I like to play a game with my family and friends. It goes like this:
The players take turns to say a letter. The letters taken in order must be the start of some word, and the person who finishes a word without there being a continuation on the word loses. If you are challenged on the letter you say, you lose if you don't have a word, otherwise the challenger loses.
For simplicity, plurals are allowed.
In the two player version of this game, assuming each player plays optimally who has a winning strategy (the player who goes first or the player who goes second)?
Note that by the fundamental theorem of combinatorial games, we are guaranteed that one player has a winning strategy cannot be a draw.
You are welcome to specify your own dictionary that you would use for 'adjudication' in your answer as long as it is reasonably well-known.