Path: ...!3.eu.feeder.erje.net!feeder.erje.net!news2.arglkargh.de!news.karotte.org!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Adam Funk Newsgroups: sci.lang Subject: Re: First National Education Association spelling bee (29-6-1908) Date: Tue, 02 Jul 2024 16:48:48 +0100 Organization: $CABAL Lines: 40 Message-ID: <04kdlkxau3.ln2@news.ducksburg.com> References: X-Trace: individual.net w3LjzdmBeZ1PXSWIZH8d3grXdrvYwcqXGsmMgqkW/DcBO1CcZg X-Orig-Path: news.ducksburg.com!not-for-mail Cancel-Lock: sha1:jmyezmDgUYixU+3zp0mWDl1xi48= sha1:mGQ6HLw85cdNrr81W+NqlxnCK0E= sha256:gfHD9pSOvDypd1rAdwnpswx2+pLr8iWnWAn9HQmJTPs= User-Agent: slrn/pre1.0.4-6 (Linux) Bytes: 2480 On 2024-07-02, Ross Clark wrote: > The Spelling Bee -- unique to the English-speaking world*, a ritual > celebration of the intransigent irrationality of English orthography. > Noah Webster made his fortune with a "speller". He actually introduced > some very sensible reforms, a few of which have survived in USEng. > > *Crystal says the Dutch have spelling bees. Is this true? > > The present series of "Nationals" began in 1925. I really enjoyed the > documentary "Spellbound", about the 1999 competition, profiling a > selection of the contestants from quite varied backgrounds. Fell in love > with Nupur Lala, who was the winner; 25 years later she's doing fine, > thankfully not as a professional speller. > > https://www.instagram.com/scrippsnationalspellingbee/p/C3ArBC0MutN/ > > But even then there were some contestants being turned into little > spell-bots by their ambitious parents. Stuffed with words like foie gras > geese. This year I heard a short clip in which one of them spelled a > whole lot of words I didn't know at incredible speed. That's > pathological. But then, Americans take a similar approach to eating. > > Further linguistic point: There used to be other kinds of "bees" -- > sociable community gatherings to do some kind of work (quilting, > husking...). OED from 1769, etymology obscure. Interesting. I have vaguely heard of "quilting bee" but I didn't know it was older than "spelling bee". There is currently a British TV show called "The Great British Sewing Bee". -- Science isn't about WHY. It's about WHY NOT. (Cave Johnson)