The Challenge of Spelling in English
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Eran Williams The Challenge of Spelling in English he American spelling bee does sional or genteel, is a genuine Ameri- not sting, though it makes can folk tradition. The popularity Tmany children cry, does not of bees has waxed and waned, but produce honey, though it holds other the spelling contest has remained a sweet rewards, and does not swarm, feature of American life—perhaps to though millions of Americans crowd the regret of generations of school- around it every year like worker bees children—since the Puritans landed around their queen bee. This bee is on Plymouth Rock.” Maguire offers not an insect at all; it is a contest of examples of spelling lore from nearly orthography. The contest is simple: a every decade in American history, word is spoken and the contestant has including a fictional poem about a to spell it. The contest is hard: the spelling bee held in a gold mining word is from the English language. camp that ends with only one com- Spelling bees (or competitions, petitor left alive to tell about it. matches, championships, and other These days local newspapers spon- terms for head-to-head contests sor spelling bees in every corner of between individual spellers) have been the United States and beyond. If you a part of American culture for hun- live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the dreds of years. Audiences have gath- Intelligencer Journal invites you to its ered to watch spellers under the open spelling bee. If you win the spelling air at state fairs, in one-room school bee in Denver, the Rocky Mountain houses, hotels, places of worship, and News will sponsor your subsequent wherever Americans gather. Primarily competitions. In Miami, the Miami the participants have been children Herald newspaper hosts an annual studying spelling at school, especially spelling bee. The winners of these elementary and middle school. In his local contests then move on to the book American Bee, James Maguire state competition, and state winners (2006, 54) writes: “The spelling bee, go to the national finals in Washing- whether fierce or flirtatious, congres- ton, DC, held every May. Around 2 2008 N UMBER 3 | E NGLISH T EACHING F ORUM 250 kids have participated in the finals in The most active part of the contest is often recent years, and by one count, nearly 10,000 when the speller repeats the word in question participate in the local spelling bees every to make sure she or he has heard it correctly. year. The maximum amount of time the speller can To take part in the Scripps National Spell- spend at the microphone is a minute and a ing Bee, participants must be younger than half; during that time the contestant is mostly 14, in eighth grade or lower, and have won silent, using a personal method of recall to a local spelling bee representing a school that summon up what is almost always, at the final is registered with Scripps. Spellers need not stages, an educated guess. Everyone seems to be U.S. citizens and need not be from public have his or her own spelling gesture. Many schools. In fact, the educational background spellers write with their fingers on the backs of participants shows America’s educational of the numbered placards they wear for iden- diversity. On its website (see Appendix 1), the tification. Some close their eyes and squeeze Scripps National Spelling Bee lists the schools their lips as though waiting for an unwanted of the 2007 finalists: “192 were public- kiss. One winner had the habit of turning her schooled, 38 were private-schooled, 36 were head to the left and blowing into her hands home-schooled, 18 were parochial-schooled, before pronouncing each letter. Why is all of five were charter-schooled, and one was vir- this so gripping? tual-schooled.” Roughly equal numbers of The unexpected excitement around kids boys and girls made it to the finals. spelling is in itself somehow fascinating. What The popularity of the spelling bee has other academic competition for middle-school never been greater in the United States than kids can claim to have inspired a hit Broad- in recent years. In 2006, for the first time ever, way musical, an Academy Award nominated the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee documentary, a “best of” series on DVD, and were broadcast live during primetime viewing two major Hollywood films (one based on a hours on one of the three largest television bestselling novel), staring the likes of Richard networks in the United States. In 2007 nine Gere and Laurence Fishburne? All of this for million viewers watched the spelling finals on a phenomena that is not new and that seems network television. The semifinals leading up particularly out of touch with cutting edge to the finals are broadcast on ESPN, a televi- trends, technological or other. There is no sion sports network—this in spite of the fact musical sound track. During the televised that the spelling bee includes no running, no spelling bee, a bell is used to indicate the jumping, and no hitting of baseballs. It is very misspelling of a word, a simple little clapper unsport-like. bell rung with the index finger. There is no The action of the event entails a short walk red digital clock counting off the seconds, to a microphone by a speller, the uttering of a no computer to pronounce lexical items. The word by the official pronouncer, and the sub- most flashy part of the spelling bee is the yel- sequent spelling or (more likely) misspelling low number placards the spellers wear. The of that word. The rules listed on the official most modern gadget is the dictionary. website demand “an effort to face the judges Of course, the wonder felt at the spelling and pronounce the word for the judges before bee is not just for the contestants but for the spelling it and after spelling it. The speller while English language itself. The words these kids facing the judges makes an effort to utter each spell are goliaths. They are multi-syllabic letter distinctly and with sufficient volume to monsters of unknown meaning and origin— be understood by the judges. The speller may at least until the etymology is requested—and ask the pronouncer to say the word again, very few of the words in the spelling finals define it, use it in a sentence, provide the part have ever been uttered by anyone watch- of speech, provide the language(s) of origin, ing. And there seems to be no end to the and/or provide an alternate pronunciation or bizarre words the English language houses. pronunciations. The speller may also ask root You can almost hear the audience gasp as each word questions…” In short, the action that new word is pronounced. Champion spellers captivates us is a boy or girl uttering a series of dedicate their days to familiarizing themselves letters that hopefully is a word. with the dictionary but still know they will E NGLISH T EACHING F ORUM | N UMBER 3 2008 3 likely be asked to spell words they have never words appear to the young heroine as flowers met before. To these they will apply all the blooming around her or as letters flashing rules and historical linguistics they know; in the auditorium. At one point in the film, still they will often have to make, at best, an the excited father (played by Richard Gere), educated guess. The drama that drives the explains to his family how “words hold all the spelling bee phenomenon is the drama of an secrets of the universe.” Taking an apple from individual standing alone against the English his kitchen table, he tells how the word apple language. It is the ultimate opportunity for (then aepli) was carried by the Vikings to Eng- catharsis—for what user of English has not land and how the pronunciation shifted from fallen? Who among us has not misspelled? the Old English (apfel) to the Middle English And who among us could spell the kinds (appel) to what we use today. “Its spelling of words that litter the steep slope of the final contains all of that. It holds its history inside competition? In the list of the winning words it,” he says. since 1925 (on the Scripps website), there are These films are interesting not only in those that seem friendly. Monosyllabic com- their focus on what could be considered a moners such as knack (1932) and luge (1984) rather dull topic for a movie but also because might arise naturally in a conversation on the of how they interpret the feat of spelling; street. The sixties and seventies, with words whether community, spirituality, or genius, it like chihuahua, abalone, and croissant are invit- takes more than the average human mind to ing, but of late the vocabulary seems to have spell in English, they suggest. taken a turn for the longer and more obscure. It is easy to be swept up in the obvious Try using in a sentence any of the winning triumph of those who spell. They are cham- words from this century: demarche, succeda- pions. But isn’t their field of honor a bit odd? neum, prospicience, pococurante, autochthonous, What have spelling champions done? They appoggiatura, Ursprache, and serrefine. For that have used the language correctly. Are we in matter, try finding these words in your home such awe of good spelling that we cannot dictionary. If words had usage meters, these attribute it to the human mind alone? would surely register in the single digits.