The spelling game

I've always wondered whether those spelling games you get to see in American movies really take place. I clearly remember an episode of the Simpson where Lisa gets all hyper and then panics as the school's spelling tournament jeopardises her bright wit. In American films it's usually a rather fat girl, with a spotted greasy face, wearing braces and a granny-style hairband to keep hold of her frizzy curls that wins this sort of competition. But let's forget about the stereotypical winner and focus on the competition for a second. And what a marvellous competition, indeed!

Being Italian, I've never quite understood how you couldn't possibly be able to write in your own native language. That's because Italian undoubtedly is a language that "you write as you speak" - that's how the saying goes, meaning that it's a phonetic language. The only slippery slopes where a little caution is recommended are sounds such as sc or gn. Other than that, no spelling is needed. Not even for the longest surname ever!

Not quite so for English. In its fascinating history, the English language has undergone so much melting and shifting -just to name a most notable instance, the great vowel shift of the XV-XVI centuries- that its pronunciation has come completely unstuck from its writing. That's why you could write rain like this -and spell it properly- or in the alternative spelling of rane. You would pronounce it just the same.

History explains why the Brits -and the Americans alike, as far as I can see from its teenage rather whacky movie culture- take so much pride in their spelling competitions. It really takes an effort for them to remember how to write words. I should boast for my ability to write properly in a language that is not even my mothertongue, but I won't. Simply because my learning of it was not disconnected from the writing. Whereas, when English speakers utter their first words, they clearly don't know how to write them.

History explains why scenes like those I got to see many years ago, sitting in my couch in Italy in front of the TV, with much amusement of my bewildered imagination that mused over the chance of such spelling games happening in my homecountry and how retarded they would look, scenes like those in the Simpson episode are still available for my amusement live, in streets of London. On my way back home today, I saw a lovely mother testing her daughters' skills by saying words that the two girls promptly and in unison spelt. "Royal!" "R-O-Y-A-L"

Such a funny scene. I couldn't help but notice the two girls. They slightly resembled the stereotype I mentioned before. Good luck to them!