National Spelling Bee
If you watch the news, you probably would miss this one: the 78th National Spelling Bee is going on today and tomorrow in Washington, D.C.
Some info provided by the organizer of the event, The E.W. Scripps Company:
We are the nation’s largest and longest-running educational promotion, administered on a not-for-profit basis by
The E.W. Scripps Company and over 260 sponsors in the United States, Europe, Canada, New Zealand, Guam, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, and American Samoa. Our headquarters office in Cincinnati, Ohio, coordinates the national finals, enrolls sponsors, and produces word lists and study materials. This office operates year round.
A bit of history:
This is the 78th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee. The Louisville Courier-Journal started the event with nine contestants in 1925. In 1941 Scripps assumed sponsorship of the program. There was no Scripps National Spelling Bee during the World War II years of 1943, 1944, and 1945. Co-champions were declared in 1950, 1957, and 1962. Of the 80 champions, 42 are girls and 38 are boys. Click here for a complete listing of champions and their winning words.
And you might ask:
What is the origin of the term spelling bee?
The word bee, as used in spelling bee, is a language puzzle that has never been satisfactorily accounted for. A fairly old and widely-used word, it refers to a community social gathering at which friends and neighbors join together in a single activity (sewing, quilting, barn raising, etc.), usually to help one person or family. The earliest known example in print is a spinning bee, in 1769. Other early occurrences are husking bee (1816), apple bee (1827), and logging bee (1836). Spelling bee is apparently an American term. It first appeared in print in 1875, but it seems certain that the word was used orally for several years before that.Those who used the word, including most early students of language, assumed that it was the same word as referred to the insect. They thought that this particular meaning had probably been inspired by the obvious similarity between these human gatherings and the industrious, social nature of a beehive. But in recent years scholars have rejected this explanation, suggesting instead that this bee is a completely different word. One possibility is that it comes from the Middle English word bene, which means "a prayer" or "a favor" (and is related to the more familiar word boon). In England, a dialectal form of this word, been or bean, referred to "voluntary help given by neighbors toward the accomplishment of a particular task." (Webster’s Third New International Dictionary). Bee may simply be a shortened form of been, but no one is entirely certain.
A Dictionary of American English. Sir William A. Craigie and James R. Hulbert, eds. University of Chicago Press, 1944.
A Dictionary of Americanisms. Mitford M. Mathews, ed. Univ. of Chicago Press, 1951.
Mencken, H.L. The American Language. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1938 (suppl. I, 1945: suppl. II, 1948).
If you were one of those bees back in 1930, here are the rules of the game:
Any speller failing to spell a word shall drop out of the contest, and another word shall be given to the next in line. Having started to spell a word, a contestant shall be given no opportunity to change letters once pronounced. A speller, having started to spell a word, may retrace, providing letters and their sequence are not changed in the retracing.
When the contestants have been reduced to two, the speller who first corrects a word misspelled by the other and then spells the next word on the list shall be declared the champion. If both misspell the same word, both shall continue in the contest. Should one err, and the other, after correcting the error, misspell the new word submitted to him, then the misspelled new word shall be referred to the first speller for correction, and if he succeeds in correcting the error and in spelling the next word on the pronouncer’s list, he shall be declared the champion.
A contestant may request that a word be repronounced or defined. The pronouncer shall grant the request until the officials agree that the word has been made reasonably clear to the contestant.
Though some authorities prefer one spelling and some another of words spelled in two or more ways, the rule of reason dictates that any form acceptable to standard authorities shall be adjudged correct.
Spellings, keyed in Funk & Wagnalls dictionaries with capital "P" or capital "S" or capitals "SS" will not be accepted. To meet the accepted form in many schools, however, the spelling of "through" as "thru", of "though" as "tho", of "although" as "altho" and of "thorough" as "thoro" shall be adjudged correct.
Any questions relating to the spelling of a word shall be referred to the judge immediately.
Any protest must be made to the judges promptly. No protest can be entertained after the contest has terminated.
The judges in the Spelling Bee are in complete control of the contest from the moment the first word is pronounced. Their decision shall be final on all questions.
Of course, any story about the National Spelling Bee wouldn’t be complete without mentioning:
Spellbound (2002/II)
Tagline: EVERYONE WANTS THE LAST WORD (more)
Plot Outline: Spellbound follows eight teenagers on their quest to win the 1999 National Spelling Bee. (more) (view trailer)
All the fanfair is a testimony of how opaque the English writing system can be. Not that it always has been, or that most spellings are chaotic, but just enough challenges to make it a national pass time.