Is there the equivalent of spelling bees in other languages?

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

I think what OP believes to be 'special' about English and it's rather haphazard relationship with phonetic spelling (or rather, a lack thereof), is the somewhat free and loose 'rules' that are drawn from historic standards developed and agreed upon at different points in time by different groups of people with little (read: no) effort by central government to integrate or standardise anything ('correct' spelling in English, with very few exceptions, came about thanks to consensus, not by rule, and while this is true for many languages, the blurred lines of English's linguistic heritage make said consensus an exercise in madness). Which causes crap like: tough; though; thought; and through, all of which draw the 'ough' letter cluster from largely different etymological roots.

It is fairly recently I was working near a place called Loughborough. Where the first ough is "uff" and the second is "uh" (the whole thing being "luff-buh-ruh"). Which even as a native English speaker I think is cheating.

I don't think Spelling Bees are really as much a thing in the UK as they are in the US. I'm sure they happen but they never seem to be the big "all the school comes to watch" things that the yanks have

 

[SckizoBoy]

I'd forgotten that I wasn't supposed to do jokes any more.

I'm pretty high on the retard scale, I don't take jokes unless they slap me full in the face. I'm sorry, I suppose.

It is fairly recently I was working near a place called Loughborough. Where the first ough is "uff" and the second is "uh" (the whole thing being "luff-buh-ruh"). Which even as a native English speaker I think is cheating.

Try pronouncing 'Beaulieu'... here's a clue: don't try thinking in French...!

As it goes, British placenames probably hold the record for highest incidence of unintuitive pronunciation in its (purportedly) native language. Mousehole, any county ending in -shire, anything ending in -cester, Leominster, Cholmondeley, Godmanchester etc. etc. and even a lot of the better known places (by Brits, that is), pause a take a moment to think about the phonetics vs the spelling and you really wonder how English is, in any way shape or form, a 'standardised' language.

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

There's nothing quite like an american Spelling Bee, where a kid stands on a stage and recites words, letter-by-letter. Unless, not that i'm aware of...

The polish version of that would be "Dyktando", which sorta does the reverse thing; a lector is dictating a text, that you then write down correctly. The tricky part here are the ortographic rules. For example: "?" and "u" are two vowels that sound exactly the same, but both have place in texts in polish. On the other hand, unlike in english, letters are spelt in just one way.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I'd forgotten that I wasn't supposed to do jokes any more.

Well, to be fair, if a mind isn't prepped to expect humour, a lot can slip by, especially from a different culture who may not be as attuned to dry humour the way some are. Is kinda of why I get mini-panics at the thought of all the crap I've said being taken seriously, before promptly killing them off with nearby alcohol or hammers and compulsively carrying on with it anyway. Also funerals. People take things very seriously at funerals. The riskiest of situations to deploy humour.

 

[Satinavian]

Um yeah? What's so English about spelling?
It's "concurso de deletreo" in Spanish.

Well just that I've heard other languages tend to stick more to their phonetic rules and English is just all over the place. I was just curious if they were a thing in other countries/languages.

As cultures continue to communicate with each other and rub off on one another, we'll likely see the same curiosities of English become part of their languages too. There's a lot of weird spellings in English because a lot of the words come from other languages. As other languages continue to take phrases and words from their neighbors they will also begin to change.

Some cultures are pretty fast to change the spelling of an imported word to what makes sense phonetically. Some other cultures import the spelling but then pronounce the new word as written, even if it sounds nothing like the original.

And then many countries have official language reforms that modify spelling to fit (the ever evolving) pronounciation.

Now English has not the most unituitive spelling of all languages with phonetic alphabeths. But it is cerainly one of the leading contenders.

 

[Baffle]

People take things very seriously at funerals. The riskiest of situations to deploy humour.

And yet the one where people are most in need of cheering up.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

And yet the one where people are most in need of cheering up.

Indeed! The payoff is quite the allure, if one doesn't mind the hefty gamble involved.

 

[Squilookle]

It's such a mess that apparently simply being able to spell correctly is a feat worthy of acclaim in the form of contests.

I always saw that less as a reflection of the language itself, and more a reflection of how incredibly boring people like to spend their time.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

It sounds really boring to be honest. We have some dumb game shows and that big brother garbage here, but I don't think I've ever seen a spelling contest on brazilian TV. I guess we're more interested in bikini babes doing stupid stuff, like this:

NSFW-ish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPu4aUY8uDE

I think it's fair to say that this is more educational.

 

[Sonmi]

Not really.

French has dict?es, but I can't recall a single proper spelling bee.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Relevant. Had this pop in my new tab.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/english-is-not-normal?utm_source=pocket-newtab

 

[Drathnoxis]

Relevant. Had this pop in my new tab.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/english-is-not-normal?utm_source=pocket-newtab

That was very long. But pretty interesting.

 

[Batou667]

As an Englishman I always found the idea of Spelling Bees one of the trashier Stateside inventions. The English language is tricky, sure, but elevating something as fundamental as SPELLING to a status where you're considered exceptional and given prizes if you can do it? Good grief. I don't know if that's how it's perceived in the US, but to me it sounds like one of the most anti-intellectual statements you could make.

Almost as unsettling is the suburban sweatshop industry of kids who get "coached" for spelling competitions by their insufferable helicopter parents. It's like dressage or pedigree dog shows for preteens. Yuck.