30 May—Thirteen years ago on this very day, 13-year-old Arvind Mahankali won the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee by “correctly” spelling “knaidel.” Not to deprive the kid of his well-deserved glory, to be sure, but since “knaidel” or “kneidel” or “kneydl” or anything like it is a transliteration of Yiddish “קניידל” (Yiddish is written with Hebrew characters, of course), he was lucky.

Or, more likely, Arvind was well-acquainted—not just familiar—with the Merriam Webster Third New International Dictionary, Scripps’s orthographic bible.

Evidently “knaidel” is the most popular—common, accepted, you name it—transliterated English spelling of “קניידל.” More important, it’s the spelling listed in the Merriam Webster Third New International Dictionary. But even with so-called phonetic mapping and allegedly strict phonological rules that appear to be anything but, transliteration is at best more a matter of opinion—call it judgement, to be charitable—than science; it’s an art with protocols, take ‘em or leave ‘em.

“קניידל” is a fine example. Don’t forget that Hebrew is read from right to left, making it ideal for southpaws to write with fountain pens without smudging a word. While there’s no question about the “קנ” (“kn”) being pronounced as in “knish,” meaning the “k” isn’t silent, the “דל” ending of the word (“dl”), is pronounced as a short consonantal “dl” rather than a vocalically lengthened “del.” So why should the “del” spelling be preferred?

Then, of course, should the “a” vowel, as in “face,” be transliterated as “ai” or “ei” or “ay” or “ey” or “eigh” or just plain “a”?

Moving on, then, the plural of “knaidel” or whatever, is “knaidlach” or whatever, the “-lach” being the Yiddish plural suffix in this instance. Knaidlach are known to the world at large as matzo balls (or matzoh balls or matza balls, etc.) and are very easy to make and customarily served in chicken soup. But since they’re essentially spherical matzo meal (etc.) pancakes, they’re just as good pan fried. Or straight out of the mixing bowl.

Arvind Mahankali, by the way, went on to Carnegie Mellon for a bachelor’s degree in computer science and is currently doing a doctorate in machine learning at Stanford . . .