The Reel Life: Pass the knaidel edition

The Reel Life has had more than its share of spelling bee angst. From spelling bee officials who couldn't pronounce the words to not knowing you could ask questions or ask for definitions, there is no shortage of bitterness towards failed attempts at spelling glory. And all of this came BEFORE ESPN televised the event.

The one thing that never happened to the Reel Life though, is controversy erupting over the correct spelling of a word. But that's exactly what happened last week.

Arvind Mahankali spelled knaidel correctly to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Knaidel is Yiddish word for a dumpling or matzo ball that's placed in a soup.

But "knaidel" might not be the correct spelling for the word. It's how the Merriam-Webster Dictionary spells it. And that's the dictionary of records for the spelling bee, so that's what counts in terms of determining the victory. No one is taking Mahankali's victory away. But Merriam-Webster might be wrong. (And the Reel Life is seriously amused that knaidel's definition is not usually available in Merriam-Webster's free online dictionary. Normally, you'd have to purchase the unabridged version to see the definition. But they're making it available for free for a limited time. The fact that everyone is looking this word up right now probably factored into this decision.)

The New York Times reported the day after the spelling bee that the YIVO Insitiute for Jewish Research -- which is basically the authority -- on all things Yiddish, says the word should be spelled kneydl.

The confusions stems from the fact Yiddish isn't written in a Roman alphabet, so it needs to be transliterated. Transliteration isn't an exact science, hence the different spellings.

If the Reel Life had lost spelling "kneydl" instead of "knaidel," there would be no end to the bitterness. So kudos to Mahankali. He picked the correct spelling of a word where there's significant disagreement on how to accurately spell it. That takes matzo balls.

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