SHIFTING SOUNDS

Ben Zimmer is the language columnist for The Wall Street Journal, a contributing writer for The Atlantic and a former language columnist for The New York Times. Brendan Emmett Quigley is a professional crossword constructor. They met some 12 years ago when Brendan began contributing crosswords to the Visual Thesaurus, where Ben was the executive editor.

The making of this puzzle — brainstorming the theme, filling the grid and writing the clues — was a full collaboration. Brendan has had many puzzles in The Times. This is Ben's debut.

BEN: It's a real pleasure to be making my debut as a Times crossword constructor, and it feels like it's been a long time coming. I've been addicted to crosswords — and word puzzles more generally — ever since I was a wee lad and joined the National Puzzlers' League. As an adult, seeing the documentary "Wordplay" rekindled my love of crosswords, and I started attending tournaments and falling in with the cruciverbalist crowd. Around the same time, I became executive editor of the Visual Thesaurus and got to know Brendan, who created a monthly crossword for the VT. Since then, Brendan and I have had countless conversations about puzzles, music, and life in general. I suppose it was inevitable we'd make a crossword together.

The original idea for this theme came from Erik Agard, who has been nudging me into crossword construction for quite a while. Erik actually suggested a phonetic theme going the other way, with the vowels changing from /aʊ/ to /æ/. (As a linguist, I feel compelled to use the International Phonetic Alphabet!) Erik's proposed title for the puzzle was "Shifting Sands." Brendan and I kicked the theme around and discovered there were better possibilities doing the phonetic substitution in the other direction, so we switched it up and called it "Shifting Sounds."

After we brainstormed theme entries, Brendan took the lead in grid construction, and then I took the first pass at filling the grid. Brendan fine-tuned the fill and also improved the clues I came up with, bringing everything up to his usual sparkling professional level. Thanks to Will and team for tweaking the clues even further.

I'm glad we were able to make this into a Sunday puzzle, since it's a delight to make a return to the Magazine, where I had the honor of writing the "On Language" column for a couple of years after the passing of William Safire. These days you can find me in the Wall Street Journal's weekend Review section, where I write a weekly column called "Word on the Street," as well as in The Atlantic, where I'm a contributing writer.

Ben Zimmer! Linguist of fame, WSJ columnist, contributor to The Atlantic. Yeah, yeah, but what matters is that he's now part of the NYT crossword constructors' club. Umberto Eco, Brian Eno and Yoko Ono will teach you the secret handshake shortly, Ben.

Sound changes today … a short A to a short U? No … Wikipedia-ing … "ow"? Apparently there's a "/ou/" sound in phonics. Huh!

For tried-and-true theme types, I prefer when there's a delightful title or rationale for the change. After thinking about the title for a bit — okay, for a lot — I liked how SHIFTING SOUNDS played off of "shifting sands." It's a subtle bit of humor, though, especially for those of us who need a King Joffrey ax to the back of the neck to figure anything out.

I wonder if "How now, brown cow" could have been played upon, somehow? Maybe that would wow.

I didn't laugh at most of the themers, but HOUND SHAKE at least amused — our next-door neighbor's dog loves to houndshake. In self-quarantine times, chasing Toki around is a great source of pleasure.

Most of the others worked more moderately. I missed that FAIR COUCH and FUZZY MOUTH were themers since they almost seemed like real things. Ah, I remember the times our fair couch, back before it became a kids' trampoline ...

Although I enjoyed NED FLOUNDERS — I'm both a Simpson and GoT lover — it felt way too specific. If you're a fan of just one or the other — or even worse, neither — this one will mystify. (Ned Flanders, and Eddard "Ned" Stark.)

I scratched my head over the puzzling HIMBO, then laughed. Connecting "him" and "bimbo" — that's exactly the type of linguistic amusement I was hoping for out of a Ben Zimmer production.

The theme didn't do much for me, but the gridwork was solid enough to give me 15 minutes of entertainment. Welcome to the club, Ben! I'm hoping for more HIMBO-level humor in the future.