WE ARE THE (Co)CHAMPIONS!

[SportsFan68]

First, credit where credit is due: THANK YOU TANSTAAFL'S OENOPHILIC SORRYASSBASTARDS!

Without you, I never would have spelled oenophile correctly, and we might not have made it into the final round!

Here are the words we spelled correctly: embarrass, williwaw, flibbertigibbet, commix, and oenophile. Here are the words we would have spelled wrong if we had gotten them: murre, bialy, ecesis, gardyloo, lacustrine.

Here are the final round words and the reason we are co-champions. The venue threw us out at 7:30, so we ended the last round with only three words spelled wrong by both teams, no winner: gegenschein, tzigane, smaragd.

One of the sponsors bought a round of Fireball shots for all the spellers when there were about eight remaining teams. Wow! Good thing he only bought us one. So I took mine up to the microphone to spell oenophile; the audience loved it.

[littlebeast13]

What, no sciurine!?!?

lb13

[SportsFan68]

What, no sciurine!?!?

lb13

No. Ewwwwww.

It's sorta miraculous when they come up with a word like that -- a word I know through my connection with something totally unrelated to anything else in my life. Who knew that the BBBL would help me help my team in a Charity Spelling Bee?

[andrewjackson]

Congratulations!

Bialy is an interesting one. How did they pronounce it? bee-ah-lee? I guess that is the standard English pronunciation. I learned it first in Polish as biały, bee-ow-ee, since it has that funny ł in there.

[ghostjmf]

In Yiddish the "l" is pronounced. I will have to look up what language the word originally comes from.

[andrewjackson]

In Yiddish the "l" is pronounced. I will have to look up what language the word originally comes from.

The biały roll gets its name from Białystok in eastern Poland. Biały means "white" in Polish and has similar cognates in other Slavic languages.

[SportsFan68]

Congratulations!

Bialy is an interesting one. How did they pronounce it? bee-ah-lee? I guess that is the standard English pronunciation. I learned it first in Polish as biały, bee-ow-ee, since it has that funny ł in there.

Thanks!

No, darn it. He said bye-a-lee. He was dreadful. I had no idea what word he was pronouncing until he gave the definition of elegiac, then I was OK. Same with oenophile, actually. We had to pass foulard (cost our sponsor $100 -- this is a fundraiser, after all) because he botched it so badly.

I guess I shouldn't be knocking a helper for a charity event. . . . OK, he did fine.

[ghostjmf]

AJ gives Bialystok;

Yeah I knew that. Max Bialystok! My brain is fading fast.

[ghostjmf]

My parents would have said Bee-ah'-lee with the "ah" as in alley. I am aware other people would say Bee-ah'-lee with the"ah" given the "oh" sound in "on". In fact my Dad might have said it one way & my Mom the other.

[ghostjmf]

Pardon-a-moi. The fictional character is Max Bialysto*c*k.

[andrewjackson]

Pardon-a-moi. The fictional character is Max Bialysto*c*k.

Which my Polish ex-wife would have made fun of. You pronounce (almost) all the letters in Polish so that would be Bee-ah-lee-stoshk. She used to always point out the Americanized Polish names that would have a "ck" where there should just be a "k" and other oddities.

She would always call our neighbor in Michigan, Mr. Przybocki, Mr. Pzheh-bosh-ki. He would start to correct her and then realize that it didn't make sense to tell a Polish person how to pronounce it. The usual American pronunciation of Priz-bok-ee would be spelled completely differently in Polish.

[Bob Juch]

Pardon-a-moi. The fictional character is Max Bialysto*c*k.

Which my Polish ex-wife would have made fun of. You pronounce (almost) all the letters in Polish so that would be Bee-ah-lee-stoshk. She used to always point out the Americanized Polish names that would have a "ck" where there should just be a "k" and other oddities.

She would always call our neighbor in Michigan, Mr. Przybocki, Mr. Pzheh-bosh-ki. He would start to correct her and then realize that it didn't make sense to tell a Polish person how to pronounce it. The usual American pronunciation of Priz-bok-ee would be spelled completely differently in Polish.

How about Mscisz?

[andrewjackson]

Pardon-a-moi. The fictional character is Max Bialysto*c*k.

Which my Polish ex-wife would have made fun of. You pronounce (almost) all the letters in Polish so that would be Bee-ah-lee-stoshk. She used to always point out the Americanized Polish names that would have a "ck" where there should just be a "k" and other oddities.

She would always call our neighbor in Michigan, Mr. Przybocki, Mr. Pzheh-bosh-ki. He would start to correct her and then realize that it didn't make sense to tell a Polish person how to pronounce it. The usual American pronunciation of Priz-bok-ee would be spelled completely differently in Polish.

How about Mscisz?

Mihs-suhz, I think. Not sure about the ending. Pretty close to "missus" in English although I'm probably getting it wrong in a way that I couldn't define but Polish speakers would say is wrong. That "s" and "c" back to back are slightly different sounds but when they are consecutive you kind of slur them together.

The Ms gets pronounced like there is a soft vowel in there, the "c" is a pretty basic s sound, the "i" sounds more like a u to me, and the "sz" is a zee sound that would be closer to a sh sound if it wasn't following the "i". If there are diacritical marks missing then it could be a little different.

I tend to think that is an actual Polish surname, not one that has been Americanized.

[Bob Juch]

How about Mscisz?

Mihs-suhz, I think. Not sure about the ending. Pretty close to "missus" in English although I'm probably getting it wrong in a way that I couldn't define but Polish speakers would say is wrong. That "s" and "c" back to back are slightly different sounds but when they are consecutive you kind of slur them together.

The Ms gets pronounced like there is a soft vowel in there, the "c" is a pretty basic s sound, the "i" sounds more like a u to me, and the "sz" is a zee sound that would be closer to a sh sound if it wasn't following the "i". If there are diacritical marks missing then it could be a little different.

I tend to think that is an actual Polish surname, not one that has been Americanized.

Yes, it means "revenge". The spelling hasn't become Americanized but the pronunciation has: they pronounce it "Ma-ciz".