Viewers were treated to much more than a spelling contest on the final day of the Scripps National Spelling Bee aired on prime-time network television this week.

The pressure-packed wordfest underscored the true diversity and inclusiveness of the English language.

You may have heard the final word as being "ursprache," a German word meaning a precursor to a defined language. But the road to bee supremacy in English means spelling words like "kundalini" (Sanskrit), "weltschmerz" (German) and "izzat" (Urdu), not to mention the Hawaiian words "hukilau" and "kama'aina." Yes, kama'aina.

Kama'aina nearly stumped one contestant, who managed to account for all the a's. He got somewhat of a pass — he spelled it without mentioning the glottal stop.

Then there was the eventual winner, Katharine Close, 13, of Spring Lake, N.J., who spelled hukilau correctly after a slight pause.

Hearing the Hawaiian words represented in the final round had to lift the spirits of local fans saddened that Hawai'i's champ, Jasmine Kaneshiro from Hawaii Baptist Academy, was eliminated the day before. In her second year as champ of the Hawai'i bee (sponsored by The Advertiser), Kaneshiro represented us well and we're proud of that.

But it was good to see Hawaiian words, if not our champ, on TV. Their inclusion along with other words of foreign origin are a much-needed reminder in these polarizing times of the richness that diversity brings to both our language — and our country.