Final Jeopardy: European Literature (10-25-13)
The Final Jeopardy question (10/25/2013) in the category “European Literature” was:
This 1922 novel’s first chapter is entitled “The Son of the Brahman.
New champ Mike Shapiro finished with the most money in a triple stumper FJ yesterday. Wasn’t much, but he won $3,401, the title and another shot at big money today. First, he’s going to have beat these two opponents: James Cross, from Auburn, AL; and Melanie Hess, from Lancaster, PA.
James found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “State of the Book.” He was in the lead with $3,000, $400 ahead of Melanie in second place. He bet $1,500 and he was RIGHT.
“The Help.” show
James finished in the lead with $6,700. Melanie was second with $4,600 and Mike was last with $3,200.
Mike found the first Daily Double in “1960s Newsmakers.” He was now in second place with $4,800, $1,900 behind James’ lead. He bet $3,000 and he was RIGHT.
In 1961, this 2-time Democratic presidential nominee was appointed U.N. Ambassador. show
James found the last Daily Double in “China Towns.” In third place with $9,900, he had $3,900 less than Mike’s lead. He bet $3,000 and he was RIGHT.
This city is famous for its brewery; today its beer is the No. 1 Chinese beer in the United States. show
James finished in the lead with $16,500. Mike was next with $15,800 and Melanie was in third place with $10,200.
Technically NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right, but ONE of their answers was accepted.
WHO IS SIDDHARTHA?
Hermann Hesse’s 1922 novel is about the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautama Buddha. The book was published in the USA in 1951. The youtube is a 5-hour audiobook, but if you listen to the beginning, the title of the first chapter is there.
Melanie drew a blank, losing her $4,900 bet. She finished with $5,300.
Mike wrote down Siddharta, getting one h in — the silent one. This was accepted despite Alex Trebek pronouncing the second h — SiddharTHa (rhymes with Martha). Mike bet $5,599. He finished with $21,399. But, as we should all know by now, when the spelling changes the pronunciation, bzzzt!
James wrote down “Siddhart” which was unacceptable as incomplete. He lost his $15,101 and ended up with $1,399.
Mike’s 2-day total was announced: $24,800. If the judges rule against his spelling, and they should to be consistent, Mike still won the game with $10,201. In that case, his 2-day total would be $13,602.
We shall see… we shall see… Monday!
Until then, have a great weekend.
WAIT UP! – just found a site giving the Indian pronunciation, where the second H seems to be silent as well.
and as a final (i promise!) note, i remember that when i had read the book and discussed it with friends, we all pronounced it SIDDARTA. after all, the book was translated about 30 years after it was written into english and i guess that’s where the TH (like martha) pronunciation developed. it was just anglicized or “americanized” if you will.
most people just presumed that an H after a T should be pronounced as TH , like martha, theory etc. even if they knew it was translated from german, i bet not many knew the different rules for pronunciation for english and german. a “TH” as in martha sound does NOT exist in german. hence the difficulty for germans, austrians, swiss etc to get a proper english TH, at least in the beginning, often they never get it. ( arnold, i hope you read this…….):):):)
hasta el lunes!
@vj so we both found out that the second H should be silent. at least that is cleared up. you took the indian (original) way (although the novel was written in german by a german-h.hesse-) and i found 2 sources from the american side who also deem the second H being silent correct.
@john – Alex did pronounce it with a ‘the’ or ‘theory’ sound. Sorry for the confusion in the way I typed that — I fixed it.
Yeah, after I found that site with the Indian pronunciation, I could see them letting the ruling stand — BUT they really ought to explain why it was accepted. Then maybe more people would understand their process and not get irate when they rule against someone.
after some checking, the MERRIAM WEBSTER as well as the OXFORD dictionaries regard SIDDHARTA as the correct pronunciation. i don’t know where alex pronounced the second H.AND why the judges did not correct him and edited the segment. i’m afraid alex slipped this time. but-no harm , no foul. we will see if the scores change on monday. j likes to give the impression that each game is taped on a different day , plus the suspension over the weekend will make more people watch…..ah, the almighty dollar!!!
well, here we go again….the judges have the entire weekend…not really. we all know that the shows are taped back to back a few per day and not one per day as they are aired. so the ruling will probably stand.
have a nice weekend everybody!!!
ps
they should finally get things straight. alex could have pronounced mike’s answer also as “TH”, like in “the” or “theory” instead of separating the T and the H….
and i believe the correct pronunciation is “siddharta”, with the last “h” silent to begin with.