Re: First National Education Association spelling bee (29-6-1908)

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".

<https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03myqj2>



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Science isn't about WHY. It's about WHY NOT.
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