International Sudoku Day Contest!
September 7th is International Sudoku Day, and in observance of this fine global event, the Endangered Alphabets Project is pleased to bring you our first International Sudoku Day Contest!
Here’s how it goes. I’m going to post three sudoku in this blog, of varying levels of difficulty. In each case, instead of the numerals 1-9 you’re going to see nine letterforms/glyphs from the character-set of one of the world’s minority scripts. (I’ll give you links to our online Atlas of Endangered Alphabets so you can learn more about them.)
The rules are the same as for regular numerical sudoku: only one of each symbol per row or column, only one of each symbol in each of the nine smaller squares. You know the drill.
The challenge is simply that the symbols are unfamiliar. You can’t glance at a row and tell instantly if you already have a 9 in it, or whether you’ve accidentally got two 4’s. That takes a lot more than simply knowing which symbol is which, it takes many, many repetitions of learning and use. And as such this exercise/game/contest gives a glimpse of what it must be like to live in another culture–as a refugee, perhaps, or a new immigrant–where all the mental processing you grew up learning is now no good. Nothing comes naturally; everything is work. If, like me, you grew up knowing a couple of languages but only one script, for the first time you know what it’s like to be on the other side.
And for undertaking this challenge, I offer prizes. The first person to send me (tim@endangeredalphabets.com) the correct solution for each puzzle will win a copy of my Endangered Alphabets Sudoku, wherever in the world you live. That’s not an offer you get every day. Nobody gets more than one prize, though you’re welcome to send me more than one solved puzzle, just because.
Okay. With that, let’s get on to the prize puzzles.
Good luck!
Tim
