national spelling bee

Fabiola · Post by **Fabiola** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 10:31 pm

http://www.spellingbee.com/

Anyone else watch it? It was a really good competition this year!

The word "Koine" was one of the last 30 or so words spelled, and one of the very few of those later words that I actually knew!

Kopio · Post by **Kopio** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 2:27 am

Yeah....I watched it (I'm an ESPN Junkee), and I was suprised how many words I could spell. Of course, anything with Greek Etymology wasn't too tough. They had some theological words that I was familiar with too. I am starting to see how learning Latin will help too.....it's really useful for spelling. Of course the German I know (which is very little from very long ago) came in handy on the last word

Eureka · Post by **Eureka** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 12:10 pm

I have to say, ESPN really scrapes the bottom of the barrel.

Spelling bees, maths competitions, fishing, darts, poker, basketball...

GlottalGreekGeek · Post by **GlottalGreekGeek** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 5:51 pm

I didn't watch it, but someone in my European History class was all excited about it afterwards and asked everybody if they had watched the spelling bee and kept on proclaiming that it was hella good television. One classmate replied by saying something to the effect that his own geekiness has been shamed by failing to conjure up so much enthusiasm over a spelling bee.

Mofmog · Post by **Mofmog** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 7:55 pm

No because spelling bees are tragic(-comic) testaments to the massive heap of confusion that is English spelling.

Ciraric · Post by **Ciraric** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 9:41 am

What was the last word?

Michaelyus · Post by **Michaelyus** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 1:23 pm

We have nothing like a National Spelling Bee over here in England, though there were some televised programs (Hard Spell - BBC).

I was wondering, does the American National Spelling Bee have a single dictionary source and correct pronunciation - here the OED provides both.