# Sprechen sie Ursprache?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprechen-sie-ursprache/359104>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [June 2, 2006, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprechen-sie-ursprache/359104 "2006-06-02T03:32:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprechen-sie-ursprache/359104/1 "2006-06-02T03:32:16Z")

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[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 Thursday](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060602/ap_on_re_us/spelling_bee_31)

Auf Deutsche: [Ursprache](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursprache)  
Was ist mit den Richtern falsch? Haben sie kein hartes, englische  
Wörter zu buchstabieren?

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**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprechen-sie-ursprache/359104/2 "2006-06-02T03:44:08Z")

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I think they ran out. I bet that it would be one of those odd but phonetic Hawaiian words that would trip the 2nd-place person up–but–

I gotta say, all these words that I had never heard of (and frankly I have heard of a lot of words), and the runner up breezes right through them, and then she starts off weltschmerz–a word that is actually used by English speakers–with a V? Those Canadians.

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**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprechen-sie-ursprache/359104/3 "2006-06-02T03:46:23Z")

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Has ursprache actually made it into English? If it’s still got the German pronounciation, then it’d be a piece of cake to spell, assuming the person giving the words can pronounce German correctly.

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**Author:** ![Mayo\_Speaks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mayo\_Speaks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mayo_Speaks)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2006, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sprechen-sie-ursprache/359104/4 "2006-06-02T05:36:53Z")

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On the subject of Spelling Bees, I recommend reading [this fantastic article](http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/vault) by Bill Simmons about watching the 2002 Spelling Bee. It’s a hoot. (I don’t know how long this link will be good for.)

And congrats to all the kids. Or as Tony Kornheiser calls them, Twitching Little Freaks!