After living in Philadelphia’s Queen’s Village neighborhood for only a month, Jennifer Neuhauser spelled the word Schyulkill correct without the aid of a dictionary. “I was posting a status on Facebook about that new boardwalk thing on the river,” explains Neuhauser, “and when I typed the word Schuylkill in, I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t have that squiggly line underneath it.” She is referring to the red line that indicates to computer-users that a word is misspelled.
At first she suspected that she may have been using a browser without spell-check capabilities, “but a quick Google search proved that I had actually spelled it right!”
Mayor Nutter personally telephoned Neuhauser the next day, proclaiming her a “true resident” and reminding her that she must surrender her out-of-state license to PennDOT and obtain a Pennsylvania driver’s license within 60 days of moving into the state.
“Whatever knuckle-heads decided to let the Dutch name our river really ruined this city for the rest of us,” says Dr. Marqo Leiberman, professor of linguistics at University of Pennsylvania. The name of the river is derived from the Dutch words schuylen and kill, meaning “hidden river.”
While Skuylkill may be difficult to spell, sources close to Neuhauser claim she was runner-up of the state spelling bee in sixth grade.
