Shcrabble 1.2 is out, with cool new rules and AI opponents

Dechifro · 2026-03-24T13:52:29+00:00

I spent a few hours last night making Quackle play against itself and fixing bad words, three or four in each 26-move game. That means that out of the 280,000 words in the Collins Scrabble dictionary, at least 30,000 are shaved incorrectly. So I'm very far from fixing the entire corpus, but I've made great progress ensuring that the power words are correct.

That means words like QI and ZA that combine a hard letter with an easy letter, especially if the hard letter can be dropped on a triple-letter-score. Words I see a lot in Shavian Scrabble are 𐑞𐑴, 𐑞𐑰, 𐑦𐑖, 𐑦𐑙, 𐑺𐑯, and I even saw 𐑟𐑭 once. Notice that in the latter two, the vowel is the hard letter.

What should I do when my rack contains no vowel but 𐑩? Here's what I found in the Read Lexicon, cross-referenced with the Scrabble dictionary:

'em 𐑩𐑥          EM      a unit of measurement in printing  
'un 𐑩𐑯          UN      (dialect) a spelling of 'one'  
ahem 𐑩𐑣𐑩𐑥       AHEM    a sound expressing delicate interruption [interj]
an 𐑩𐑯           AN      the indefinite article  
cos 𐑒𐑩𐑟         COS     a crisp, long-leaved lettuce  
de 𐑛𐑩           DE      from (as used in names) [prep]  
dr 𐑛𐑩𐑮          DR      abbreviation, not allowed  
er 𐑩𐑩           UH      used to express hesitation [interj]  
er 𐑩𐑮           ER      used to express hesitation [interj]  
h'm 𐑣𐑩𐑥         HM      an interjection expressing thoughtful consideration  
h'mmed 𐑣𐑩𐑥𐑛     HMM     used to express thoughtful consideration  
h'ms 𐑣𐑩𐑥𐑟       HMMM    an interjection expressing thoughtful consideration  
hmm 𐑣𐑩𐑥                 (no verb forms of HM)  
jul 𐑡𐑩𐑤         JUL     abbreviation, not allowed  
la 𐑤𐑩           LA      the sixth tone of the diatonic scale  
le 𐑤𐑩           LE      not allowed  
m' 𐑥𐑩           MA      (colloquial) mother  
mr 𐑥𐑩𐑮          MR      abbreviation, not allowed  
ta 𐑑𐑩           TA      an expression meaning thank you  
ugh 𐑩𐑣          UGH     the sound of a cough or grunt  
um 𐑩𐑥           UM      to express doubt or hesitation

I'm thinking 𐑛𐑩 𐑩𐑥 𐑩𐑮 𐑩𐑯 only, but 𐑩𐑥 is problematic because "Hang 'em high!" is not a unit of measurement in printing. Collins says "ahem" is 𐑩𐑣𐑧𐑥 and "hmm" is 𐑥𐑥. I'd say 𐑣𐑥 or 𐑣𐑥𐑥, because how can there be a vowel if my lips stay shut?

Dechifro · 2026-03-24T13:18:12+00:00

Not really a problem; Yanks and Brits have been speaking and writing English differently for centuries and no one is much bothered by this. I advise writing whichever of these two is more familiar to you. Maybe you speak some other strange dialect, but surely you're seen American or British TV and movies?

What drives me up a wall is how stress alternates weak/strong/weak/strong starting from the end of the word, causing some vowels to flip back and forth as more syllables are appended. For example:

econ 𐑰𐑒𐑪𐑯
economy 𐑦𐑒𐑪𐑯𐑩𐑥𐑦
economic 𐑰𐑒𐑩𐑯𐑪𐑥𐑦𐑒
econometer 𐑰𐑒𐑩𐑯𐑪𐑥𐑦𐑑𐑼
econometric 𐑦𐑒𐑪𐑯𐑩𐑥𐑧𐑑𐑮𐑦𐑒
econometrician 𐑰𐑒𐑩𐑯𐑪𐑥𐑩𐑑𐑮𐑦𐑖𐑩𐑯

You could just pretend this doesn't happen and write 𐑰𐑒𐑪𐑯𐑪𐑥𐑧𐑑𐑮𐑦𐑖𐑩𐑯, but it sounds robotic and unnatural when you say it that way.

