By: Ashley Tulio, Communication Specialist
Wordle is a word game that has gone viral in 2022! For those of you whoare unfamiliar, Wordle is a quick and fun game where you have six chances to guess a 5-letter word; therefore, you win if you can guess the word before the 6th guess. A new word is released each day, making this everyone’s daily game!
The History of Wordle
Wordle was created by Josh Wardle, a software engineer who initially came up with the game in 2013. He built a prototype for his close friends and family;but abandoned the concept altogether until the pandemic struck. Josh reintroduced the concept at a time when the whole globe was seeking for fun and engaging things to do while sitting in their homes. Once proven successful by his friends and family, he decided to take it to the public in October 2021. Around November, there were only 90 users. Fast-forward to the beginning of January, and there was a massive increase to 300,000 players. The rise of popularity even caught the eyes of America’s biggest daily newspaper The New York Times, which led to the buying of the original right of the game from Josh Wordle in February 2022. Today, there are millions of daily players!
The Development of Wordle
Wordle has served as an inspiration and an opportunity for people in order to transform their idea into teaching, preserving, and reviving various languages.
The game combined Wordle and Low German language, correlated to Manitoba Mennonite culture. Despite the fact that Low German is not taught in schools; the language plays a significant role in the identity the sense of belonging to the Mennonite culture. Low German, also known as Plattdeutsch, is a dialect of northern Germany that has been in use since the end of the Medieval period. Nah-Yo-dle is a mix of Low German and English words adjacent to the Mennonite culture. Choosing words for the game has its challenges since Low German is an unwritten language with many variations.
This was created by Keola Donaghy who is a Maui-based academic and language activist. Hulihua is a Hawaiian-language of Wordle that was created in the beginning of February to celebrate the month of the Hawaiian language.
Wordle is also now offered in many different languages including French (Le Mot), Portuguese (Termo), Swedish (Ordlig), Cornish (Kerdle), Filippino (Saltong), and many more! Furthermore, aside from spoken language, there is a version for American Sign Language (Dactle).
It is truly beautiful to see such a simple and fun game evolve into a new opportunity to preserve or teach various languages!
To read more fun language blogs, please see some of our other ones below:
Resources:
https://www.goodto.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/what-is-wordle-2022-word-game-647186