Wordle but for Pāli

So, in case you haven’t seen it, there’s a word game that’s been going around Twitter:

https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/

The point of the game is to guess the day’s word within 6 tries.

Well… one thing led to another, and… it seems I made a thing:

https://bit.ly/pali-wordle

Or… actually two things ถ้าคุณพูดภาษาไทยได้:

https://bit.ly/wordlethai

:sweat_smile:

They were certainly fun and educational for me to build. Got my hands dirty in React for the first time in years and into SuttaCentral’s data for the first time ever. I hope you have some fun with them too! But be warned: they’re pretty difficult! :see_no_evil: Even my Thai friends are struggling with the second one! :grimacing:

2024 UPDATE: Wordle was subsequently purchased by the New York Times who has asked that clones of their IP be taken down.

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For the record:

Pali Wordle 1 5/6

:white_large_square::yellow_square::white_large_square::white_large_square::blue_square:
:yellow_square::white_large_square::white_large_square::white_large_square::green_square:
:green_square::white_large_square::blue_square::white_large_square::green_square:
:green_square::white_large_square::green_square::white_large_square::green_square:
:green_square::green_square::green_square::green_square::green_square:

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Is it deliberate that the Pali version is in sc-voice, while the Thai version is in buddhistuniversity?

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Not particularly, GitHub just doesn’t let me have two forks of the same repro in one account for some reason, so the most convenient thing for me was to put the Pāḷi version in the sc-voice domain. I hope you and Karl don’t mind having a fun, bonus feature in your subdomain? I can move it out if you prefer.

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:laughing:

Let @karl_lew decide. I guess he’d like to have fun too!

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Wordle? :open_book: :laughing: :clap:

Well perhaps it might be happier in a new organization for Pali games that teach Pali or the Dhamma in fun ways. Github accounts can create multiple organizations. For example, my firepick1 Github account has Oyamist, EBT-Site, SC-Voice, and several others I have no doubt forgotten by now. Each organization can have its own repositories.

One of the cool things about Github organizations is that you can essentially end up with free web applications grouped together in a personal primary domain hosted by Github. For example, Ayya Sabbamitta has Dhammaregen organization and a Dhammaregen repository within Dhammaregen organization.

It’s hard to come up with an organization name with only one app. I wouldn’t choose “Wordle” as an organization because the world has made quite the mess of Wardle’s gift to the world.. Something less contentious might be better.

Robin and I both play word games extensively. I like them for mental exercise. At our age cognition has to be exercised. That’s why I also regularly solve a Rubik’s cube–it helps me evaluate and exercise my mental state.

Games are excellent pedagogical devices. And your insight into this new opportunity opens up new doors. As you know, Ayya Sabbamitta and I have been patiently collecting a collection of example phrases that connect Dhamma in translation to English and German. I wonder if such a game (Phrasal?) might be a way to learn the EBTs. I am not a game designer, but…Ven. Khemarato definitely knows how.

:pray:

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Ah! For some reason I thought that Organizations were a paid feature of GitHub. Didn’t realize you could create them Willy-Nilly.

That was basically my motivation to be honest. Plus I learned quite a bit about Thai making that version.

Okay, will move out of voice when I can later today.

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I don’t understand what the point of the game is.
I type in random 5 letter pali words but that doesn’t seem to be the point.
Sorry, I live under a rock when it comes to the internets these days.

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The point of the game is to guess the word of the day. Each guess you make will be marked with colors to show how close you are to today’s word. When you guess it right, you can share your grid with your friends showing how many tries it took you to guess the word.

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“padle”, perhaps? :pray:

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Are monastics even allowed to play games? Even simple games as tic tac toe or wordle (pali version)?