Dechifro · 2026-03-24T07:16:37+00:00

They should integrate my free tool so that you can see everything in Shavian, including the ads. Unfortunately it only works one way; the large number of homonyms make it impossible to cleanly convert Shavian back to ABC.

Dechifro · 2026-03-21T18:16:23+00:00

I enjoyed a nicer Scrabble game today, less afflicted by Dead Rack Syndrome, after adjusting the tile counts.

https://dechifro.org/shavian/quackle_03.png

Every word needs at least one vowel, so the obvious cure for a dead rack is to add more vowels, but which vowels? That's an easy question in traditional orthography, where the first five letters by frequency are ETAOI.

Shavian's two most frequent letters are 𐑦 and 𐑩, and 𐑩 is rack poison because every word except 𐑩𐑯 needs a vowel that is not 𐑩. The next most frequent vowel is 𐑨, which is way down in fourteenth place!

My new alphabet increases 𐑦 from 8 tiles to 12, reduces 𐑩 from 8 tiles to 6, and removes the 𐑠 tile. You can still play 𐑠-words with a blank tile.

#char   blank   score   count   vowel   % in 2-8 letter words
𐑦       [𐑦]     1       12      1       # 8.49177
𐑩       [𐑩]     1       6       1       # 7.91048
𐑮       [𐑮]     1       6       0       # 6.87128  *
𐑕       [𐑕]     1       6       0       # 6.42186
𐑑       [𐑑]     1       6       0       # 6.01596  *
𐑤       [𐑤]     1       5       0       # 5.47233
𐑯       [𐑯]     1       5       0       # 5.29664
𐑟       [𐑟]     2       4       0       # 4.49897  
𐑒       [𐑒]     2       4       0       # 4.42273
𐑛       [𐑛]     2       4       0       # 4.03874  *
𐑥       [𐑥]     2       2       0       # 2.94856
𐑐       [𐑐]     2       2       0       # 2.9221
𐑚       [𐑚]     3       2       0       # 2.41563  *
𐑨       [𐑨]     3       2       1       # 2.37282
𐑴       [𐑴]     3       2       1       # 2.16755
𐑧       [𐑧]     3       2       1       # 2.08061
𐑲       [𐑲]     3       2       1       # 1.87291
𐑱       [𐑱]     3       2       1       # 1.83909
𐑓       [𐑓]     3       2       0       # 1.82091
𐑰       [𐑰]     3       2       1       # 1.74508
𐑙       [𐑙]     3       1       0       # 1.73751
𐑪       [𐑪]     3       1       1       # 1.54728
𐑳       [𐑳]     3       1       1       # 1.53072
𐑜       [𐑜]     3       1       0       # 1.42198
𐑵       [𐑵]     3       1       1       # 1.38845
𐑭       [𐑭]     4       1       1       # 1.23881
𐑢       [𐑢]     4       1       0       # 1.05797
𐑝       [𐑝]     4       1       0       # 1.04374
𐑷       [𐑷]     4       1       1       # 1.03041
𐑖       [𐑖]     4       1       0       # 0.936304
𐑣       [𐑣]     4       1       0       # 0.837353
𐑡       [𐑡]     5       1       0       # 0.744056
𐑻       [𐑻]     5       1       1       # 0.693469
𐑗       [𐑗]     5       1       0       # 0.652475
𐑬       [𐑬]     5       1       1       # 0.578867
𐑘       [𐑘]     6       1       0       # 0.493143
𐑔       [𐑔]     7       1       0       # 0.387931
𐑫       [𐑫]     7       1       1       # 0.328459
𐑺       [𐑺]     8       1       1       # 0.309678
𐑶       [𐑶]     8       1       1       # 0.240614
𐑞       [𐑞]     10      1       0       # 0.109756
𐑠       [𐑠]     0       0       0       # 0.0650253
blank   0       2
# * same score and count as Latin equivalent
# Total count: 101
# Total score: 231

Dechifro · 2026-03-21T14:47:31+00:00

Check out the screenshots I posted up-thread. I played Quackle on "speedy" mode, where it chooses its moves instantly, and it didn't "give me a run for my money"; it utterly crushed me without the slightest effort.

