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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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WASHINGTON, May 29 — Sai Gunturi, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Dallas, walked away with a check for $12,000 and the title of America’s best speller Thursday after he confidently spelled “pococurante” in the final round of the National Spelling Bee.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 315
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 315 |
poco curante (from poco = little, not much, and curare, here = to care)
he who doesn't care much
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
If the word reader (or whatever they call it) pronounced it right, how could the speller miss?
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
How do you say it in English?
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
I saw it on TV, and would like to note that he is originally from India--not the first child from there who has had to learn English and then gone on to take spelling awards.
The proctor pronounced it poh-koh-cure-ON-tay, as I recall. I'd never heard or seen the word before.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
I'm with Faldage on this one. If it's pronounced exactly as it's spelled, seems like a no-brainer to me. And Jackie, surely the child learned English in India before moving here?
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 66
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 66 |
I was watching with my children and many of the words were much harder than the one that Sai won on. It was just the luck of the draw. He had obviously seen the word before because as soon as they said it he got a huge smile on his face and went right into the spelling.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526 |
I have the impression that English is the, er, Linga Franca of the educated classes in India. Surely the kid learned English over there before coming here.
Are we really sure he's from over there, though? Maybe he was born and/or raised in our own back yard, big though it is.
I reckon he would have had to spell a word that someone else missed. He might have just used intuition to get it. OTOH, intuition about how words might be spelled is not a bad thing and may be a skill in its own right. He might have tried P-O-C-C-O ... but he didn't. Also standing up there with the pressure on - this was his final year to do it - makes it all the easier to slip up.
Browsing spellingbee.com, I note he attended a Catholic school instead of being homeschooled. (Thirty-one of the 251 spellers were categorized as homeschooled.)
The second place winner was homeschooled. Of top 6, 2 were homeschooled.
From their web page, his winning words were:
1 sanguine sanguine
2 (written round) (advanced to round three)
3 insalubrious insalubrious
4 Veracruzano Veracruzano
5 marmoraceous marmoraceous
6 mistassini mistassini
7 solfeggio solfeggio
8 piezochemistry piezochemistry
9 voussoir voussoir
10 halogeton halogeton
11 dipnoous dipnoous
12 gadarene gadorene
13 peirastic peirastic
14 rhathymia rhathymia
15 pococurante pococurante
Not all were difficult, but most I think are not too obvious.
I also just noticed that the first winner ever was Frank Neuhauser of Louisville,KY in 1925. The second winner was Pauline Bell also of Louisville, in 1926. Further along was Waneeta Beckley of Louisville in 1937.
Some other cities with multiple champions: Denver, El Paso, Knoxville.
I'm kinda wondering if this thing started in KY or somewhere thereabouts.
(Just check their site and, yes, it was started by the Louisville Courier-Journal.)
k
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
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Surely the kid learned English over there before coming here.
See, Dub Dub'? You're not the onliest liver to get chopped. (An I ain' buying no oh-I-read-upside-down excuses. It were the post he were responding to.)
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526 |
excuses
Of course I read both posts before responding this time. It's not like I claimed it was an original thought. Jeez.
k
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