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Spelling Bees – A Brief History

07/26/2020 by admin

Though this post was intended to be exclusive to my weekly Fun Facts About English, I feel that, given the events happening in the United States in 2020, this bit of history is quite apropos and a story worth sharing more widely. As Americans, we are being called upon to acknowledge our racist past, join together in solidarity, and move forward with greater efforts to ensure equality and fairness for all Americans — including those seeking asylum on our shores.

Kinney Brothers Publishing Spelling Bees A Brief History

I hate to admit that, even given multiple tries, I probably wouldn’t be able to spell the two dinosaur names above. I sit in awe of people who spell well. I also know I’m not alone when it comes to my spelling disabilities.

The English language has had spelling issues for a very, very long time. In centuries past, there have been compilers and reformers who tried to catalogue and standardize the English language. From Richard Mulcaster’s The first Part of the Elementarie in 1582, Samuel Johnson’s comprehensive and highly influential dictionary of 1755, and Noah Webster’s 19th century American dictionary, we are making strides toward standardization, but the myriad exceptions force us to rely on rote learning and memory to be a good speller.

Blue-backed Speller Kinney Brothers Publishing

First published in 1786, Webster’s spelling books, known colloquially as “The Blue-backed Speller,” were an essential part of the elementary school curriculum in the United States for five generations. These spelling primers were the impetus for the earliest spelling contests; an activity to motivate students to learn standardized spelling. The first such spelling matches were recorded in 1808. From about 1850, local events were referred to as “spelling bees.”

The word bee has been used to describe a get-together or communal work, such as a husking bee, a quilting bee, or an apple bee. The word likely comes from a dialectal been or bean, meaning “help given by neighbors” from the Middle English word bene.

Spelling bees were usually held in individual schools and towns and weren’t yet nationally organized. In 1908, the National Education Association (NEA) held the “first national spelling bee” in Cleveland, Ohio as part of its 46th annual convention. The NEA Spelling Bee was a team-based competition held at the Hippodrome Theater where six thousand people attended, including convention speaker, Booker T. Washington.

NEA Spelling Bee Kinney Brothers Publishing

Even before the competition, some members of the all-White Louisiana team took offense at having to compete on the same stage with Ohio’s racially-integrated teams. Nonetheless, Marie Bolden, a thirteen-year-old Black girl from Cleveland, was named champion and awarded the gold medal. Marie’s victory made national news because it upset the day’s stereotypes about what Black children could or should be allowed to accomplish. Back in New Orleans, the local Black YMCA organized a spelling bee in honor of Miss Bolden’s victory, but the mayor, embarrassed by the upset in Cleveland, withheld the permit and canceled the event due to tensions “over race questions.”

Seventeen years later, in 1925, the first annual United States National Spelling Bee was held in Louisville, Kentucky, and was sponsored by The Courier-Journal, a local Louisville newspaper. The winner was eleven-year-old Frank Neuhauser. In celebration of his victory, Master Neuhauser met President Calvin Coolidge, was awarded five hundred dollars in gold pieces, given a hometown parade, and a bicycle by his school in Louisville.

In 1941, the Scripps Howard News Service acquired sponsorship of the spelling contest, and the name changed to the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. This was later shortened to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Today, the organization is administered on a not-for-profit basis by The E.W. Scripps Company from its headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. The contest has been held every year except 1943-1945 due to World War II, and 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 1994, the competition has been regularly televised on the cable-television sports channel, ESPN.

Although most participants are from the U.S., students from countries such as The Bahamas, Canada, the People’s Republic of China, India, Ghana, Japan, Jamaica, Mexico, and New Zealand have competed in recent years.

Spelling matches have come a long way since the early 19th century. Today, we can view the competition from home and watch movies about the fierce competition and gargantuan effort these kids make to reach the grand stage. If you’re a teacher, student, or parent interested in organizing local spelling competitions, visit the Scripps National Spelling Bee website where you can download information booklets and read more about the awesome kids participating in this yearly event.

