- I'm freezing today (and yesterday) because it really feels like winter is here.
- This leads to thinking that maybe we aren't calculating our seasons properly and should take a page from the ancient Celts who split their year into cross quarters, celebrating the halfway points between the solstices and equinoxes.
- Which thought leads me to Samhain (the "end of summer" celebration we equate with Halloween).
- This, in turn, leads to the entymology of the word Samhain.
- Which leads to Gaelic languages in general.
- Following which is a brief look at Welsh, which is Brythonic, but decends from Celtic languages just as Gaelic does.
- This leads to wondering why there are so many Y's in Welsh.
- When I think, in what I imagine to be a eureka moment, "Wouldn't it be great to play Scrabble in Welsh with the Y valued at 4 points!"
- Which led to the caboose of the whole train (rather a *smack the forehead* duh!) that there are different Scrabble letters and scores for different languages. --I know, you'd think I'd've figured that out on my own, but it's just not something you ordinarily think about, is it?
So now you can see how easy it is to get from "I'm freezing." to "Scrabble comes in a Bulgarian edition."
2 comments:
When I was a kid, my rabbi's wife had a Scrabble game in Hebrew.
Scrabble exists in Gaelic as well. My daughter is named: "Eilidh" (pronounced "Ay-lee") which is Scottish Gaelic. I was raised playing similar word games to scrabble in Gaelic.
Most people associate the language with Ireland or Wales, but the Scottish Gaelic Language maintains a great deal of influence. The Scottish Gaelic alphabet has only 18 letters and contains no "Y"-
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U
The consonants are pronounced differently and indicated individually by the inscription of the vowels in context with them.
One must pause to think if playing Gaelic Scrabble would prove to be "easier" or "harder" based upon those limitations (differences?)
There are two major Scrabble Lexicons used in the world today (TWL and SOWPODS) and you will find may Gaelic words in both.
I might suggest you investigate Merriam-Webster's "The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary- Fourth Edition" as it lists (separately) many of those words.
Examine any of your Gaelic Dictionaries and you will find that the letter "H" is often prominent as well. I expect that any Gaelic version of the game would "devalue" the letters "H" and "Y" only because they are so often used.
I should also point out that the "silent" pronunciation of "H" in many Gaelic languages would make for a few interesting scrabble arguments. My daughter is often referred to here in the States as "Eye-lid" - which is why she may choose to adopt her middle name (Victoria) when she's old enough to get annoyed by it.
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