River Forest, IL – Girl Loses National Spelling Bee, For Misspelling ‘Sheitel’

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    River Forest, IL – Twelve-year-old Rose Sloan of River Forest was excited she made it to the finals of the 81st annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee.

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    The eighth-grader at Roosevelt Middle School correctly spelled “miliary” (which means to have the appearance of millet seeds) to make it to the finals.

    But her dreams of a spelling bee championship were dashed Friday night when she misspelled “sheitel” (a wig worn by some Orthodox Jewish married women). She finished fourth.

    “I did a big report on Yiddish this summer, so it kind of bugs me that it was a Yiddish word,” Sloan said after the competition, which was televised from Washington.

    Still, she said, “I wasn’t even really expecting fourth, and that just really blew me away.”


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    20 Comments
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    avremele
    avremele
    15 years ago

    There probably is no “correct” way to spell a yiddish word in english. It’s all phonetics.

    ABIGEZUNT!! gezint???

    VOOS FARSHTAISTEE
    VOOS FARSHTAISTEE
    15 years ago

    it depends which wigs you’re talking about, the short covered ones you see in willi are spelled SHAYTEL. the long dangleing ones are spelled SHIETEL and so on.

    SHEITEL Wearer
    SHEITEL Wearer
    15 years ago

    I demand a re-match!

    not fair
    not fair
    15 years ago

    That is truly unfair, give her a ponytail fall as a gift.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    I never knew that sheitel or shaytel was an accepted word in an English spelling bee. I believe it is spelled sheitel, but my spell check likes “shaytel” better! (It comes up in red when I spell it “sheitel”)

    Freedom Fighter
    Freedom Fighter
    15 years ago

    I guess your spell checker is chassidish!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Even the shaitelmachers use different spellings for shaitel, sheitel, shaytel. Non-English words should not belong in an English spelling competition.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    I wonder how she would hjave done on Shterimel? Or is it Shtrymel or Shtraymel?

    buzz off!!
    buzz off!!
    15 years ago

    Its ‘nice’ to see a ‘yiddish’ word in the bee but it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to have correct spellings for trans-literated words.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Maybe the Judges would have accepted any of the

    possible spellings, just that the kid didn’t even come close! I wonder if her report was that Yiddish is a dying language and they gave her a yiddish word to spite her!

    inmyopinion
    inmyopinion
    15 years ago

    SHEITEL DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN ” A WIG”.

    IT HAS OTHER MEANINGS TOO. IT CAN ALSO MEAN ANY COVERING OR CONTAINER. E.G. THE CONTAINERS OF TEFILIN OR MEZUZOS.

    IT IS HOWEVER SHOCKING THAT SHE WOULD LOSE A SPELLING BEE OVER A NON-ENGLISH WORD. AMUSING.

    torontoboy
    torontoboy
    15 years ago

    please check it out like over 20 years ago a kid one the word purim

    what a laugh

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Sheitel

    Sheyetel

    Shaytel

    Shaytle

    Sheitle

    Not only should there be more than one way to phonetically spell a Yiddish word, but there are multiple Yiddish pronunciations. The middle vowel can be a long “A” SH AY TEL or a long “I” SH EYE TEL sound. How can they use such an ambiguously spelled word in a national spelling bee?

    A Willi Sheitel would be a long “I”

    A Flatbush Sheitel would be a long “A”

    How did the kid spell it?

    Well, maybe she spelled it W-I-G (smile)

    anonymous
    anonymous
    15 years ago

    Gee whiz. That’s like asking someone to spell Chanuka / Hannukah or Quaddaffi (lehavdil). there is no one right answer.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    She actually has no complaint, nor did she voice one. The word “sheitel” has made it into the English dictionary (Encarta, Merriam Webster…) as has “chutzpah,” “kvetch,” “golem,” “klutz,”meshuga,” “meshuggener,” and surely many others. The English language has words from Latin, German, French, etc., so why not Yiddish? If you’re in a spelling bee anything in the dictionary is fair game.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    The dictionary should have more than one correct spelling for the word -sheitel, shaitel, shaytel or whatever, and she should have protested. Who gave Webster the right how to spell this word anyway?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    This year there was also a word “cholent”

    Matzahlocal101
    Matzahlocal101
    15 years ago

    It is absolutely disgraceful that the poor girl should lose based on the phonetic spelling of a non-english word that has 5 pronounciations even among native Yiddish speakers. Who voted on the spelling? Litvaks? Chasidim? Poilisher? Ingrisher? All I can tell you is that this girl is going to grow up an anti-semite because she was so close to the finals and some farshtunker Jewish word that can be spelled 5 different ways sunk her. And how is a goy suppossed to know how to spell cholent? tchulunt? Hagis is an english word and most goyim (except scots) can’t spell it and don’t know what it is. The Goy will ask: How come in Channukah the Ch is prounced CH like you’re clearing your throat, and in cholent it’s pronounced TCH as in pitcha (galla) another word he doesn’t know. The Goyim put in these words that don’t belong in the English language, in order to screw up kids in spelling bees and make more anti-semites. It’s a conspiracy.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Not aure why you’re all wigging out

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    This reminds me, I need a new wig…