An 11-year-old from the small town of Anbi Tolo, in the Western Ethiopian region, won $500 as the national champion in the competitive national Spelling Bee competitions.
The contest took place at Sheraton Hotel in Addis Ababa (ሰኞ, መጋቢት 26 2014). The final three contestants battled to spell the Amharic word for “fact” (haq). Two of the contenders, who were university professors, both misspelled the word as ha-q (ሃቅ), which according to the judges was the wrong spelling. Simyeleh, an 11-year-old impressed the audience by outsmarting his adult competitors. The winning answer ha-q (ሐቅ) earned him his status as the youngest spelling bee champion.
Some critics complained that it was a trick question, as ሃ and ሐ sound identical, and the contestants were required to answer orally. One of our reporters posed this problem to the judge in a separate email exchange. His response was as follows
People now a days think they can say a word very slowly, one letter at a time, and spell it. They think our contest is a joke, that any common person can win the prize by simply pausing after every syllable. That genius kid proved them wrong, there is a reason we have such a rich Abugida. Our critics are simply envious of the child….
Ha ( ሃ ) and Ha ( ሐ ) are very distinct sounds, it doesn’t take a trained ear to tell them apart. If we allow such simple mindedness, they may go as far as to declare that ሓ, ሐ, ሃ, ሀ, ኃ and ኀ sound identical.
Email exchange with head of the spelling bee commission
THIS IS RADICAL! It’s an insult to our ancestors who had the wisdom to give us so many letters to allow for nuance. This is evidence that our brains have deteriorated…
We did not receive an answer to our follow-up question about how the judges distinguish between seemingly similar sounding letters. Our reporters are scheduled to consult with audio engineer Doctor Engineer MBA BSc Tibebu Bezabign to verify the nuanced difference between Ha and Ha.
Simyeleh, a prodigious child, started speaking at the extremely early age of 0. It is rumored that he uttered his first phrase “ምን አባሽ፤ አትንኪኝ” as the town’s local birth doula pulled him out on the day of his delivery. His mother, who works as a hairstylist, claims that he attained full mastery of the Amharic language only from listening to her coffee chatter while he was in her womb. She cites his broad knowledge of street profanity as evidence of his pre-birth learning, confessing that she had a foul mouth before she became a mother claiming: “ብልግናውን አኔ ነኝ ያስተማርኩት”
One of our reporters recently drove through Anbi Tolo hoping to interview the star. Simyeleh’s mother told us that the prize was a curse, that her son has not been the same since becoming a national winner. She shared that he has stopped going to school, and socializing with friends. Since the event, her son has grown obsessive and corrects mistakes where there are none. According to her, he simply repeats what others say but he thinks he is correcting them.
Simyeleh shared that he was unfairly punished by a teacher a week after the award. A teacher had called him in class when he instinctively corrected a minor mistake: “ተሳስተዋል፣ “ዐንተ ዕብድ ልጅ” ሳይሆን፤ “አንተ እብድ ልጅ” ነው.” He claims that he has been able to distinguish nuanced differences in pronunciation since an early age and that the spelling bee gave him the confidence to correct others.
The impressive boy told us that he plans to compete every year and win. He has saved his award money and will continue to do so to eventually fund a school for gifted children like him.