Wordle now has a Mennonite cousin dubbed Nah Yo-dle

Have you ever wanted to play the popular game Wordle, but in Low-German?

Well, you are in luck! Jared Falk, originally from, Altona is the mind behind a new game affectionately dubbed Nah Yo-dle.

He notes “It is pretty much just a rip-off of Wordle, the New York Times' puzzle game. Everyone is ripping it off right now so why not join the party?”

Falk says the one key difference is that Nah Yo-dle is Mennonite to the core.

“We are including five letter low-German words but also English, Low-German adjacent words or Mennonite adjacent words. There are a few German/English words in there that are a bit of a cross between the two languages. If you thought it was hard doing just the Wordle game itself, just imagine adding another language to it that is largely unwritten and almost dead.”

Considering Low-German hasn’t been a written language for long, there is often more than one way to spell words.

Nah Yo-dle in action.

“If I found a pretty similar spelling, I put both of them in there just so the Jansieder won't get too upset if their spelling isn't in there. This has already been a point of contention; we are two days in and we had to have a very long discussion as to what the plural of zoat is.”

At first, Falk says a Mennonite version of Wordle was just a silly idea, but then he found himself with some spare time and decided to make it happen.

“I like all things Mennonite and satire, a little bit of a 'celebrate ourselves and make fun of ourselves at the same time' kind of thing. I really appreciate things that do that.” He adds “It was a great way to get the language going among people that know it or even just some people have a very vague understanding of it, maybe they will come up with a half dozen low-German words to whip out in conversation next time.”

Falk says he and a few friends and family members came up with a long list of words that most people who understand Low-German or Mennonite slang would know. He says his friend Adrian Trimble, who spent many years in Steinbach, was the graphic designer and web developer who actually built the game itself.

To accentuate the game, Falk says they’ve also put together an Instagram account for Nah Yo-dle where they explain the meaning of each word the day after it is the answer.

So far, Falk says they have been delighted by the feedback. Nah Yo-dle can be found at nahyodle.com.

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Written by Kenton Dyck.