Pilish

Pilish is a style of constrained writing in which the lengths of consecutive words or sentences match the digits of the number π (pi). The shortest example is any three-letter word, such as "pie", but many longer examples have been constructed, including sentences, poems, and stories.

Examples[edit]

The following sentence is an example which matches the first fifteen digits of π:

How I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics!

The following Pilish poem (written by Joseph Shipley) matches the first 31 digits of π:

But a time I spent wandering in bloomy night;

Yon tower, tinkling chimewise, loftily opportune.

Out, up, and together came sudden to Sunday rite,

The one solemnly off to correct plenilune.

A full-length Pilish novel has been published,^[1] which currently holds the record of the longest Pilish text with 10,000 digits.

Rule sets[edit]

In order to deal with occurrences of the digit zero, the following rule set was introduced (referred to as Basic Pilish):

In Basic Pilish, each word of n letters represents

(1) The digit n if n < 10

(2) The digit 0 if n = 10

Since long runs of small non-zero digits are difficult to deal with naturally (such as 1121 or 1111211), another rule set called Standard Pilish was introduced:

In Standard Pilish, each word of n letters represents

(1) The digit n if n < 10

(2) The digit 0 if n = 10

(3) Two consecutive digits if n > 10

(for example, a 12-letter word, such as "sleepwalking," represents the digits 1,2)^{[citation needed]}

See also[edit]

• Cadaeic Cadenza
• Constrained writing

References[edit]

2. Walkowicz, Nathan (2021) Stile: “An Infinite Mystery” Kindle Direct Publishing. ISBN 979-8485105631

External links[edit]

• Writing in Pilish
• Pilish Checker
• Accidental Pilish