Above: The late Ken Danby's classic painting of a ice hockey goalkeeper.
Sports
Hockey Night in Canada ... With a Punjabi Accent!
by KEVIN McGRAN
EDITOR: For those in the diaspora who are unfamiliar with the role Ice Hockey plays in the life of Canadians:
"Canadians like to say that their national religion is ice hockey. The sport bridges English- and French-speakers, native and non-native, east and west - and marks national identity by helping to distinguish them all from Americans." [The Economist]
Last night's (November 15, 2008) game between the Maple Leafs and Canucks could also have been called "Hockey Night In Punjab."
The CBC (The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's national TV network), picking up on an experiment from last season's Stanley Cup, brought Parminder Singh of Toronto - who has done some Raptors games (basketball) in Punjabi - and Calgary's Harnarayan Singh to the pressbox to call the game online and on some select channels.
"The community response has been fantastic," said Parminder Singh.
"A lot of the community has been watching the game (ice hockey), but they mute it because they don't understand what the commentators are saying."
Some of the terms are easily translatable from field hockey, so "stick" is "soti."
And English terms are easily interspersed because of soccer.
"He shoots, he scores" becomes "Maahriaa shot, keeta goal."
"Puck" was a bit of a challenge, but the pair settled on "tikki," based on a puck-shaped potato appetizer.
But they struggled looking for a Punjabi term for icing.
"Ice in Punjabi is 'barf,'" said Parminder Singh. "What are we supposed to say: 'He barfed the puck?'"
"So we stuck with the English term," said Harnarayan Singh.
[Courtesy: The Toronto Star]
November 16, 2008
Conversation about this article
1: Kaur Ageous (Toronto, Canada), November 18, 2008, 11:18 PM.
Yah ... I was watching TV and I saw this Ice Hockey game going on with Punjabi commentary ... I was like, What!!! ... It is a good thing. I guess mainstream media is trying to target this niche audience.
2: singhdicate (Toronto, Canada ), November 19, 2008, 3:31 PM.
HE SHOOTS ! ... HE SCORES! Do we have to make everything Punjabi-ized. I might not understand what the are saying but I can "feel" the intensity of a commentary in Spanish, for example ... GOOOOOOAL! Do we need to understand more?