Fun Facts About English #65 – The History of Spelling Bees

07/26/2020 by admin

Fun Facts About English 65 Kinney Brothers Publishing

The English language has had spelling issues for a very, very long time. In centuries past, there have been compilers and reformers who tried to catalogue and standardize the English language. From Richard Mulcaster’s The first Part of the Elementarie in 1582, Samuel Johnson’s comprehensive and highly influential dictionary of 1755, and Noah Webster’s 19th-century American dictionary, we are making strides toward standardization, but the myriad exceptions force us to rely on rote learning and memory to be a good speller.

Even before the competition began, some members of the all-White Louisiana team took offense at having to compete on the same stage with Ohio’s racially-integrated teams. Nonetheless, Marie Bolden, a thirteen-year-old Black girl from Cleveland, was named champion and awarded the gold medal. Marie’s victory made national news because it upset the day’s stereotypes about what Black children could or should be allowed to accomplish. Back in New Orleans, the local Black YMCA organized a spelling bee in honor of Miss Bolden’s victory, but the mayor, embarrassed by the upset in Cleveland, withheld the permit and canceled the event due to tensions “over race questions.”

Seventeen years later, in 1925, the first annual United States National Spelling Bee was held in Louisville, Kentucky, and was sponsored by The Courier-Journal, a local Louisville newspaper. The winner was eleven-year-old Frank Neuhauser. In celebration of his victory, young Master Neuhauser met President Calvin Coolidge, was awarded five hundred dollars in gold pieces, given a hometown parade, and a bicycle by his school in Louisville.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also be interested in the legacy of the word dude, the history of crossword puzzles, or how Hello, a word used to incite hounds to the chase, became the formal greeting for the telephone!

See the previous or next Fun Facts About English.

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Fun Facts About English #55 – The History of Crossword Puzzles

05/29/2020 by admin

Fun Facts About English 55 Kinney Brothers Publishing

Puzzles and word play in various forms have been a source of mental exercise and pleasure for well over 2000 years. Contemporary crossword puzzles evolved from simple acrostics and word squares into a wildly popular pastime all around the globe.

An acrostic is a poem or other form of writing in which the first letter, syllable, or word of each line spells out a word, message, or alphabet. Acrostics are common in medieval literature and were popular during the Renaissance as well.

Hold onto your dream while mindful of time.
Optimism required, let your light shine.
Persistence prevails, while some may cast doubt.
Expectation desired is what it’s about.

From the Old Testament to Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, and Lewis Carroll, acrostics have been used to conceal messages, reveal prophecies, and target lover, friend, or foe with clever wordplays. Even as recently as 2017, upon resigning from the Trump administration’s Committee on Arts and Humanities, members sent a letter containing the acrostic “RESIST” formed from the first letter of each paragraph.

A word square is a special type of acrostic. It consists of a set of words written out in a square grid, such that the same words can be read both horizontally and vertically.

The Sator Square is the earliest datable 2D palindrome. It was found in the ruins of Pompeii, at Herculaneum, a city buried in volcanic ash in 79 AD. It consists of the Latin sentence, “Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas” (Arepo, the sower, carefully guides the wheels). It’s remarkable in that it can be read four different ways: horizontally or vertically from either top left to bottom right or bottom right to top left. The meaning of the acrostic is debated but it is believed by some scholars to mean, “God controls the universe.” Throughout the medieval period, the acrostic was commonly carved into amulets and worn to ward off disease and ill-fortune.

The first crosswords derived from acrostic word squares appeared in England during the 19th century. They were printed in children’s puzzle books and periodicals.

The first “Word-Cross” puzzle (see below) was published in the New York World on December 21, 1913. It was created by Arthur Wynne, a journalist from Liverpool, England. During the 1920s, the idea was picked up by other publishers and crossword puzzles became a permanent feature in many American newspapers.

The first appearance of a crossword in a British publication was in Pearson’s Magazine in February 1922. British puzzles developed their own style and quickly gained popularity.

Crossword puzzle types Kinney Brothers Publishing

The first crossword puzzle book was published by Simon & Schuster in 1924. Sold with an included pencil, the book was an instant hit and lead to crossword puzzles becoming the craze of 1924.

In the early days, not everyone was a fan of the new fad. One clergyman called the working of crossword puzzles “the mark of a childish mentality” and said, “There is no use for persons to pretend that working one of the puzzles carries any intellectual value with it.” Another clergyman, however, wrote a complete “Bible Cross-Word Puzzle Book.”

