WORD TREE BUILT ON CONSONANT NODES

ARBRE DE MOTS CONSTRUIT SUR DES NOEUDS DE CONSONNES

English Abstract

A "word tree" is generated by players of this board game using
"consonant" and "vowel" tiles. The distribution of available consonant
tiles and the unlimited availability, in principle, of the vowel tiles
("a", "e", "i", "o", "u") ensures that almost all words (more than 99%)
existing in the English language can be built by a player. A "root word"
is placed horizontally, by the first player in the mid-section of the
board. The second and subsequent words are built off the consonant tiles
already played on the board. It is akin to starting new branches off
these "consonant" nodes. The generated tree is bound in a finite
rectangular space. The objective of the game is to make "long" words
either "new" ones or extensions of those already played. The element of
chance in winning this game has been minimized. The game showcases and
stimulates knowledge recognition, vocabulary building and articulation.

Claims

What is claimed is:
1. Board Layout: The game board is a rectangular matrix
of 19 by 16 squares. The 19 horizontal rows are
labeled on the left edge from top to bottom as A, B,
C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T and Z.
The 16 vertical columns are labeled on the top edge
from left to right as 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08,
09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16. The inscription
"root " is printed horizontally starting on square at
position, "K0l".
2. Distribution of consonant tiles: There are a total of
64 consonant tiles with the "consonant" printed in
lower case on one side of a tile. The color of these
tiles is non-white. The following is the distribution
of the 21 consonant tiles:
b - 3 c - 3 d - 3 f - 3 g - 3
h - 3 j - 1 k - 2 1 - 4 m - 3
n - 6 p - 3 q - 1 r - 6 s - 5
t - 6 v - 2 w - 2 x - 1 y - 2
z - 2
3. Distribution of vowel tiles: There are a total of 90
vowel tiles with different "vowels" printed in lower
case on the 2 sides of a tile. The color of these
tiles is also non-white but is of a different color
than that used for the consonant tiles mentioned in
claim 2. The following is the distribution of the 5
vowel tiles:
On one side of 24 tiles - e
On other side of these tiles: a - 8 , - 8, o - 6, u - 2

On one side of 20 tiles - a
On other side of these tiles: e - 8, i - 6, o - 4, u - 2
On one side of 20 tiles - i
on other side of these tiles: a - 6 , e - 8, o- 4, u - 2
On one side of 16 tiles - o
On other side of these tiles: a - 4, e - 6, i - 2, u - 4
On one side of 10 tiles - u
On other side of these tiles: a - 2, e - 2, i - 4, o - 2
4. Method of play: The root word starts with a consonant
and uses at least one more consonant of the consonants
available to the first player. Only 4 consonants are
available (on the rack) for the second and subsequent
plays. New words, consisting of any number of vowels
and using consonants from his/her rack, can be built
by a player in the following three ways:
a. Build off an existing (on the board) consonant and
use at least one consonant from the rack. The new word
must have at least three letters. The number of
letters (n) in the new word is used to determine the
score for the play.
b. Suffix and/or prefix an existing (on the board)
word by using at least one consonant from the rack.
The extension must augment the existing (base) word by
two or more letters. The number of letters that the
base word has been extended by (k) and the number of

letters (m) in the base word is used to determine the
score for the play.
c. Make a new word at right angles to an existing (on
the board) word using at least two consonants from the
rack such that one of the consonants, placed at the
beginning or ending of the existing word, results in a
valid extension to the existing word. The number of
letters (n) in the new word that has been placed at a
right angle is used to determine the score for the
play.
5. Scoring Mechanism:
a) Placing a new word:
Score = n*(n - 2) , n > 2 where
n = number of letters in word
b) Building on an existing (base) word:
Score = k*k + 2*m , k > 1 where
k = number of letters that the
base word has been extended by
m = number of letters in base word

Description

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WORD TREE BUILT ON CONSONANT NODES
1) A board game
2) Tests the extent of vocabulary/knowledge of a person
3) The element of chance is minimized in winning the game
4) The board is a rectangular matrix of 19 x 16 squares
5) The first word is laid out horizontally starting at
position "K01"
6) Position "K01" is the middle square at the left edge of
the board
7) Subsequent words are built off this starting word
8) The game is designed for 1 to 4 players
9) The objective is to make "long" words
Summary of the invention
This board game is designed such that the player with the best
vocabulary and/or general knowledge will win the game. The
"consonant" and "vowel" tiles used in making words have no face
value and gain no positional value when placed on the game
board. This reduces the element of chance in winning the game.
The formulae used in determining the score for a turn directly
reflect the skill level of the player.
Description of Drawings
Figure 1: The top view of the game board at the start of a game
(a "blank" game board)
Figure 2: The view from above, showing the consonant and vowel
tiles that have been placed on the game board after
the completion of the Sample game plays

