National Spelling Bee Winner Ananya Vinay Spells Difficult Louisiana Word

The 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee, brought a Louisiana all the way to the finals.  We all know you have to be from Louisiana to pronounce and spell a lot of these words. But 12-year-old Ananya Vinay of California and her opponent were put to the test to spell Tchefuncte. Tchefunte means of or relating to a culture of Louisiana of about a.d. 500–900 characterized by conical burial mounds, circular structures, and coiled pottery with linear punctate ornamentation. Tchefunte is also a river located in Madisonville, Louisiana. Congratulations to Vinay as she could now visit New Orleans without any problems pronouncing (or spelling) local words.