The Player who is Guessing the Word May

Hangman is a game which involves guessing for two or more players. One player will think of an expression, word, or sentence. The other(s) will attempt to guess it by suggesting letters within a set number of guesses. The original game was Paper-and-pencil. There are now electronic versions.

Contents

1 History 2 Overview 3 Variants 4 Strategy 5 Derivations 6 References

History[edit]

Though the origins of the game are unknown, a variant is featured in a collection of children's games assembled by Alice Gomme in 1894 called Birds, Beasts, and Fishes. This version does not feature a hanging man and instead keeps track of the number of times each player attempted to fill in the gaps.

In a 1902 Philadelphia Inquirer article it was noted that it incorporated hanging imagery. It was well-liked at "White Cap" celebrations hosted by "Vigilance Committees", where guests wore "white peaked cap with masks". [2]

Overview[edit]

A row of dashes representing each letter in the word is used to represent the word and allow the reader to guess. Rules may allow or deny proper nouns, like names, places, brands or slang. The other player must write the letter in the correct order if the letter is suggested by the player who is guessing. If the suggested letter does not appear in the word, the other player draws the part of a hanged stick figure to make an tally mark.

The person who guesses the word can, at any time, attempt to guess the entire word. [ Citation required If the word is correct the game is concluded and the person who guesses the word wins. In the event that the other player is not correct, they could decide to penalize the guesser by adding an element to the diagram. On the other hand, if the guesser makes enough incorrect guesses to allow the other player to complete the diagram, the player loses. However, the guesser may also win by guessing all the letters in the word, thus making the word complete, even before the diagram is completed. [citation needed]

Variants[edit]

The diagram is meant to look like the hanging man as the name of the game suggests. Although there have been a lot of debates regarding the game[3,] it is still being used today. One of the most popular options for teachers is to draw an apple tree with ten apples, erasing or crossing out the apples as the guesses are matched up.

Sometimes, changes to game play (house regulations) are introduced to make it more difficult. For instance the guesses of vowels as well as high-frequency consonants can be limited. Another alternative is to define the word. This could be helpful in learning a new language.

Strategy[edit]

The fact that the twelve most commonly occurring letters in the English language are e-t-a-o-i-n-s-h-r-d-l-u (from most to least), along with other letter-frequency lists, are used by the guessing player to increase the odds when it is their turn to guess. The puzzle setter may also make use of the same lists to challenge their opponent by choosing words that do not contain common letters (e.g.

rhythm

or

Zephyr

) or one that has rare letters (e.g.

jazz

).

Another method is to guess vowels first because English only has five vowels (a, E, i, o and u, although the letters y can, at times but not often be used as vowel) and nearly every word has at least one.

Jon McLoone, Wolfram Research's 2010 researcher, found that buzz, jazz and hajj are the most difficult words to figure out. [4]

Derivations[edit]

The American game show

Wheel of Fortune

was inspired by hangman. Merv Griffin was inspired by the movie hangman. [5]

Brazil also had shows in the 1960s and later in 2012-2013, titled "Let's Play Hangman," hosted by Silvio Santos. Later, Brazil would get its own Wheel of Fortune. It aired from 1980 until 1993, and then again from 2003 until 2012. The new Let's Play Hangman was aired, in addition to from 2013 until the present. These shows were also produced and hosted by Santos.

The BBC launched Letterbox in July 2017. It is also based on hangman. [6]

References[edit]

^

"Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol. I), by Alice Bertha Gomme". via Project Gutenberg

^

"A White Cap Party" was published on 16 February 1902 in

The Philadelphia Inquirer

, page. 39; via newspapers.com

^

Foreign English Teacher Under Threat For Playing Hangman Game] "Foreign English Teacher At Risk for Playing Hangman Game Retrieved from the original on 2010-12-25. Retrieved on 2011-03-11.,

Japan Probe

23rd July 2010

^

McLoone Jon (13 August 2010). "25 Best Hangman Words". Wolfram Research. Retrieved from the original 15 August 2010. Retrieved 14 March 2015.

^

Griffin, Merv & Bender, David (2007).

Merv: Making the good life last

. Zehn Games Canada New York: Simon and Schuster.