MORE than 10,000 people across 83 countries have logged on to play a Scots version of the smash hit game Wordle.
Wirdle, which was created by the team at I Hear Dee, was made to promote the Shaetlan variant of the language, which is spoken in Shetland.
The team say they hope to promote awareness of Shaetlan now that the language’s “endangerment might be possible to stem, if not turn”.
Their version of the popular word game has been played around the world by people on every continent but Antartica.
The success of the project has led to partnerships internationally, with the Scotland-based team working with others in nations such as Haiti and Nigeria to create Wordle-like games in their own languages.
Professor Viveka Velupillai, a Shetland-based language expert affiliated with the University of Giessen in Germany, told The National that the partnerships did not stop there.
She said that they had also teamed up with Marine Conservation without Borders, a project that seeks to further both scientific literacy and biocultural diversity through bilingual education.
READ MORE: Wordle, or Wirdle? The Scots game showing Shaetlan to the world
Pointing to “numerous indigenous groups who have, for countless generations, known how to live with their environments”, Velupillai said: “It is from them that we need to harness this knowledge, and to bring back focus on pride of place.
“This recognises the fact that around the world, the knowledge embedded in local cultures and languages are essential for us to be able to address the climate crisis and the threat to biodiversity.
“In other words: biocultural diversity initiatives recognise that we cannot artificially split these issues up into different units: language, culture and the environment are intimately connected".
The professor said that the work with Marine Conservation without Borders would aim to produce “bilingual educational material that is both universal and localised”.
She explained how there is a template for each textbook or dictionary, but the piece is tweaked in a culturally and environmentally relevant way.
“We are now very chuffed indeed to be part of the international team for developing such materials!” Velupillai said. “And we admit that we are very chuffed at Shetland being not only the first UK region to join Marine Conservation without Borders, but also the first region in the North Sea and in the North Atlantic".
You can find out more on the Marine Conservation without Borders website.
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