AndreaGail
1st June 2013, 10:56 AM
Some say spelling of winning word in national bee isn't kosher
Posted: 06/01/2013 12:01:00 AM MDT
Updated: 06/01/2013 01:12:59 AM MDT
By Joseph Berger
The New York Times
NEW YORK — The national spelling bee spelled it wrong.
Or so say mavens of Yiddish about the winning word, knaidel, in the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night. Knaidel is the matzo ball or dumpling that Jewish cooks put in chicken soup.
But somebody might have farblondjet, or gone astray, the Yiddish experts say.
The preferred spelling has historically been kneydl, according to transliterated Yiddish orthography decided upon by linguists at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the Manhattan-based organization recognized by many Yiddish speakers as the authority on all things Yiddish.
The spelling contest, however, relies not on YIVO linguists but on Webster's Third New International Dictionary, and that is what contestants cram with, said a bee spokesman, Chris Kemper. Officials at Merriam-Webster, the dictionary's publisher, defended their choice of spelling as the most common variant of the word from a language that, problematically, is written in the Hebrew, not Roman, alphabet.
"Bubbes in Boca Raton are using the word knaidel when they mail in their recipes to the St. Petersburg Times," said Kory Stamper, an associate editor at Merriam-Webster in Springfield, Mass. The dictionary itself says the English word is based on the Yiddish word for dumpling: "kneydel, from Middle High German knödel."
If nothing else, the dispute is a window into the cultural stews that languages like Yiddish, not to mention English, become as people migrate and assimilate.
The word was spelled on Thursday — correctly, according to contest officials — by Arvind Mahankali, 13, an eighth-grader from Queens, who is a son of immigrants from southern India and New York City's first national champion since 1997. He has never eaten an actual knaidel.
Arvind is no rebellious word-changer. Starting in the fourth grade, he began memorizing words his father collected from the dictionary and, when he started winning spelling bees, browsing the dictionary himself for uncommon words. Arvind has always had a knack for languages, and in addition to English speaks Telugu, a southern Indi tongue, Spanish and some Hindi. This year was his fourth trip to the national contest.
Although he has never tasted a knaidel, he will soon. He said his seventh-grade science teacher, Carol Lipton, had promised to bring one to school Monday.
http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_23365909/some-say-spelling-winning-word-national-bee-isnt
Posted: 06/01/2013 12:01:00 AM MDT
Updated: 06/01/2013 01:12:59 AM MDT
By Joseph Berger
The New York Times
NEW YORK — The national spelling bee spelled it wrong.
Or so say mavens of Yiddish about the winning word, knaidel, in the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday night. Knaidel is the matzo ball or dumpling that Jewish cooks put in chicken soup.
But somebody might have farblondjet, or gone astray, the Yiddish experts say.
The preferred spelling has historically been kneydl, according to transliterated Yiddish orthography decided upon by linguists at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the Manhattan-based organization recognized by many Yiddish speakers as the authority on all things Yiddish.
The spelling contest, however, relies not on YIVO linguists but on Webster's Third New International Dictionary, and that is what contestants cram with, said a bee spokesman, Chris Kemper. Officials at Merriam-Webster, the dictionary's publisher, defended their choice of spelling as the most common variant of the word from a language that, problematically, is written in the Hebrew, not Roman, alphabet.
"Bubbes in Boca Raton are using the word knaidel when they mail in their recipes to the St. Petersburg Times," said Kory Stamper, an associate editor at Merriam-Webster in Springfield, Mass. The dictionary itself says the English word is based on the Yiddish word for dumpling: "kneydel, from Middle High German knödel."
If nothing else, the dispute is a window into the cultural stews that languages like Yiddish, not to mention English, become as people migrate and assimilate.
The word was spelled on Thursday — correctly, according to contest officials — by Arvind Mahankali, 13, an eighth-grader from Queens, who is a son of immigrants from southern India and New York City's first national champion since 1997. He has never eaten an actual knaidel.
Arvind is no rebellious word-changer. Starting in the fourth grade, he began memorizing words his father collected from the dictionary and, when he started winning spelling bees, browsing the dictionary himself for uncommon words. Arvind has always had a knack for languages, and in addition to English speaks Telugu, a southern Indi tongue, Spanish and some Hindi. This year was his fourth trip to the national contest.
Although he has never tasted a knaidel, he will soon. He said his seventh-grade science teacher, Carol Lipton, had promised to bring one to school Monday.
http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_23365909/some-say-spelling-winning-word-national-bee-isnt