a poem, a prayer, a race card) exists whose initials give the lines.

## What would rule it out

- A cipher key yields plaintext, or the distribution fits random letters as well.

## Evidence 2 for · 1 against

[An independent n-gram analysis also finds it almost certainly an English initialism.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/somerton-man/evidence/EVD0CVC26B4436M/an-independent-n-gram-analysis-also-finds-it-almost)

Supported

FOR

[First- and second-order Markov scores strongly favour English initial letters over other languages and over…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/somerton-man/evidence/EVD0CVC263A5QGC/first-and-second-order-markov-scores-strongly-favour-english)

Supported

FOR

[No matching passage has been found in more than 20,000 Project Gutenberg books.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/somerton-man/evidence/EVD0CVC26JY12DD/no-matching-passage-has-been-found-in-more-than-20-000)

Suggestive

AGAINST

## The questions it answers

[What are the five pencilled lines in the Rubaiyat?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/somerton-man/questions/QST0CVC20Z85TC8/what-are-the-five-pencilled-lines-in-the-rubaiyat)

Most likelyThe letters are the initial letters of words of an English text, written as personal shorthand

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). The letters are the initial letters of words of an English text, written as personal shorthand. [Answer ANS0CVC25VG1236]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0CVC25VG1236
```

Key

**ANS** 0CVC25VG1236

Kind

Answer · hypothesis

Origin

Published

Version

1

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