New dictionary to aid spelling-bee participants
In a move to encourage spelling-bee participation and assist existing participants across Canada, the Oxford English Dictionary has released a new dictionary specifically to improve skills and spelling for competition hopefuls.
For those not in the know, Spelling-bee is a competition, often with regional and then national heats, where children are asked to spell a series of English words of increasing difficulty. Although the spelling-bee concept originated in the USA and, indeed, is still most popular there, the competition spread to and became popular Canada in 1987.
As you might expect from such a dictionary, a selection of the most difficult words has been chosen for inclusion but even then, this amounts to over 35,000 entries. What is distinctly unique about this dictionary though is that it specifically includes a wide selection of Canadian English vocabulary.
This latter feature seems to be a fairly important point for spelling-bee organisers as they have noticed a steady encroachment of American English spellings into Canadian English and are not only determined to retain British English spelling conventions but to also protect uniquely Canadian English words from being supplanted by vocabulary from south of the border.
We wish all existing and future busy-bee participants the very best of luck and likewise to those protectors of British English spelling in Canada; long may they be able to retain the letter ‘u’ and negate overuse of the letter ‘z’ within their spelling conventions.