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Figure 3: A table describing each turn played in the sample
game plays including the score obtained. Note all the
3 possible ways of playing are illustrated:
Way 1: Building a new word using consonants from
the rack
Way 2: Extending an already played word (referred to
as the "base" word)
Way 3: Placing a new word at right angles to an
already played word
Figure 4: An illustration of the conceptual "word" tree
generated by the sample game plays. The tree is shown
inverted with the root word ("velocity") on top at
"depth 0".
Inventor's Claim
Almost all words (allowed within the "Rules") existing in the
English language can be built by a player in this game.
Showcases and stimulates knowledge recognition, vocabulary
building and articulation.
Concepts
A "word tree" is generated by players using consonant and vowel
tiles.
The first word played is the "root word" of the word tree built
by the players as the game proceeds. It must start with a
consonant tile. The second and subsequent words are built off
the consonant tiles already played on the board. It is akin to
starting new branches off these "consonant" nodes. The "base
consonant" of a word is the consonant on which the word is
built. The root word is arbitrarily designated as having the

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base consonant "k". The idea is that at any point in the game,
all the "words" that have been played can be traversed to via
the base consonant nodes starting from the root of the tree.
Each "inner consonant node" represents an already played word.
The generated tree is bound in the rectangular space of 304
squares. In principle, "large" words (up to "19" letters long)
can be built, in the course of the game.
The game has a fixed number of consonant tiles (64, to be
exact) and an unlimited number (in principle) of vowel
(representing the vowels, "a", "e", "i", "o" and "u") tiles.
The "Vowel Pool" holds these tiles. The consonant tile has a
consonant written in "lower" case on one side and is blank on
the other side. The vowel tile has different vowels written on
the 2 sides in "lower" case. This way, the same tile can be
used depending on "which" vowel is needed for building a word
during game play. There are 90 vowel tiles.
Game Play
All players draw a tile (without seeing) from the bag of
consonant tiles. The player with a consonant closest to the end
of the alphabet plays first. If there is a tie, it is resolved
by the tied players drawing, again from the bag. The player,
declared first, retains his/her consonant tile. The other
consonant tiles are returned to the bag. Each player, starting
with the first and moving to the left (counter-clockwise),
draws four tiles from the bag. The tiles are placed in the
individual "rack" available to a player. Each player also holds
2 "Spell Check (SC)" chips.

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The first player, using two or more of his/her five consonant
tiles and any number of the vowel tiles, available in the Vowel
Pool, makes the root word of the game. The root word must start
with a consonant and consist of at least one more of the
consonants available to the first player. The root word is
placed horizontally (as shown in Figure 1) starting at position
"K01" on the game board. After placing the word, the player
replenishes his/her rack such that he/she always holds four
consonant tiles.
The second (and subsequent) player builds new words "off" the
words already played on the board. New words, consisting of any
number of vowels and using consonants from his/her rack, can be
built by a player in the following three ways:
1) Build off an existing (on the board) consonant and use
at least one consonant from the rack. The new word
must have at least three letters. The number of letters
(n) in the new word is used to determine the score for the
play.
2) Suffix and/or prefix an existing (on the board) word by
using at least one consonant from the rack. The extension
must augment the existing (base) word by two or more
letters. The number of letters that the base word has been
extended by (k) and the number of letters (m) in the base
word is used to determine the score for the play.
3) Make a new word at right angles to an existing (on the
board) word using at least two consonants from the
rack such that one of the consonants, placed at the
beginning or ending of the existing word, results in a
valid extension to the existing word. The number of

