I would never make light of another person's spelling-related difficulties, but this is pretty amusing:
"Sardoodledom."
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Sardoodledum
31 Mar 2008 12:12 pm
Comments (13)
Did you misspell it in the post title on purpose?
Man, that's a day-brightener! For the record, his name is Kennyi Aouad, 11 years old, from Terre Haute, Indiana, and this occurred at the 2007 Scripps Spelling Bee in D.C.
The way he cracked up is charming, but the questions he asked--even more than his correct spelling of the word--demonstrate a really keen intelligence. This kid's going places.
Swift, I think the questions he asked (except for the disallowed "Is it kind of like 'kingdom'?") are the standard questions spelling bee participants are permitted to ask, not anything original to him.
I'd SO be going, "You made that word up just now, right?"
KCinDC, I think you're right, but they do make it clear that he knows the rules and deploys them sensibly. I've never heard of the word before (and I read a lot, even if little of it has anything to do with literary reviews or criticism), and I only had any notion of how to spell the word from hearing it used in a sentence (which, as the kid sensibly if possibly transgressively pointed out, showed its similarity to 'kingdom').
I doubt there's anything unusual in a spelling bee participant at that level knowing the rules and using them to play for time and information. But that would just suggest that all of these elite spelling bee participants are smart, dedicated competitors. Certainly he kept his wits and got the answer correct, which was no mean feat.
The fact that we actually have spelling bees is an indication that the English language is designed somewhat sub-optimally.
Most languages, as far as I know, are fairly phonetic- English is pretty bad for its lack of correspondence between spelling and pronounciation. I'm not sure of another language that comes close. Tamil, perhaps, in certain respects, and French, and posisbly Tibetan.
Smart kid, though.
That was great. What a cute reaction.
Totally made my day! What a cute kid. Loved his reactions.
He took a good chance that the word was spelled almost exactly as it is pronounced. That's a good tactic in many cases.
From Merriam-Webster:
blend of Victorien Sardou (died 1908 French playwright criticized by G. B. Shaw died 1950 English playwright for the supposed staginess of his plays and English doodle) + -dom
Now had he known if was connected to Sardou, he probably would have blown it by spelling it "sardouduldom" or something. By not knowing the origin, he actually had a better chance of getting it right.
Um. . .you misspelled the word in the title of this post (and the page) on purpose, right?
Right?
Comments closed April 14, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
The next time you, say, use the word "sepulcher" when you mean the word "spectacular", I'll remember this.
Posted by Freddie | March 31, 2008 12:17 PM