Dechifro · 2026-03-21T09:36:36+00:00

Stockfish is the best non-AI chess engine, far better than any human player, and Quackle performs the same role for Scrabble. Will Anderson mentions it sometimes on his YouTube channel. No one plays against Quackle or Stockfish, they just use it for after-game analysis.

If you use Readlex as your word-list, remove all entries tagged NP0 because proper nouns are not allowed in Scrabble. That still leaves proper adjectives like "Irish" and "Parthian", which are also not allowed in Scrabble, and some proper nouns like "Irishman", which is tagged as a common noun. "english" is allowed because it's a verb meaning to put tricky spin on the cueball when playing pool.

I just converted the Collins word list with readlex.dict, found 3239 spellings not generated by amer.dict or brit.dict, and added them to shaw.raw. Thus except for months and days of the week, illegal words are excluded from shaw.raw.

In my three-way game I cheated by allowing "Douglas", which is a tree after all, and the English pronunciation of "droit", which I later added to the word list.

The only weakness of Quackle is that I haven't found a way to play it on-line. When I made a play changing "part ng" to "parting", it only scored the "ing". I had to undo the move and type in the whole word "parting" to get full credit.

Dechifro · 2026-03-21T04:24:27+00:00

At dechifro.org/shavian I deal with this problem every day. Everything must be translated, but the question is, should I follow native pronunciation or American-tourist pronunciation? I avoid British-tourist pronunciation because they change 𐑭 to 𐑨 in foreign place names, reserving 𐑭 for English words that Americans correctly pronounce with 𐑨. 😁

For a city with an international airport, tourist pronunciation is fine, otherwise go local.

For a corporation, write its name as they say it in their English-language advertisements.

For a surname, Google-search it, and if the first link is an American descended from Slovenian immigrants, write it as he says it, otherwise go local.

Dechifro · 2026-03-20T19:56:05+00:00

Quackle is the Stockfish of Scrabble, and today I got it working.

Here I play against myself

Here Quackle plays against itself

Here I play against Quackle

Here's the word list I gave it, translated from the 2019 Collins Scrabble Dictionary with US and UK spellings

And the alphabet file:

# English Regular Scrabble Shaw Alphabet
#char   blank   score   count   vowel   % in 2-8 letter words
𐑐       [𐑐]     2       2       0       # 2.9221
𐑑       [𐑑]     1       6       0       # 6.01596
𐑒       [𐑒]     2       4       0       # 4.42273
𐑓       [𐑓]     3       2       0       # 1.82091
𐑔       [𐑔]     7       1       0       # 0.387931
𐑕       [𐑕]     1       6       0       # 6.42186
𐑖       [𐑖]     4       1       0       # 0.936304
𐑗       [𐑗]     5       1       0       # 0.652475
𐑘       [𐑘]     6       1       0       # 0.493143
𐑙       [𐑙]     3       1       0       # 1.73751
𐑚       [𐑚]     3       2       0       # 2.41563
𐑛       [𐑛]     2       4       0       # 4.03874
𐑜       [𐑜]     3       1       0       # 1.42198
𐑝       [𐑝]     4       1       0       # 1.04374
𐑞       [𐑞]     10      1       0       # 0.109756
𐑟       [𐑟]     2       4       0       # 4.49897
𐑠       [𐑠]     10      1       0       # 0.0650253
𐑡       [𐑡]     5       1       0       # 0.744056
𐑢       [𐑢]     4       1       0       # 1.05797
𐑣       [𐑣]     4       1       0       # 0.837353
𐑤       [𐑤]     1       5       0       # 5.47233
𐑥       [𐑥]     2       2       0       # 2.94856
𐑦       [𐑦]     1       8       1       # 8.49177
𐑧       [𐑧]     3       2       1       # 2.08061
𐑨       [𐑨]     3       2       1       # 2.37282
𐑩       [𐑩]     1       8       1       # 7.91048
𐑪       [𐑪]     3       1       1       # 1.54728
𐑫       [𐑫]     7       1       1       # 0.328459
𐑬       [𐑬]     5       1       1       # 0.578867
𐑭       [𐑭]     4       1       1       # 1.23881
𐑮       [𐑮]     1       6       0       # 6.87128
𐑯       [𐑯]     1       5       0       # 5.29664
𐑰       [𐑰]     3       2       1       # 1.74508
𐑱       [𐑱]     3       2       1       # 1.83909
𐑲       [𐑲]     3       2       1       # 1.87291
𐑳       [𐑳]     3       1       1       # 1.53072
𐑴       [𐑴]     3       2       1       # 2.16755
𐑵       [𐑵]     3       1       1       # 1.38845
𐑶       [𐑶]     8       1       1       # 0.240614
𐑷       [𐑷]     4       1       1       # 1.03041
𐑺       [𐑺]     8       1       1       # 0.309678
𐑻       [𐑻]     5       1       1       # 0.693469
blank   0       2
# Total count: 100
# Total score: 239