The New York Times, an early critic of the crossword craze, didn’t begin publishing puzzles until 1942. Their decision to finally start publishing them was spurred on by the idea that a puzzle feature would be a welcome distraction from the harsh news of World War II.

“I do The New York Times crossword puzzle every morning to keep the old grey matter ticking.” Carol Burnett

The world’s first crossword puzzle

Click here for the solution.

If you enjoyed this post, check out the history of counters such as, “A murder of crows.” You might also be interested in the history of acronyms like SCOTUS, or what the word dumbbells actually means!

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Fun Facts About English #50 – The History of Hello

03/15/2020 by admin

Fun Facts About English 50 Kinney Brothers Publishing

On July 18, 1877, Thomas Alva Edison shouted “Halloo!” into the mouthpiece of his newly invented strip phonograph, a word commonly used to incite hounds to the chase. It’s linguistic cousins, hilla, hillo, and halloa, served the same purpose for hailing someone or something from a distance. The British “hullo,” which also dates from the mid-19th century, was likewise not used as a greeting but as an expression of surprise, as in “Hullo, what have we here?”

As hard as it is to imagine, before the invention of the telephone in 1876, “hello” wasn’t a proper or even casual greeting whatsoever!

Although Alexander Graham Bell is credited with inventing the telephone, it was Thomas Edison’s company that equipped the device and supplied the first operating manuals across the United States. For its early subscribers, the telephone was nothing more than a permanently open line without even a “call bell” to request engagement. In a standoff between the two inventors, Mr. Bell insisted the nautical address “Ahoy” was the correct way a “caller” should get the attention of a person on the other end of the line. Mr. Edison preferred “Hello” be put in the instructions along with “That is all” for ending an exchange. Edison reasoned that “Hello” could be heard from a distance of 10-20 feet and was better than calling out “Are you there?” or the receiver simply asking, “What is it that you want?”

By the time of the National Convention of Telephone Companies in 1880, “Hello” had won out. Minutes from the meeting record the president as saying, “The shortest speech that I could make to you and that would express a great deal to you, probably would be the one that is on all your badges – Hello!”

If you enjoyed this bit of history, you may also enjoy the story of American spelling bees, the history of the word dude, or what the word paddywhack from This Old Man actually means!

Go to the previous or next Fun Facts About English.

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Welcome to the Kinney Brothers Publishing Blog site! We hope you find some interesting and helpful information you can bring to your ESL classes. If you are interested in contributing an educational post, please contact us at admin@kinneybrothers.com

Donald & Michael Kinney

The Future of English

05/08/2021 by admin

This writing marks the 100th post in my Fun Facts About English series on the Kinney Brothers Publishing website – a goal I set almost two years ago. I thought it worth sharing this personal milestone as one of my monthly posts.

Out of the world’s approximately 7.9 billion inhabitants, 1.35 billion speak English as a first or second language. Natively, English is spoken by about 360 million people with the vast majority being in the United States. In addition to being widely spoken, English is also the most commonly studied foreign language in the world. Today, for every native speaker of English there are five non-native speakers. In fact, the global spread of English, a language once considered useless outside the shores of Britain, is unprecedented in the history of languages. Who could have predicted that English, an amalgamation of European languages, would one day become the lingua franca of the world?

Modern, or Present-Day English (PDE), has many dialects spoken in countries collectively referred to as the “anglosphere.” These dialects include American English, Australian English, British English (containing English English, Welsh English, and Scottish English), Canadian English, Caribbean English, Hiberno-English, Indian English, Pakistani English, Nigerian English, New Zealand English, Philippine English, Singaporean English, and South African English.

Non-native speakers of English take the learning very seriously. Adults and children all over the world invest years of time and money studying English as a second language. English is the official language of maritime and aeronautical communications. English is the international language of science, business, and the hyper-connected web of global trade. In almost any international education environment, English is the central language. A 2013 Harvard University report found that English skills and better income go hand-in-hand and lead to a better quality of life, a fact not lost on citizens in developing nations.

