An unremarkable sound can be the toughest thing for spellers to master at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
It’s known as the schwa. It sounds like “Uh,” and any vowel can make the sound. And only in the English language can a single sound be so versatile.
Spellers have a variety of techniques to figure out unfamiliar schwas, starting with asking for the language of origin. But none of the strategies is foolproof, and sometimes the only things to do are to memorize the word or guess.
Lexicographer Peter Sokolowski of Merriam-Webster says the schwa is “why there are spelling bees in English and no other language.” Naysa Modi, the runner-up in last year’s bee, calls the schwa “the bane of every speller’s existence.”
This year’s bee starts Monday.
