Überbee

CNN reports:

A 13-year-old New Jersey girl making her fifth straight appearance at the Scripps National Spelling Bee rattled off “ursprache” to claim the title of America’s best speller on prime-time television Thursday night.

Katherine Close ‘recognized the word as soon as she heard it’:

“I’m just in shock,” Katharine said. Asked what she’ll remember most, she said: “Probably just hearing ‘ursprache,’ which is a parent language.”

I wonder how they pronounced it. The runner-up was probably named to be a speller:

Runner-up was Finola Mei Hwa Hackett, a 14-year-old Canadian, a confident speller during two days of competition who stumbled on “weltschmerz,” which means sadness over the evils of the world.

I believe spelling bees are creeping into Britain. Here is a Guardian (sic) spelling quiz.

(Via Wordlab – thanks to Abnu)

6 thoughts on “Überbee

  1. >>I believe spelling bees are creeping into Britain. Here is a Guardian (sic) spelling quiz.

    They are indeed Margaret
    There has been a regular series hosted (on BC I think) by Carole Vordermann (who, of course, pronounces her name as “Forderman” ….)
    Good to see this attempt getting kids to learn important stuff
    Paul

  2. Die Aussprache war recht deutsch. Dasselbe traf auch auf die Worte Austausch, Heiligenschein und Weltschmerz zu. Weltschmerz wurde so deutsch ausgesprochen, dass die Kandidatin mit dem Buchstaben V begann.

    Der Schwierigkeitsgrad stieg, je mehr Kandidaten ausfielen. Mit steigendem Schwierigkeitsgrad stieg auch die Anzahl deutscher Begriffe im Verhaeltnis zu denen aus anderen Sprachen. Normale englische Begriffe gab es dann kaum noch. Aber was ist schon normal?

    Der diesjaehrige Wettbewerb wurde live in Prime Time ausgestrahlt. Er war spannend.

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