We are increasingly moving toward a time when no one will be able to claim sole ownership of the English language. It will have become a common property of all, a Global English, albeit with many varieties. A World English will be the common factor that allows for mutual intelligibility among its localized varieties. Unlike most major languages in the world, English has no regulatory agency overseeing its use. Attempts have been made to create a standardized international English protocol, but no consensus on the path to this goal has been achieved. And yet, the language continues to spread.

As languages are prone to do, these Englishes are also continuously evolving. With so many varieties, the possibility exists that English will look different in the not-too-distant future. What’s in store for the English language is anybody’s best guess. Our crystal balls have shattered making it impossible to divine a clear message. Looking at the history of English, once a reliable way of making predictions, is not going to give us a blueprint for the future of a language unleashed to the rest of the world.

six official languages of the United Nations

With native speakers clearly in the minority, the course of the English language may well be dependent on the billion people speaking it as a second language. This influence is not just because of their number, but also because the majority of interactions in English occur between non-native speakers. As Modern English moves into its global lingua franca role, changes are inevitable and could happen out of the purview of its native speakers.

Pronunciation

When looking at how a language may change among differing populations, look no further than the pronunciations most often stumbled over or difficult to differentiate to provide clues as to how English may be adapted. The aspects of a language that promote intelligibility tend to spread while those that promote misunderstanding wither away.

There are linguists who believe that we aren’t finished yet with the Great Vowel Shift. Though some vowels may seem durable, e.g., “ship,” “bet,” “ox,” and “full” have been the same for centuries, other vowels are certainly going to shift and drift. The word “home” was once pronounced “heim” in Germanic, “hahm” in Old English, and “hawm” in Middle English. Someday, it may be “hoom.” Consider the regional pronunciations of the word “tour” in both England and North America.; variations include /toor/, /too-uh/, and /tew-r/. Americans and Britons alike increasingly make less distinction between the pronunciations of “pour,” “pore,” and “poor” or “Mary,” “marry,” and “merry.” These shifts in pronunciation, while subtle, can indicate the direction the language will change in the future.

There may also be changes ahead for consonants. Consider how often the “th” of “this” and “that” are dropped and replaced with either “s” and “z” or “t” and “d.” The soft “l” of “hotel” and “rail” are sounds that can be particularly difficult for second-language speakers to hear. Some clusters of consonants will simplify, surviving in the beginning of words, but vanish at the end of words; e.g., “best” may become “bess” and “accept” could change to “assep.”

Spelling and Grammar

The third person singular (such as “she runs” or “he writes”) is the only English verb form with an “s” at the end and is often dropped by non-native speakers. Simplifying verb phrases also occurs, saying “I look forward to see you tomorrow” instead of “I am looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.” In my own distinct Midwestern American dialect, we Iowans often drop the cumbersome “to be” in passive sentences, such as “the baby wants fed” instead of “the baby wants to be fed,” or “the cat wants let out” rather than “the cat wants to be let out.”

Mass and count nouns are another difficult aspect of the English language that non-native speakers might simplify, opting for “informations” and “furnitures” rather than be encumbered with object/noun agreement. While such “grammatical errors” have a negative ding in any native speaker’s ear, it’s more efficient for non-native speakers negotiating across their own cultural borders.

Technology, slang, and popular culture will continue to have enormous influence over language. Where changes may have occurred more slowly in the past, today they are happening at the lightning speed of satellite connections. Abbreviations and acronyms, once the provenance of military and business cultures, are now the language of tech-savvy youth who text, sext, and share with friends all over the world. Zoom meetings, Facebook groups, and other popular platforms are the virtual trading posts of language. Given one’s field of expertise, there is undoubtedly a long list of acronyms and industry-specific vocabulary that must be known to communicate among global colleagues.

Though the lack of oversight and the changes incurred by non-native speakers may seem off-putting to native speakers, this is English playing its role as a global lingua franca, helping speakers of other languages connect with each other. New dialects, slang, expanding lexicons, and linguistic variations will evolve. Some will stick and others will die out. Walter Raleigh’s expeditions in the early 1600s saw American English take root within a matter of days, with newly encountered Native terms such as ‘wigwam,’ ‘pecan,’ and ‘skunk’ becoming a permanent part of the American dialect. Likewise, it’s imperative that we nurture an adaptability and willingness to adopt new language that will most efficiently serve our communicative needs.