Curling is a jargon-based sport. We have a lot of terms, and sometimes each team has their own phraseology. It can feel like we have our own language at times, with normies unable to decipher “hog to hog times” and “free guard zone” and “draw weight,” the last of which cannot be explained to anyone, even curlers. Nobody knows what it is, least of all finding it.
But there is one word that truly defines the game: the bonspiel. I always tell new folks it’s not a tournament. Tournaments aren’t fun. Tournaments are hard work, where your goal is to win. Nobody wants to go to a tournament. Everybody wants to go to a bonspiel. Once you travel to one (going to your local club’s spiel is a good start), you finally get it.
But what people haven’t quite gotten is how to say it.
Here’s a correct pronunciation: BAHN-spee-uhl.
Here’s an incorrect way to say it: BAHN-shpee-uhl.
I understand why adding in the “sh” sound is common. A spiel can mean a quick story or speech, and the sh- sound is an alternate pronunciation. The origin of that word is German, as is glockenspiel, which also has the sh- sound.
Bonspiel, though, comes from Dutch. I have no idea how the Dutch got involved in the sacred inner circle of curing terminology, but they did, there’s no going back, and they offered up a banger of a word.
Anyways here’s a clip from the 2013 National Spelling Bee. 13-year-old Olivia Havas gets the word in question.
The key moment:
Olivia: Do you have any alternate pronunciations?
Pronouncer: I don’t.
Anyways, she knew it.