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BY JENNIFER MECKLES
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It’s a S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G --- Spelling Bee!
Always a fun and friendly competition, but this one made history as the United States’ first national spelling contest -- in Spanish!
That’s S-P-A-N-I-S-H.
“On Saturday 11 students made history... In this first ever national Hispanic Spelling Bee. It took place at the National Hispanic Culture Center. Students from Colorado, Texas, Oregon, and New Mexico took the stage.” (Video: KOMO)
Just like the English Spelling Bee, students advanced round-by-round as they correctly spelled words. And eventually, the contest was down to two --
Until Evelyn Juarez tackled this word:
EVELYN JUAREZ: “B-I-Z-A-N-T-I-N-I-S-M-O -- Bizantinismo.” (Video: KASA)
It means “Byzantinism,” as in excess luxury -- which she correctly spelled to become the first ever Spanish Bee winner.
New Mexico previously hosted state Spanish bees -- but media are praising the contest as a moment in history as the country’s first national competition. ESPN even promoted the event.
While acknowledging the gravity of this, the BBC also takes a different approach -- by explaining this bee might be easier than the English version:
“... Spanish orthography in general is simpler than English. In Spanish, every letter has a unique associated phoneme, so with very few exceptions, words are written exactly as they sound.”
Easy or not, Fox says children who grew up speaking Spanish will certainly make for the best competition moving forward:
“By the numbers, Latinos would seem to have a leg up in this challenge: According to the Pew Hispanic Center, 33 percent of Latino households speak English and Spanish equally, and 17 percent are majority Spanish-language.”
Spelling Bee Director David Briseño told KASA news the program is growing. He already expects to see Minnesotan competitors, and hopes to see children from New York and Florida too.
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