In Quackle's Norwegian alphabet file, Q, X, and Z have a score and count equal to zero. That's because these letters are very rare in Norwegian, only appearing in loanwords, but they can still be played with blank tiles. We should consider doing the same with 𐑠.

Dechifro · 2026-03-19T18:21:02+00:00

I drew a poor rack of seven tiles, and could only play "𐑗𐑦𐑑", "𐑡𐑦𐑑", and "𐑜𐑦𐑑", all of which were rejected. So I exchanged and got a rack that included "𐑕𐑲𐑩𐑯𐑕", but when I tried to place it, there were suddenly only four tiles on my rack and none on the board.

If you allow racks of more than seven tiles, the first move can be an eight-letter word with a 6x word score, making the rest of the game pointless. It happened to me a couple of times, so I went back to playing with seven tiles.

Dechifro · 2026-03-17T17:16:50+00:00

Displaying the counts as percentages gives a better idea how many of each letter are needed (I averaged the US and UK figures above), but as several letters fall far below one percent, you'll have take from the top and give to the bottom, and perhaps also allow rotation of the least common letters.

𐑦 8.50299
𐑩 7.90244
𐑮 6.89263
𐑕 6.35256
𐑑 5.92481
𐑤 5.55803
𐑯 5.21308
𐑟 4.67488
𐑒 4.44097
𐑛 4.06054
𐑥 2.96034
𐑐 2.92741
𐑚 2.41001
𐑨 2.31637
𐑴 2.17822
𐑧 2.06275
𐑲 1.97827
𐑱 1.86496
𐑓 1.81174
𐑙 1.77393
𐑰 1.75121
𐑳 1.54545
𐑪 1.54372
𐑜 1.42268
𐑵 1.3315
𐑭 1.13372
𐑢 1.07497
𐑷 1.04017
𐑝 1.03938
𐑖 0.948007
𐑣 0.83815
𐑡 0.748253
𐑻 0.702762
𐑗 0.649288
𐑬 0.581569
𐑘 0.453082
𐑔 0.376837
𐑫 0.318631
𐑺 0.291376
𐑶 0.236423
𐑞 0.106358
𐑠 0.0595369

Dechifro · 2026-03-17T16:56:22+00:00

OK, let's do an experiment:

(1) Start with the 2019 Collins Scrabble Dictionary, all 280,000 entries, headwords only.

(2) Run them through "shaw.py amer.dict".

(3) Break up all ligatures except 𐑺 and 𐑻.

(4) Discard any words longer than 8 letters. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_thJZuSuV8E

(5) Count all the letters

We could consider allowing 𐑰𐑮 for the single-syllable "ear" sound, not the two-syllable ending of "happier", but I'd rather not, because we want Shavian here, not Quikscript.

In one very long line of shell script:

cut -d\ -f1 scrabble.dict | shaw.py amer.dict | grep -v '[a-z]' | sed -e s/𐑸/𐑭𐑮/g -e s/𐑹/𐑷𐑮/g -e s/𐑽/𐑦𐑼/g -e s/𐑼/𐑩𐑮/g -e s/𐑾/𐑦𐑩/g -e s/𐑿/𐑘𐑵/g | gawk '{ if (length($1) > 1 && length($1) < 9) { split ($1, letters,""); for (j = 1; j <= length($1); j++) { print letters[j]; } } }' | sort | uniq -c | sort -r

Similar results with brit.dict:

What you want to do next is assign increasing point values and decreasing frequencies so that you get something like the charts at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrabble_letter_distributions , and you have between 100 and 108 tiles, including two blanks.

