The Final Jeopardy question (10/25/2012) in the category “World Languages” was:

Of the Romance Languages, it has the greatest number of native speakers in a single country.

New champ Keith Whitener won $25,000 yesterday, thanks to his knowledge of the elements. Today he is up against two new players: Sarah Hayden Williams, from North Creek, NY, and  Erik Greb, from Somerset, NJ.

Erik found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Hearing” before the first commercial break. He was in the lead with $1,200, $800 more than both Sarah and Keith, who were tied in second place. He bet $800 and he was RIGHT.

This 10-letter type of hearing figures out whether someone has the mental capacity to stand trial.
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WHAT IS COMPETENCE (OR COMPETENCY)?

Keith finished in the lead with $9,400. Erik was second with $2,400 and Sarah was last with $400.

Sarah found the first Double Jeopardy Daily Double in “Books & Authors” She was in third place with $2,800, $11,400 less than Keith in the lead. She bet $2,000, but did not know, so she was WRONG.

The title of this E.M. Forster novel refers to a country house, not to someone’s death.
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WHAT IS HOWARDS END?

Keith found the last Daily Double in “One Man, One Boat.” He had $16,200, an $11,800 lead over Erik in second place. He bet $2,000, and he was RIGHT.

Edward Miles took the short way around, sailing solo through this canal, completed in 1869.
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WHAT IS THE SUEZ CANAL?

Keith finished in the lead with $18,200. Erik was next with $4,400 and Sarah was in third place with $800.

TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.

WHAT IS PORTUGUESE?

Spanish and Portuguese are the most widely spoken of the Romance languages, in that order. However, in terms of the concentration of speakers in one country, Brazil boasts over 190 million Portuguese speakers (Aneki.com). The country with the largest number of Spanish speakers is Mexico with 106+ million (Spanish Linguist.com).

Sarah wrote down Brazil, not realizing that the answer had to be the language. You had to feel bad for her because she seemed so sure she was right. She lost her $799 and finished with $1.00.

Erik got it right and doubled his dough, finishing with $8,800.

Keith also got it right and made a nice $8,000 bet, so he won today with a total of $26,200. His 2-day total is $51,200.

In the chat segment, Keith’s impending nuptials came up. Surely now, they can go on the honeymoon of their dreams!