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No longer! Thanks to @sabbamitta’s help, it has been moved to its new home at https://labs.buddhistuniversity.net

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In the Vinaya, we have this, thanks to Ajahn @Brahmali:

pli-tv-kd15:36.1.7: They played various games: eight-row checkers, ten-row checkers, imaginary checkers, hopscotch, spillikins, dice, tip-cat, painting with the hand, ball games, leaf flutes, toy plows, somersaults, toy windmills, toy measures, toy carriages, toy bows, letter guessing, thought guessing, mimicking deformities.
pli-tv-kd15:36.1.8: They trained in elephant riding, in horsemanship, in carriage riding, in archery,
pli-tv-kd15:36.1.9: in swordsmanship.
pli-tv-kd15:36.1.10: And they ran in front of elephants, horses, and carriages, and they ran backward and forward.
pli-tv-kd15:36.1.11: They whistled, clapped their hands, wrestled, and boxed.
pli-tv-kd15:36.1.12: They spread their outer robes on a stage and said to the dancing girls,
pli-tv-kd15:36.1.13: “Dance here, Sister,”
pli-tv-kd15:36.1.14: and they made gestures of approval.
pli-tv-kd15:36.1.15: And they engaged in many kinds of misbehavior.
pli-tv-kd15:36.1.16: They told the Buddha. Soon afterwards he gave a teaching and addressed the monks:
pli-tv-kd15:36.1.17: “You should not engage in various kinds of misbehavior
pli-tv-kd15:36.1.18: If you do, you should be dealt with according to the rule.”

What is interesting is that the Buddha cautions against misbehavior, not games. The question then arises, “how do games allow misbehavior?”

Games often have winners and losers. For example, boxing and dice mentioned above both foster attachment to gain and loss. They foster craving for gain.

Other games focus on sensual pleasures (e.g., “Dance here, Sister”.) Such games encourage misbehavior.

And while many games foster misbehavior, others foster learning. When I listen to DN34, I play a game. I listen to the Pali first. And then I hear the English translation. The game I play is very simple. Can I guess the English?

And now, after more than a year of listening to DN34 as I walk meditation, I can indeed guess the English sometimes. It is very slow work and very important work. That is not misbehavior. That is an opportunity for freedom. Indeed, it falls under the third opportunity for freedom.

DN34:1.6.86: Furthermore, it may be that neither the Teacher nor … the mendicant teaches Dhamma. But the mendicant recites the teaching in detail as they learned and memorized it.
DN34:1.6.87: That mendicant feels inspired by the meaning and the teaching in that Dhamma, no matter how they recite it in detail as they learned and memorized it.
DN34:1.6.88: Feeling inspired, joy springs up. Being joyful, rapture springs up. When the mind is full of rapture, the body becomes tranquil. When the body is tranquil, one feels bliss. And when blissful, the mind becomes immersed.
DN34:1.6.89: This is the third opportunity for freedom.

Now “letter guessing” is mentioned as a game. So we need to think a bit about this. We do not know what the actual historical game is. Perhaps it was Wordle. However, it is more likely that ancient game was simpler, “Guess what letter I am thinking”. And here we can infer that guessing the letter someone else is thinking is likely nonsense that does not lead to freedom.

Because the Buddha has not specified whether Wordle is or is not misbehavior, we need to think carefully about why one would play such a game. And after some thought, we might realize that such a word game teaches us a foreign language so that we may talk about and listen to the Dhamma. That would be a huge opportunity for learning. Perhaps we would be inclined to treat it as gift to be celebrated!

:pray:

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I’ve heard this explained as ‘drawing the letters in the air’ and someone has to guess what letter you’re drawing.
I’m not sure Wordle leads to freedom either…I’m not sure if it’s going to be a huge aid to my learning of Pali vocab either, but I will see!

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How to type ṅ ?

The warning message seems to warn against the kh, th, etc when I ruled out h.

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Just type n.[gk] and the ṇ will turn into an ṅ automatically :slight_smile:

When you rule out h, that doesn’t rule out th, bh, etc. That’s a bug, thanks! :slight_smile:

Is n and ñ related? I got some variant of n, does it include ñ? Or a variant of n only includes ṅ or ṇ?

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Ok, got it, it does include.

Pali Wordle 2 4/6

:white_large_square::white_large_square::white_large_square::white_large_square::green_square:
:white_large_square::yellow_square::yellow_square::white_large_square::white_large_square:
:white_large_square::white_large_square::blue_square::white_large_square::blue_square:
:green_square::green_square::green_square::green_square::green_square:

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Ah yes. “Variant of n” includes ñ The only reason I included ñ on the keyboard separately was because it’s the only letter that gets the ~ above it. Would it be less confusing if I put ~ on the keyboard instead, forcing you to construct ñ as n~ ?

Would be better because of the exclusions. If I excluded ñ, I wasn’t sure on the keyboard if I also excluded n. Oh well, that should be easy to code in too.

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