Re “Cooper Tunes up for Stockton with C-y-n-g-h-a-n-e-b-d. Spell It Phonetically.”
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Rob, Cooper and Deborah Komatsu
Cooper Komatsu, a fifth grader from El Marino Language School, Culver City’s championship speller, tied for 24th place among 59 participants at the state finals on Saturday in Stockton.
The son of Rob and Deborah Komatsu, here was Cooper’s pivotal challenge:
After correctly spelling “envelope” and “contagious,” Cooper went out on the word “magistrate.”
Magistrate means “an official entrusted with administration of the laws.”
Mrs. Cooper explained precisely what happened:
Because “magistrate” conjured up the image of majesty in Cooper’s10-year-old mind, he spelled the word “m-a-j-e-s-t-r-a-t-e.”
She said Cooper was thinking of the word “majesty,” with the Latin root “majestas,” meaning “major,”
instead of the Latin root “magister” meaning “master.”
“To be fair,” said Mrs. Cooper, “we don't have magistrates in this country.”
The winning word was “prosciutto.” It was spelled by sixth grader Sahir Qureshi from Fremont.
“Cooper was a good sport about going out,” Mrs. Cooper said.
“His ego was soothed by the excellent prize given to all participants, an iPod Shuffle.”
Cooper promised that he intends to try again next year.
