The Problem with the National Spelling Bee--the Dictionary; The Words

This year's edition of the National Spelling Bee (formerly the National Senior Spelling Bee) will be held on June 14 in Cheyenne, WY. In past years I took a lot of time poring over the Webster's Collegiate (11th ed.) in preparation, but this year I didn't. I simply am accumulating words wherever I can find them, and the dictionaries I use most regularly are the Unabridged (Third International), the Century, and the OED. In fact, the more I use the dictionary on which we are being tested on June 14, the more I dislike it. The primary reasons I dislike it are two: (1) nearly 30 percent of the words can't be used for a variety of reasons; and (2) the word selection goes heavy on obscure chemical names and other abstrusia (my coinage), while ignoring literally thousands of good and solid classically-derived verbs, adjectives and nouns that actually are useful in writing and speech. This essay will illustrate my dissatisfaction by combing one page of the Collegiate, randomly selected, to make my point.

Studying in the "K's"

I tried to review the dictionary again this year, but found myself bored by the project. I did, however, get through a few pages of "k's" before I quit. I chose the "k's" because that is one area of the dictionary where there are lots of non-classically-derived words that often are quite difficult or tricky. Let's look at page 681, for example, of the 11th edition. There are 58 separate entries in the two columns. The first is "kaiser" and the last is "karst." Actually, the words such as "kaiserdom" and "kaiserism," listed under "kaiser," are fair game for the bee, though not listed separately. But, of the 58 words on p. 681, the following cannot be used (because they violate one or another of the rules:

"kaiser roll, kalamata, Kalashnikov, kalends, Kalmuck, Kama, Kamehameha Day, Kan, Kanak, Kanarese, kangaroo court, kangaroo rat, Kannada, Kaposi's sarcoma, kaput, karabiner, Karaism, karat, karaya gum, Karelian, Karen, karoo."

That is, 22/58 words can't be used. This amounts to just under 38% of the words. Maybe this page is extreme, but it was the one I just picked. Actually, if we look at only the "k's" from the preceding page (about 1/2 the page), we have 20 entries, and 14 of those words can't be used. That is more than 2/3 of the words. Wow. The main reasons for non-use in the spelling bee are that words are capitalized or double-words. Other words, such as karat or karoo can be spelled multiple ways (karroo or carat) and thus cannot be used. So, of what use is it to learn the words or even to think that what we are testing is knowledge from the 11th edition if, in fact, as many as 30% or more of the words are eliminated?

A Suggestion

I would suggest not only that we replace this dictionary with a larger one, one where there are many more words and more interesting words, but that we change the rules. My basic principle of rule-change is that we should have "knowledge-maximizing" rules. A knowledge-maximizing rule is one which would encourage people who compete to learn all they can, and not to limit their study to as few words as possible. To learn all you can means that you would be responsible for the capitalized words. It would also mean that if there are alternate spellings that both or all three spellings would be permitted. There would have to be some control on this, however. For example, in an essay I wrote in a bit of a pique, I showed how the word galleass has been spelled at least eight different ways in our history. We would only permit more than one spelling if the dictionary assigned for the competition has more than one spelling. But these simple changes would require us to learn far more words as well as possibly to learn about some of the realities to which the words point.

For example, I was looking at some OED words yesterday beginning with "gh." That beginning is, of course, foreign to us in the West, and most of the words so beginning are derived from Pashtun, Sanskrit, Turkish or other Eastern languages. I ran into the word "Gheg," which I hadn't previously heard. It can also be spelled "Geg." The "Gheg" are an ethnic Albanian people who have recently flooded the capital city of Tirana, live on the outskirts and are looked down on by the majority dwellers of that city (the Tosk). I don't know much about the Gheg, but I know a little more--a little that may enlarge my world and the world of those I meet. If, however, we used the Collegiate dictionary, we wouldn't even know that these people existed. If, however, the word happened to be there, it would not be usable because it was capitalized. Thus, by not connecting the spelling of words to learning about the world, the "test" becomes more of a test of limitation than expansion.

Well, you might respond, 'if you are wanting such a big list, you certainly ought to know all the words on the smaller list.' Maybe, but in order to get to the smaller list, you must, as it were, stop your ears to keep the broad knowledge of the world away from you. You must force yourself to "skip over" words that should claim your time and focus, if you are a person who is knowledge-based.

Since the bee in June is constrained by the rules I mention above, it and I are going in two different directions. I find that about 90 percent of my new "word-learning" energies are with words that don't appear in the Collegiate. But the Collegiate has just enough of the obscure ones that you rarely run into in your normal study (such as the monetary unit of Mauretania--the ouguiya), that I probably won't be completely "ready" for the test on the 14th. Thus, as I see it, the only way I will "win" this competition will be when I learn all the words, not simply from the Collegiate but from loads of other dictionaries and sources, and this larger list will include the Collegiate words. In a sense, then, I will be coming at the Collegiate by indirection. But it is the method that makes most sense for me as a learner.

Conclusion--Recognizing Reality

Well, if I was going to spend all this time on page 681, I might as well list the 36 words on this page that can be used in the Bee. After all, there is no sense missing them. They are:

"kaiser, kaiserin, kaka, kakapo, kakemono, kakiemon, kalazar, kalanchoe, kale, kaleidoscope, kallidin, kallikrein, kamaaina, kame, kamikaze (two separate entries), kampong, kana, kanamycin, kanban, kangaroo, kanji, kantele, kaolin, kaolinite, kaon, kapellmeister, kaph, kapok, kappa, karakul, karaoke, karate, karma, kaross, karst."

So, if I really wanted to win this thing, I guess I would simply go through all 1459 pages, make shorter lists of the eligible words, and then eliminate from the "eligible" list those words that are so simple that I already know them. That might lead to possibly 10-15 words per page that I need to know--about 15,000 words, which really isn't too bad a list to master in a year. But this is the talk of a calculator that really wants to win. Well, maybe I will do that next year....

Oh, by the way, the six words from page 680, beginning with "k," that can be used, are:

"ka, kaffeeklatsch, kafir, kahuna, kainite, kaironome."

See what I mean? Not very interesting words...

3528