# Can you spell "ursprache?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 2, 2006, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spell-ursprache/359138 "2006-06-02T13:05:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spell-ursprache/359138/21 "2006-06-02T18:03:41Z")
> [@KlondikeGeoff](#): > > Gee, I kinda’ knew that. Nevertheless, even if a dictionary were available on his monitor, in the few seconds between the time the word is chosen and the contestant gets to the mike, he would have to read the pronunciation, get those weird words around his tongue, and be able to do it perfectly every time. That’s quite a trick. > > I think there may be more to it. I hoped you did, but didn’t want to assume anything. 🙂 I doubt that the words were chosen at random as the contest was unfolding – they were probably pre-determined (super top secret), and the pronouncer had an opportunity to review the words beforehand, in the hours between rounds. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spell-ursprache/359138/22 "2006-06-02T20:18:24Z")
> [@KlondikeGeoff](#): > > Gee, I kinda’ knew that. Nevertheless, even if a dictionary were available on his monitor, in the few seconds between the time the word is chosen and the contestant gets to the mike, he would have to read the pronunciation, get those weird words around his tongue, and be able to do it perfectly every time. That’s quite a trick. > > I think there may be more to it. > [@](#): > > Dr. Jacques A. Bailly, pronouncer, is the 1980 national champion representing the Rocky Mountain News. He is an associate professor of classics at the University of Vermont. This is his fourth year as pronouncer after having served 12 years as associate pronouncer. > … > Dr. Brian Mark Sietsema, associate pronouncer, is an ordained priest of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and is currently serving a parish in Lansing, Michigan. He received a doctorate in linguistics in 1989, and he was the pronunciation editor for Merriam-Webster from 1990 to 1998. This is Dr. Sietsema’s fourth year as associate pronouncer. That would seem to answer this question. Practice. After 16 years as a pronouncer he’s probably developed quite an ear for it as well as an eye for phonetic spellings. The associate pronouncer is no slouch either. 8 years as pronunciation editor for M-W? He probably knows phonetics forwards and backwards. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![rivulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rivulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rivulus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spell-ursprache/359138/23 "2006-06-02T21:07:40Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Oddly, I got all the German words – ursprache, weltschmertz, heilegeschein, wehrmacht – even though I speak not a word of German. See, I don’t find that odd or surprising. German spelling is quite regular – once you learn a few rules you can spell an awful lot of German words. Italian is pretty regular too. French, less so (IMHO), but still deducible. Actually, if I were to suggest the “moral” of this bee, it would be: learn your spelling rules for foreign languages commonly borrowed in English! These kids have fabulous memories, so I can’t imagine it would be difficult to cram a few of these rules into their brilliant young brains. All evening I was yelling at the TV when those German words and Italian musical terms came up! How many got eliminated in the final rounds because of these particular words? And they seem so easy in comparison to some of those words with mixed Greek and Latin roots plus English endings. Yikes! p.s. wasn’t it Heiligenschein? ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spell-ursprache/359138/24 "2006-06-02T21:15:03Z")
> [@rivulus](#): > > p.s. wasn’t it Heiligenschein? Yes…as I said, I lucked out last night, and tried to repeat it from memory today. Click [Round 11](http://www.spellingbee.com/results.asp) . ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spell-ursprache/359138/25 "2006-06-02T21:24:29Z")
While browsing the official Bee site, linked above, I noticed that one of the words in Round 1 was “cholinesterase”. This jumped out at me because…IIRC, there was a series of bee-related strips in Peanuts (oh, 40 years ago). Charlie Brown is entering his class spelling bee, and is feeling confident, until Lucy asks him to spell “cholinesterase”. Is there an online (or does some have a hardcopy) Peanuts archive that can confirm this? (The series ends when CB’s first word is “maze”, and he spells it “Mays”. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spell-ursprache/359138/26 "2006-06-02T22:20:36Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > While browsing the official Bee site, linked above, I noticed that one of the words in Round 1 was “cholinesterase”. > > This jumped out at me because…IIRC, there was a series of bee-related strips in Peanuts (oh, 40 years ago). Charlie Brown is entering his class spelling bee, and is feeling confident, until Lucy asks him to spell “cholinesterase”. > > Is there an online (or does some have a hardcopy) Peanuts archive that can confirm this? > > (The series ends when CB’s first word is “maze”, and he spells it “Mays”. This is slightly OT but that series of strips in Peanuts was later expanded into the plot for **A Boy Named Charlie Brown** –perhaps the first full-length movie about spelling bees. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spell-ursprache/359138/27 "2006-06-02T23:33:09Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > This is slightly OT but that series of strips in Peanuts was later expanded into the plot for **A Boy Named Charlie Brown** –perhaps the first full-length movie about spelling bees. In the film, Charlie Brown lost after misspelling (of all words!) “beagle.” ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2006, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spell-ursprache/359138/28 "2006-06-03T00:07:06Z")
> [@Mtgman](#): > > Those Hawaiian words are the ones which get me. I know Hawaiian words have no two consonants together, but the vowels, oy the vowels! I do better with Hebrew and Sanskrit than Hawaiian. See, because I go to Hawaii rather regularly, I was shocked that Hawaiian words were included at all at that level. 7 consonants and 5 vowels - that’s it. And they were ridiculously common words. Kama’aina? C’mon! At least give them humuhumunukunukuapua’a! ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2006, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spell-ursprache/359138/29 "2006-06-03T10:59:24Z")
> [@KlondikeGeoff](#): > > He could not possibly be able to practice the hundreds of words used through the entire contest. He a genius, or is there some trick to it? I believe he won the competition some years ago. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2006, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spell-ursprache/359138/30 "2006-06-03T17:40:51Z")
Spellcheck is the world’s greatest invention - shamefully, as an ex-ESL teacher, I am horrible at spelling. I am good at picking out words that are not spelled correctly, but haven’t a clue how to fix it…(“Hmm, is it “er” or “ar” or “or” at the end of that word?”) I can even look a word up in the dictionary for the correct spelling, close the book and have forgotten how to spell it before I fixed it and then have to look up the word again! However, as I do speak German, I think this was the first year I was able to spell a few words in the final round. One joy of the German language is that if you learn just a few simple rules, it is almost impossible to spell a German word incorrectly! ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2006, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spell-ursprache/359138/31 "2006-06-03T18:30:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Spellcheck is the world’s greatest invention - shamefully, as an ex-ESL teacher, I am horrible at spelling. I am good at picking out words that are not spelled correctly, but haven’t a clue how to fix it…(“Hmm, is it “er” or “ar” or “or” at the end of that word?”) I can even look a word up in the dictionary for the correct spelling, close the book and have forgotten how to spell it before I fixed it and then have to look up the word again! Hey, I’m wit’ch youse, love spellcheckers. I’m also ashamed that as a writer and editor for many years, am affected the same way: I can pick out the misspellings, but am an atrocious speller. When I first got computers, was shocked at how many words had been misspelling for years. > [@](#): > > However, as I do speak German, I think this was the first year I was able to spell a few words in the final round. One joy of the German language is that if you learn just a few simple rules, it is almost impossible to spell a German word incorrectly! Again, me too! (or is that, "mee to?). 😃 Compared to French, or especially English, German is so easy if you don’t let the compound words throw you. Those kids are something else. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2006, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spell-ursprache/359138/32 "2006-06-03T18:40:13Z")
That’s why I daily bless the fact that I received a classical education. Learn Latin and Greek as a child and you’ll never have trouble with spelling as long as you live. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spell-ursprache/359138.md?page=1)