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Replacement cipher: Let τ be a permutation of the alphabet, and apply τ to each letter of the message. Frequency analysis is useful for breaking this type of code. Decode the following, which was encoded using a replacement cipher.

MIZVN KXXHA XRRTK NXYEX QIZVI IZXWM NXYGT JWVHC YTOXX QNHTI JYTWV NMHUR XOYLN ZTJTE XYAZX RWMHU XEMRK LIJYT WNWVR REXPV IMTHN OTHIM HLVRR GYXCX VIXQ --- NVWLX RBTZH NTH

I have made a frequency table of the occurrence of each letter in the above code.

X-18 T-12 H-10 N-10 R-10 I-9 V-9 Y-8 M-7 W-7 Z-6 E-4 J-4 L-4 K-3 O-3 Q-3 A-2 C-2 G-2 U-2 B-1 P-1 D-0 F-0 S-0

Comparing this with the frequency of letters occurring in English leads me to believe that X corresponds with E and that T corresponds with T. However this is where I get stuck.

UserX
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  • Note that the words are in groups of five letters, except for the last words. I don't know of any language with mostly five-letter words, so it seems that the spacings in between the words have been changed. Also, it seems to be a quote. The last three words is most likely the name of a person. – JRN Nov 21 '14 at 01:26
  • @Amzoti - using the frequencies in English, replacing letters based on that alone does not yield any clear text. – UserX Nov 21 '14 at 01:27
  • @JoelReyesNoche - I saw that too; unfortunately that didn't help me when trying to replace letters. – UserX Nov 21 '14 at 01:27
  • Look at the double letters (XX, RR). Do you know the frequencies of double letters in English? (I expect EE, OO would be the highest). – JRN Nov 21 '14 at 01:31
  • This is problem 5.2 of Survey of Mathematical Problems, which is in English, so the text is also most likely in English. – JRN Nov 21 '14 at 01:39
  • Now asked at http://puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/5318/replacement-cipher – JRN Nov 21 '14 at 01:48
  • This is mixed alphabet or affine? Unfortunately for mixed alphabet, it can be tedious to decode without a large number of words(which you don't have above) –  Nov 21 '14 at 02:35

1 Answers1

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I understand you are looking to solve this yourself, but I have added the spoiler here as a check for when you have a final answer. I will edit in some pointers if I get time soon.

IT HAS BEEN WELL OBSERVED THAT THE MISERY OF MAN PROCEEDS NOT FROM A SINGLE CRUSH OF OVER WHELMING EVIL BUT FROM SMALL VEXATIONS CONTINUALLY REPEATED SAMUEL JOHNSON

Kenshin
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