RULES - THE NEW ZEALAND VEGEMITE SPELLING BEE
1.
The competition is open to all Year 9 students, provided they are under the age of 16 and are eligible for a passport.
 
     
2.
Regional spelling bees will be held in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch. The organisers reserve the right to limit the number of entrants from each school.
 
     
3.
The top three place getters from the Auckland and Wellington regional spelling bees and the top two place getters from the Hamilton, Christchurch and Dunedin regional spelling bees, will be entitled to enter the New Zealand Vegemite Spelling Bee in Wellington. If a regional winner or runner-up is unable to attend the final, the organisers may, at their discretion, invite the next place getter to enter the final.
  
     
4.
The competition will be conducted in rounds. Each speller remaining at the start of a round will spell one word in the round.
  
     
5.
The roles of the pronouncer is to (1) strive to correctly pronounce the word (according to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary 11th ed.) and (2) if the speller asks, give a sentence, definition, and other information about the word.
 
     
6.
The role of the judge is to uphold the rules and to determine whether the contestant has spelled the word correctly. While the judges are responsible for attempting to detect a speller's misunderstanding of a word, if this is not detected, the judges are not responsible for the speller's misunderstanding.
  
     
7.
The roles of the speller are to (1) gather as many clues about the word's likely spelling as possible and (2) spell the word correctly. Any challenges that the speller wishes to make must be filed before the next spelling round begins.
  
     
8.
In competition, after the pronouncer gives the speller a word, the speller is encouraged to pronounce the word both before spelling it and after spelling it. However, the judges may not disqualify a speller for failing to pronounce the word. This is for spelling in round three and beyond.
 
     
9.
The speller may ask the pronouncer to say the word again, to define it, to use it in a sentence, to provide the part of speech, and/or to provide the language of origin. The pronouncer will grant all such requests until the judges agree that the word has been made reasonably clear to the speller. This is for spelling in round three and beyond. This is the only opportunity for a speller to query their word.
 
     
10.
The judges will not answer questions about root words.
 
     
11.
The judge may disqualify any speller who ignores a request to start spelling.
  
     
12.
The speller must spell the word out loud in the oral rounds. They may not write the word.
 
     
13.
Having started to spell a word, a speller may stop and start again, retracing the spelling from the beginning. In retracing, however, they may not change the letters or their sequence from those first pronounced. If they do change the letters or their sequence in the re-spelling, the speller will be eliminated. It is important for spellers to say each letter so it can be clearly heard.
  
     
14.
Upon misspelling a word, a speller will immediately drop out of the competition, except as provided in Rule 16.
 
     
15.
Appeals can be made if a speller believes they have grounds to be reinstated. The deadline for delivering an appeal is before the speller affected would have received his/her word had he/she stayed in the spelling bee. To minimise disruption to the pace of the spelling bee and the concentration of the spellers, the judge(s) are under no obligation to stop the spelling bee in order to discuss the spelling bee with the speller or his/her parent/caregiver or teacher. The judges’ decisions are final and are subject neither to review nor to reversal by either the New Zealand Vegemite Spelling Bee or Scripps National Spelling Bee.
   
16.
At the end of a spelling bee: (1) If none of the spellers remaining in the bee at the start of a round spells a word correctly during that round, all will remain in the competition. A new round will begin, with the spellers spelling in the original order; (2) All spellers eliminated in the same round will be tied for the same place; (3) Where there is a tie for runner-up in a regional bee, the judges will hold another round to determine the runner-up; (4) When only one of the spellers remaining in the bee at the start of a round spells a word correctly during that round, that speller will be declared the champion.
 
     
17.
The Concise Oxford English Dictionary (11th edition) will serve as the final authority for the spelling of words. If more than one spelling is listed for a word that the pronouncer has asked the speller to spell, any of these spellings will be accepted as correct if all of the following three criteria are met: (1) The pronunciations of the words are identical, (2) the definitions of the words are identical, and (3) the words are clearly identified as being standard variants of each other.
 
     
18.
If a word has one or more homophones (different spellings and meanings but the same sound), the pronouncer will make it clear which word is meant. If the pronouncer, for whatever reason, does not make this clear, either by defining the word or distinguishing the homophones, the judge will accept any correct spelling of any homophone of the word.  
 
     
19.
Spellers will not be disqualified for failing to note that a word starts with a capital letter.
 
     
20.
The decision of the judges will be final on all questions.
  
     
21. The event organiser, pronouncer, judges and sponsors will not enter into any discussions about the competition.

Note: As the purpose of the competition is to find a local champion who will advance to the US National Spelling Bee, the New Zealand competition rules are very similar to those which govern qualifying bees in the United States.