Washington DC: Have you heard of words like exergue (ek sûrg) or hukilau (hoo kee lau).
These were some of the tongue twisters that young school students were asked to spell in the National American Spelling Championship.
And Katherine Close spelt the word Ursprache correctly to claim the title of America's top speller.
The Indian presence in the final rounds was marked by the Sanskrit and Urdu words, Kundalini and Izzat, also spelt by Katherine on her way to winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee trophy.
"I feel ecstatic right now. Their support meant a lot to me. I just feel great," Katherine said.
The Spelling Bee began in the mid-1920s with only nine students. Since then its popularity has grown manyfold.
More than 10 million students from all across the US, Canada and Europe competed for the Spelling Bee this year. But only 274 qualified and made it to Washington DC to compete at the national level.
One of them was 13-year-old Rajiv Tarigopula. The 8th grader from Missouri was one of the last four contestants.
However, the youngster finally stumbled on heiligenschein, which means a bright spot of light.
"I think I guessed the best I could. No regrets that I didn't win. But obviously I did my best, so I'm proud of that," Rajiv said.
"He knew all the other words, after the word that he missed. But that is the luck of the draw. If he got another word, he would have been in the championship words," his father Choudry Tarigopula said.
Nearly 30 Indian-American children made it to the finals of the prestigious competition this year, making up a 10th of the finalists.
This from a community that makes up less than one per cent of the population of US.
Following their Top 3 sweep in the recent National Geographic Bee, Indian American students have again proved they are at the top of the game in academic contests.
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