Which root languages should one focus on for the Scripps National Spelling Bee?
Christal Schermeister replied:
Hi,
That’s a really good question, almost every speller wrestles with it sooner or later. Although there’s no set formula for an order of study, a good place to start is by looking at the odds of getting a particular language at the national spelling bee. According to Scott Remer in his book “Words of Wisdom,” (which I recommend highly), here are the languages of origin ranked according to percentage of words in the Scripps National Spelling Bee:
Language |
% |
Latin |
27 |
Greek |
21 |
French |
16 |
Middle English |
10 |
German |
5 |
Italian |
4 |
Spanish |
3 |
Russian |
2 |
Persian/Hindi/Urdu |
2 |
Japanese |
2 |
Arabic |
1.69 |
Portuguese |
1 |
Dutch |
1 |
Afrikaans |
1 |
Sanskrit |
1 |
Yiddish |
0.5 |
Hebrew |
0.5 |
Turkish |
0.4 |
Hungarian |
0.26 |
Chinese |
0.26 |
Malay |
0.26 |
Samoan/Tahitian |
0.26 |
Norwegian |
0.13 |
Swedish |
0.13 |
Gaelic |
0.13 |
Welsh |
0.13 |
Polish |
0.13 |
Finnish |
0.13 |
Tagalog |
0.13 |
Hawaiian |
0.13 |
Egyptian |
0.13 |
Note that the first four make up the majority of words; I would suggest starting there, and then allocating appropriate study hours to the remaining languages.
Another thing to consider is studying roots: take a look at Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Prefixes, Suffixes, and Combining Forms: I would rate that as important as any of the languages listed above.
Hope this helps!
-Christal Schermeister
Christal Schermeister replied:
Hi,
That’s a really good question, almost every speller wrestles with it sooner or later. Although there’s no set formula for an order of study, a good place to start is by looking at the odds of getting a particular language at the national spelling bee. According to Scott Remer in his book “Words of Wisdom,” (which I recommend highly), here are the languages of origin ranked according to percentage of words in the Scripps National Spelling Bee:
Language |
% |
Latin |
27 |
Greek |
21 |
French |
16 |
Middle English |
10 |
German |
5 |
Italian |
4 |
Spanish |
3 |
Russian |
2 |
Persian/Hindi/Urdu |
2 |
Japanese |
2 |
Arabic |
1.69 |
Portuguese |
1 |
Dutch |
1 |
Afrikaans |
1 |
Sanskrit |
1 |
Yiddish |
0.5 |
Hebrew |
0.5 |
Turkish |
0.4 |
Hungarian |
0.26 |
Chinese |
0.26 |
Malay |
0.26 |
Samoan/Tahitian |
0.26 |
Norwegian |
0.13 |
Swedish |
0.13 |
Gaelic |
0.13 |
Welsh |
0.13 |
Polish |
0.13 |
Finnish |
0.13 |
Tagalog |
0.13 |
Hawaiian |
0.13 |
Egyptian |
0.13 |
Note that the first four make up the majority of words; I would suggest starting there, and then allocating appropriate study hours to the remaining languages.
Another thing to consider is studying roots: take a look at Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Prefixes, Suffixes, and Combining Forms: I would rate that as important as any of the languages listed above.
Hope this helps!
-Christal Schermeister