SpecGram invites everyone to sign up for its first annual phonological spelling bee, to be held concurrently with the Annual Meeting of the International Phonetic Association at the Chicago Palmer House Hilton, 3-6 January 2008, Chicago, IL.

Here are the official rules:

1. Spellers in the the first annual phonological spelling bee must qualify under five basic requirements.

   1. They must not have obtained a PhD in Linguistics on or before January 1, 2008.
   2. They must be designated by their respective departments as the 2008 phonological spelling bee champion.
   3. They—for the purpose of preparing for a spelling bee—must not have obtained a copy of the 2008 SpecGram phonological spelling guide if it is to be used in any upcoming spelling bee in which they may qualify to participate.
   4. Any contestant who has won a SpecGram Spelling Bee is ineligible for further competition in the SpecGram Spelling Bee and its preliminary bees, including the Lingua Pranca Post-Dispatch Spelling Bee.

2. Contestants will be given 25 words for which they need to provide the following phonological information:

   • voicing
   • place of articulation
   • manner of articulation
   • further distinctive features

   Upon completion of the features contestants need to repeat the word. The following may serve as sample correct answers:

   • Zoo—voiced alveolar fricative—high back tense rounded vowel—Zoo
   • Pilgrim—voiceless bilabial stop—high front lax vowel—alveolar lateral approximant—voiced velar stop—alveolar approximant—high front lax vowel—bilabial nasal—Pilgrim

3. The adopted standard of pronunciation will be Peterson and Barney (1952); deviations therefrom will lead to loss of points.

4. There will be no arguments with the Reader or the Judges by the participant any time during the competition. If you have a disagreement with a decision, please go to the protest table immediately. If the Judges or the Reader are found to have made any mistakes, the participant will be reinstated to the competition.

5. The winner of this year’s annual phonological spelling bee will receive an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Wisconsin and a three-dimensional model of their personal vowel space.

6. Please RSVP by August 15, 2007.

	On Apparent “Systematic Suppletion” in Ksotre—Angus Æ. Balderdash, Esq. and Julienne Autolycus, Ph.D.
	Linguistica ad—New Journal Series Announcement from Psammeticus Press
	SpecGram Vol CLII, No 4 Contents