Scrabble two letter words

wookie · 243159. Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:45 am

Officially CH is allowable in scrabble and appears in the list of 2 letter words given out with the game.

CH English dial. for I
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rjackman/

However I will admit that it is dubious as to whether it actually counts as a word (at least according to wiki).

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Official_Scrabble_2-letter_words
Though there is no link as to where they got that information.

djgordy · 243164. Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:50 am

Scrabulous has a list of two letter words and Ch isn't in.

http://www.scrabulous.com/two_letter_words_twl.php

masterfroggy · 243166. Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:52 am

Davini994 · 243179. Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:10 am

This is a SOWPODS vs TWL issue, I presume.

post 238124.

wookie · 243183. Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:15 am

wookie · 243218. Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:01 am

I got confused Scrabbulous is using TWL as Davini994 suggests. The link I followed was to SOWPODS.

TWL is a subset of SOWPODS. The are a number of extra words in SOWPODS including CH. TWL does not allow the following:

CH DA DI EA EE FY GI GU IO JA KO KY
NY OB OO PO ST TE UG UR YU ZO

British Scrabble uses SOWPODS so I think my original question is valid :)

suze · 243273. Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:56 am

Aren't Scrabble word lists complicated! But yes, SOWPODS (or OWSI, as it's now officially called) allows a fair number of words which are to all intents and purposes obsolete.

CH is one such - it's a form of the first person pronoun. Although it ceased to be standard in the fifteenth century, some dialect speakers in south west England used ich instead of I for the first person pronoun into the nineteenth century, and it was often abbreviated as ch or 'ch. 'chill (I will) is noted as late as 1875 in Somerset.

So that just leaves V as a letter not found in any two letter words. The OED lists VA (an obsolete dialectal variant of "foe", "way" or "woe"), VE (obsolete Scots variation of "we", VO ("foe" again) and VY (old spelling of "vie") - which rather go to show just why the OED is rarely used for Scrabble. But the day may not be too far off when TV is accepted as a word proper rather than as an abbreviation.

markvent · 243280. Tue Dec 11, 2007 12:05 pm

suze · 243353. Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:10 pm

Depends on one's rules - in any game that's more than purely social, one should agree at the start which wordlist is in use.

The main instance of what Mark is talking about arises in the USA - the Official Scrabble Players's Dictionary is the usual dictionary for home play there. That work deliberately omits curse words and words deemed offensive, which is precisely why it isn't used in tournament play. It also omits CH, which can't therefore be used in any tournament in the USA or some in Canada.

But anyone playing under OSWI/SOWPODS is free to make CH. Anyone playing under Concise Oxford (as I'm sure many home players in Britain do) isn't, because CH isn't in.

samivel · 243486. Tue Dec 11, 2007 7:21 pm

How would one pronounce CH?

suze · 243496. Tue Dec 11, 2007 7:31 pm

/ç/, I think. Not dissimilar to the first sound in a word like "huge".

samivel · 243508. Tue Dec 11, 2007 7:55 pm

Well, ch found that QI. Ch thank you.

:)

bobwilson · 243523. Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:46 pm

Isn't the point of scrabble to play an entertaining and interesting game with worthy opponents? Do I have to spell it out - if a word such as CH is the subject of discussion then the person who uses it should have to justify it's meaning, give examples of usage, and generally entertain the players - otherwise the moron is a nerd. It's a GAME!!!!!!

I'd be more entertained by someone who used the word CHYZ in a scrabble contest and came up with a plausible explanation than I would be by someone who used the word THE and got a triple word score. If you want to show off your linguistic abilities apply for a job with the CIA - if you want to have fun, have a ready supply of anecdotes to hand.

ryewacket · 243587. Wed Dec 12, 2007 5:19 am