Lojban Scrabble
Throughout the years, many linguists and other people with too much time on their hands have attempted to create new languages based on either (or both) logic or universal accessibility. Esperanto and Toki Pona are ready of examples of these (failed) attempts at the spread of a "superior" language.
My recent Scrabble obsession (brought on by the new Facebook app) led me to come across an interesting application (pun intended?) of made-up languages: Lojban Scrabble. Unfortunately, this form of Scrabble is, apparently, very difficult - this is from a user page on the official Lojban site:
I've recently tried to play Lojban Scrabble (using Chris Double?'s program) and found, not surprisingly, that it doesn't work extremely well. (The game itself, not the program.) Here's a few problems:
* The board is always closed from a Scrabble perspective. In Scrabble, a Z or V or some such letter on the free end of a word serves to block off expansion parallel to that word, because there are no two-letter words containing those letters. In Lojban, there are no words ending with a consonant, period. They block off parallel and perpendicular words on one side. Unfortunately-placed consonants can block off large areas of the board.
* On the other hand, every CV two-letter word is a playable word, and so it takes no knowledge whatsoever to make a two-letter hook with a vowel alongside a consonant. However, it is nearly impossible to make a hook which uses two two-letter words (a common play in Scrabble) - it requires a cmavo ending in a dipthong, with the dipthong along the first two letters of a gismu, such that the second two-letter word formed is a UI cmavo.
* The Y, though almost necessary to make a bingo (a play involving all your tiles), is patently useless otherwise. The best you can do is play a lerfu word and get the consonant on a double or triple letter score.
* All consonants are equally playable as lerfu, so even the high-scoring zy is as easy to form as ry.
* Lerfu tend to be the high-scoring plays in the game and serve strategically to close up the board, while gismu, which are much harder to formulate, don't often score many points and give your opponent lots of openings.
* The selection of compound cmavo ends up being entirely arbitrary, being based on the ma'oste; reno is playable while repa is not. Lujvo are not much better.
Link
My recent Scrabble obsession (brought on by the new Facebook app) led me to come across an interesting application (pun intended?) of made-up languages: Lojban Scrabble. Unfortunately, this form of Scrabble is, apparently, very difficult - this is from a user page on the official Lojban site:
I've recently tried to play Lojban Scrabble (using Chris Double?'s program) and found, not surprisingly, that it doesn't work extremely well. (The game itself, not the program.) Here's a few problems:
* The board is always closed from a Scrabble perspective. In Scrabble, a Z or V or some such letter on the free end of a word serves to block off expansion parallel to that word, because there are no two-letter words containing those letters. In Lojban, there are no words ending with a consonant, period. They block off parallel and perpendicular words on one side. Unfortunately-placed consonants can block off large areas of the board.
* On the other hand, every CV two-letter word is a playable word, and so it takes no knowledge whatsoever to make a two-letter hook with a vowel alongside a consonant. However, it is nearly impossible to make a hook which uses two two-letter words (a common play in Scrabble) - it requires a cmavo ending in a dipthong, with the dipthong along the first two letters of a gismu, such that the second two-letter word formed is a UI cmavo.
* The Y, though almost necessary to make a bingo (a play involving all your tiles), is patently useless otherwise. The best you can do is play a lerfu word and get the consonant on a double or triple letter score.
* All consonants are equally playable as lerfu, so even the high-scoring zy is as easy to form as ry.
* Lerfu tend to be the high-scoring plays in the game and serve strategically to close up the board, while gismu, which are much harder to formulate, don't often score many points and give your opponent lots of openings.
* The selection of compound cmavo ends up being entirely arbitrary, being based on the ma'oste; reno is playable while repa is not. Lujvo are not much better.
Link