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Above: detail from SikhPark toon by Dalbir Singh.

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Pardon, Your Fifti Is Showing:
Janam Da Firangee,
Sikhi Main Mangee

FATEHPAL SINGH TARNEY

 

 

 





I have always been keenly interested in spoken and written language. Not only my own mother tongue, English, but other languages, especially Spanish and Punjabi/Gurmukhi.

I have made my fair share of mistakes in Spanish and Punjabi, also in English, but I am not alone!

I want to begin by providing two examples of mistakes in English that are rather common. The first is the phrase ‘for all intents and purposes’ or ‘to all intents and purposes‘. These phrases mean ‘under most normal conditions or situations‘. However, many native speakers of English say for all intensive purposes, which suggests some medical emergency. ‘Intents’ and ‘intensive’ having been confused.

This is known as a malapropism, where one substitutes a similar-sounding word for the correct one, substantially altering the meaning.

The second phrase, often misused by English speakers is ‘deep­-seated‘, which simply refers to something firmly fixed in place. However, many Americans, for example, will say deep­-seeded – not knowing that seeds too deeply embedded will not grow.

I know of a Spanish-American fellow with dark skin, a closely­trimmed beard and an aquiline nose. He could easily pass for an Arab. He also has a problematic surname, Ayala, which, in the post­9­11 topsy-turvy era in the West, has caused him great inconvenience at airports, etc., given that several security people always equate Ayala with Allah.

Body language: For several years, I taught English classes in the evening at various levels to students from all over the world. Sometimes one looks for positive feedback from students in the form of facial expressions and nods of the head. This can be misleading. Once, I was teaching English to an intermediate level class and was very pleased with one new student who kept smiling and nodding at me after every point I made. At the end of the class, I felt very good and confident that I was being effective.

It turned out that this young man from Mexico was in the wrong class. He had no English whatsoever and I suspect was merely being polite, but remained clueless.

A Sardar friend of mine, much younger than I am, was born and raised here in Florida. He spoke both English and Punjabi at home, but his schooling was exclusively in English. He is an attorney. His Punjabi pronunciation, while far superior to mine, is still not "native-like!"

On one of his trips to India, to the hometown of his parents in Punjab, he took a gora (“white”) friend with him. One day, they were walking along a very busy street when his friend had a health issue ­ I think it was an asthma episode followed by a panic attack. His friend became lost in a crowd of local people.

The Sardar went searching through the crowd for his friend, asking in Punjabi "Did anyone see a gora?"

The people looked around and then at each other curiously because they thought this obvious visitor from the diaspora had lost his horse! What they heard was "Did anyone see a ghoRa?"

Another Sardar friend whose mother tongue is Punjabi, has lived in America for a long time. It is my impression that he has begun thinking more in English than in Punjabi. He moved to a rustic area with a home adjacent to a beautiful lake. He told me about all the interesting wildlife in, on, and around that lake. I took the opportunity to practice my Punjabi, so asked him about specific animals.

I said things like “Hiran?”

He replied “Haan ji!”

“Khargosh?” I asked.

“Haan ji!”

“Hans?”

“Haan ji!”

“Ullu?”

“Haan ji!”

“Baaj?”

“Haan ji!”

I was running out of animals that I knew in Punjabi, so I then asked, “Are there any 'mor'?”

He replied, “More what?”

Of course, I exclaimed “Peacocks!”

I am frequently in Miami, Florida and speak Spanish whenever possible to people in schools where I am giving a presentation on Sikhi. Or to sales people in stores, even to parking attendants.

The problem is that most Spanish speakers are not accustomed to people with my saroop speaking their language. Hispanics often do not reply to me – at least at first – but just stare at me, often whispering to others: “La persona con el turbante habla espanol!” [“The person with the turban speaks Spanish!”]

Or: “Venga aquí y escuchalo hablar en español!” [Come over here and hear him speak Spanish!]

I have encountered many young Hispanic students whose mother tongue is Spanish and yet some make the same mistake with telling time because most hours are, in fact, plural. However, one o'clock is singular. Thus in Spanish, the correct term is “a la una.”

Many of my Hispanic students say “a las una“, simply because all the other hours of the day are plural where “las” is correct, not “la.”

I am sure there are comparable mistakes made in all languages maternal to people, including Punjabi, as well as the more common errors made by second and third language speakers.

I'll wrap up with an indelicate personal story.

When I first began tying a dastaar, I was not proficient at all. I recall one time when a Sardar friend of mine came up to me and said, “Fateh ji, your fifti is showing too much!”

I immediately looked down.


December 30, 2015
 

Conversation about this article

1: Harmeet Singh (USA), December 30, 2015, 5:39 PM.

That's funny. Thanks for sharing.

2: Aryeh Leib Lerner (Israel), December 30, 2015, 11:31 PM.

Ah, yes. How embarrassing when your "fifti" looks like a "sixti" @;-)}}}

3: Aryeh Leib Lerner (Israel), January 03, 2016, 11:52 AM.

And if you looked down, I guess your fifti was showing WAAAAAY too much!

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Janam Da Firangee,
Sikhi Main Mangee"









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