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letters (n) in the new word that has been placed at a
right angle is used to determine the score for the
play.
In the above 3 ways, if a new tile(s) gets placed adjacent to
an existing tile on the board, the new formation(s) must be
valid word(s). That is the cross-word style validity of the
game should be maintained. No credit is obtained for such
"incidental" words. After a valid play, a player replenishes
his/her rack such that he/she holds four consonant tiles.
The sample game plays and scoring shown in Figures 2 and 3,
illustrate all the above ways of playing.
A "dictionary" that all the players agree upon at the beginning
of the game should be used as the official reference. All words
made should be spelled correctly. A player has the option of
requesting for a spell check before placing his/her word. An SC
chip is traded-in to exercise this option. The spelling is
checked in the dictionary by another player.
When a player places his/her word on the board, if another
player doubts the spelling or existence of the placed word,
he/she is allowed to prove its non-existence in the dictionary.
If the placed word does not exist, the tiles are returned. The
player has to trade-in a SC chip, to place another word on the
board. In case, the player has used up both his/her SC chips,
he/she looses her turn and gets "0" points.
Only words allowed by the RULES stated below constitute valid
words. A word that has been made (and for which points have
been scored) cannot be played again. The scoring mechanism
listed below is used to record the score for a valid play.

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End game
After all consonant tiles are drawn from the bag; the game can
end in the following 2 ways:
1) If a player uses up all his consonant tiles, he
announces "Last round". If there are any players who
have not yet played this round, they get their last
turns.
2) None of the players is able to play his/her turn in a
given round.
In either of the 2 ways, each player subtracts 4 points for
each unused consonant tile on his/her rack. An SC chip is worth
8 points. So, a player adds 16 points if he/she holds both the
SC chips and 8 points if only one SC chip is held. The final
tally of the players, determines the winner of the game.
S c o r i n g M e c h a n i s m
Placing a new word
Score = n*(n - 2) , n > 2 where n = number of letters
in word
Some possible scores
N 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Score 3 8 15 24 35 48 63 80 99

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Building on an existing (base) word
Score = k*k + 2*m , k > 1 where
k = number of letters that the base
word has been extended by
m = number of letters in base word
Some possible scores
K\ m> 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
2 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
3 15 17 19 21 23 25 27
4 22 24 26 28 30 32 34
31 33 35 37 39 41 43
6 42 44 46 48 50 52 54
7 55 57 59 61 63 65 67
8 70 72 74 76 78 80 82
9 87 89 91 93 95 97 99
RULES regarding allowed words
All words that can be found in a standard dictionary of the
English language are allowed with the exception of the
following:
a) Words that are always capitalized
b) Words requiring a hyphen or an apostrophe
c) Abbreviations, prefixes or suffixes

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Distribution of consonant tiles
b- 3 c- 3 d- 3 f- 3 g- 3 h- 3
j- 1 k- 2 1- 4 m- 3 n- 6 p- 3
q- 1 r- 6 s- 5 t- 6 v- 2 w- 2
x- 1 y 2 z- 2
Vowel tiles
In principle, there are an unlimited number of these. So, a
large number (more than that will be needed in a given game) of
all the 5 vowels is available. A set of 90 vowel tiles with
different "vowels" printed on each side is available:
On one side of 24 tiles - e
On the other side of these tiles: a - 8, i - 8, o - 6, u - 2
On one side of 20 tiles - a
On the other side of these tiles: e - 8, i - 6, o - 4, u - 2
On one side of 20 tiles - i
On the other side of these tiles: a - 6, e - 8, o - 4, u - 2
On one side of 16 tiles - o
on the other side of these tiles: a - 4, e - 6, i - 2, u - 4
On one side of 10 tiles - u
on the other side of these tiles: a - 2, e - 2, i - 4, o - 2

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Words that can be built in the course of a game
Starting with a small word, larger words can be easily built by
extension. Here is an example of a possible order of building:
1) author
2) authoritarian
3) antiauthoritarian
4) antiauthoritarianism (This is the maximum possible length
of "19" letters placed vertically)
All words (falling within the Rules) can be built for credit,
with the exception of the following due to physical and
conceptual design constraints:
1) Words containing more than 19 letters
For example: antiauthoritarianisms, microminiaturizations
2) Words having only vowels (a, e, i, o, u)
For example: eau
3) Words having only one consonant
For example: aloe, queue
4) Words containing more than the available number of a
particular consonant tile (i.e. words made of more than 3
b's, 3 c's, 6 n's extra)
For example: giggling
In spite of the above limitations, more than 99% of the words
in the English language can be built!

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WORD Tree generated by sample game play
Please refer to Figure 4
Note: Starting from the root word ("velocity") any word in the
tree can be reached by following a string of words through
their base consonants/words (shown in brackets).
For example, "hearsay" can be reached through the base
consonant path, "k-c-t-r".
This generated word tree structure can be used in programming
the game to produce the "best" possible game plays, using an
informational data source of valid "words".
The game provides a "basis" for holding competitions that can
determine the most "articulate" person in the world.

Representative Drawing