Any cryptographers about?

Question

I suspect a substitution cipher, but don't know for sure.

Here's the code:

X9HH3X0 HJ8 X9HH3X0 UNI

Any guesses?

Answer 1

Due to how short the message is, it may very well be unsolvable. However, I'll try to tear it apart a bit at a time. I do the cryptograms every day in the newspaper, so I have some ideas. :P I'm going to assume that it's a simply substitution cipher, though sneaky cryptographers might switch placement of words around, or even be creative by giving spaces a symbol. Since that's highly unlikely in this case, I'll work it as I would any cryptogram.

First of all, you have to establish any patterns or repeated letters. You can already see that the first and third word are the same. Besides those two words, the only repeated letter is the "H" at the start of the second word.

Speaking of the "H," it appears as a double letter in the first and third word. That already limits what letters could appear there. Commonly doubled letters in the English alphabet are..... B, D, E, F, G, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, and Z. Since it also is the first letter in the second word, you can safely eliminate Z, due to the small number of three letter words that start with it. Most probably wouldn't fit in the phrase too well.

The first and sixth letters of the first and third words are the same, so you can start to imagine the pattern of the word in your head. If the Hs are a vowel, then Xs are separated from them by consonents, and are likely a consonent themselves. If the Hs are a consonant, then the letters between the Hs and the Xs are vowels, and the Xs are probably still consonants.

That's about as far as I can go for right now, as it's late and I'm tired. Again, due to how short the passage is, I'm not sure that this can be solved, unless I figure out what the first and third words could be and work the rest of the message from that. Still, I've given you all a start if you needed it.