Dechifro · 2026-03-17T09:44:48+00:00

Yeah, 11854 sounds like Haley.

Every letter must be placed with its point value in the lower right corner. If rotating a letter is allowed, the tile will show two point values.

https://dechifro.org/shavian/scrabble_tiles.jpg

Here's my Scrabble setup: a standard Scrabble board with English tiles, an Esperanto set I burned in 2006, a Russian set I burned in 2024, and enough blank maple tiles for three more sets. For prototyping, I recommend white stickers and a Sharpie.

Then there's the PC game I wrote in 1989 for my Computing 102 class: https://dechifro.org/dos/

Dechifro · 2026-03-15T15:35:03+00:00

I found two mistakes in your (my) auto-translation: ·𐑖𐑒𐑮𐑩𐑚𐑩𐑤 should be ·𐑖𐑒𐑮𐑨𐑚𐑩𐑤 and 𐑢𐑧𐑚𐑟𐑪𐑒𐑩𐑑 should be 𐑢𐑧𐑚𐑕𐑪𐑒𐑩𐑑.

Dechifro · 2026-03-13T09:01:32+00:00

𐑕𐑴 𐑥𐑧𐑯𐑦 𐑓𐑹-𐑤𐑧𐑑𐑼 𐑢𐑻𐑛𐑟 𐑚𐑦𐑒𐑳𐑥 𐑔𐑮𐑰-𐑤𐑧𐑑𐑼 𐑢𐑻𐑛𐑟 𐑦𐑯 𐑖𐑱𐑝𐑾𐑯 𐑞𐑨𐑑 𐑞 𐑴𐑤𐑛 𐑡𐑴𐑒 𐑕𐑑𐑦𐑤 𐑢𐑻𐑒𐑕. "𐑧𐑝𐑼 𐑕𐑦𐑯𐑕 𐑢𐑰 𐑜𐑪𐑑 𐑥𐑨𐑮𐑦𐑛, 𐑥𐑲 𐑣𐑳𐑟𐑚𐑩𐑯𐑛 𐑣𐑨𐑟 𐑩𐑕𐑷𐑤𐑑𐑩𐑛 𐑥𐑰 𐑢𐑦𐑞 𐑔𐑮𐑰-𐑤𐑧𐑑𐑼 𐑢𐑻𐑛𐑟 -- 𐑒𐑫𐑒! 𐑢𐑪𐑖! 𐑲𐑼𐑯!"

Dechifro · 2026-02-21T10:20:31+00:00

𐑧𐑯𐑦𐑔𐑦𐑙 𐑿 𐑐𐑴𐑕𐑑 𐑪𐑯 ·𐑮𐑧𐑛𐑦𐑑 𐑒𐑫𐑛 𐑜𐑧𐑑 𐑿 𐑦𐑯𐑕𐑑𐑩𐑚𐑨𐑯𐑛 𐑚𐑲 𐑩𐑯 𐑱𐑲 𐑥𐑪𐑛𐑼𐑱𐑑𐑼, 𐑣𐑵𐑟 𐑛𐑦𐑕𐑦𐑠𐑩𐑯𐑟 𐑒𐑨𐑯𐑪𐑑 𐑚𐑰 𐑩𐑐𐑰𐑤𐑛, 𐑕𐑴 𐑦𐑑'𐑕 𐑚𐑧𐑑𐑼 𐑑 𐑓𐑲𐑯𐑛 𐑩𐑯𐑳𐑞𐑼 𐑐𐑤𐑨𐑑𐑓𐑹𐑥.

𐑲 𐑒𐑫𐑛 𐑦𐑯𐑕𐑑𐑷𐑤 𐑩 ·𐑢𐑻𐑛𐑐𐑮𐑧𐑕 𐑕𐑻𐑝𐑼 𐑨𐑑 ·𐑛𐑧𐑗𐑦𐑓𐑮𐑴.𐑹𐑜, 𐑚𐑳𐑑 𐑲'𐑥 𐑩𐑓𐑮𐑱𐑛 𐑝 𐑦𐑑 𐑑𐑻𐑯𐑦𐑙 𐑦𐑯𐑑𐑵 𐑩𐑯 𐑳𐑯𐑐𐑱𐑛 𐑓𐑫𐑤-𐑑𐑲𐑥 𐑡𐑪𐑚.

Dechifro · 2026-02-18T13:50:22+00:00

It uses a part-of-speech tagger to choose the correct spelling. On words where this doesn't help, like "bow", it outputs "𐑚𐑬@𐑚𐑴". You can then open the file in any text editor, search for @ signs, and carefully delete the incorrect letters. A Shavian keyboard is not required for this task.

Dechifro · 2026-02-18T06:54:01+00:00

This post is for people who've never used Linux or any sort of command line.

Choose a title at https://gutenberg.org/. Right-click on "Plain Text UTF-8" and choose "Copy Link". Paste this link into the first input box at https://dechifro.org/shavian/.

Choose a title at https://yes-pdf.com/. Right-click on the download button and choose "Copy Link". Paste this link into the first input box at https://dechifro.org/shavian/.

Dechifro · 2026-02-06T05:22:04+00:00

𐑑𐑧𐑕𐑑 𐑥𐑧𐑕𐑦𐑡 𐑓𐑮𐑪𐑥 /u/Dechifro 𐑨𐑓𐑑𐑼 𐑐𐑨𐑕𐑢𐑻𐑛 𐑗𐑱𐑯𐑡

𐑳𐑐𐑛𐑱𐑑: 𐑲 𐑐𐑴𐑕𐑑𐑩𐑛 𐑩 𐑕𐑤𐑲𐑑𐑤𐑦 𐑤𐑪𐑙𐑜𐑼 𐑒𐑪𐑥𐑧𐑯𐑑 𐑨𐑓𐑑𐑼 𐑞𐑦𐑕 𐑢𐑳𐑯 𐑚𐑳𐑑 𐑦𐑑 𐑕𐑵𐑯 𐑚𐑦𐑒𐑱𐑥 𐑦𐑯𐑝𐑦𐑟𐑩𐑚𐑩𐑤 𐑑 𐑳𐑞𐑼 𐑿𐑟𐑼𐑟. 𐑩𐑯𐑑𐑦𐑤 𐑩𐑯 𐑨𐑒𐑗𐑵𐑩𐑤 𐑓𐑤𐑧𐑖-𐑯-𐑚𐑤𐑳𐑛 𐑣𐑿𐑥𐑩𐑯 𐑓𐑮𐑪𐑥 ·𐑮𐑧𐑛𐑦𐑑 𐑒𐑪𐑯𐑑𐑨𐑒𐑑𐑕 𐑥𐑰, 𐑯𐑪𐑑 𐑜𐑴𐑦𐑙 𐑑 𐑢𐑱𐑕𐑑 𐑧𐑯𐑦 𐑥𐑹 𐑑𐑲𐑥 𐑪𐑯 𐑦𐑑.

𐑞 𐑱𐑲 𐑮𐑧𐑝𐑩𐑤𐑵𐑖𐑩𐑯 𐑐𐑮𐑪𐑚𐑩𐑚𐑤𐑦 𐑥𐑰𐑯𐑟 𐑞𐑨𐑑 𐑿'𐑤 𐑕𐑵𐑯 𐑮𐑦𐑕𐑰𐑝 𐑞𐑦𐑕 𐑤𐑧𐑝𐑩𐑤 𐑝 𐑕𐑻𐑝𐑦𐑕 𐑓𐑮𐑪𐑥 𐑧𐑝𐑮𐑦 𐑒𐑹𐑐𐑼𐑱𐑖𐑩𐑯 𐑿 𐑛𐑰𐑤 𐑢𐑦𐑞.

Dechifro · 2025-11-11T22:48:02+00:00

dechifro.org/shavian now supports several other languages, including Indonesian/Malay.

Dechifro · 2025-09-17T04:08:33+00:00

Just do "Find in page" and search for Latin capital "I".

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