Question for Hindi speakers about good names for a game

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Zerrakhi
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Question for Hindi speakers about good names for a game

Post by Zerrakhi »

Hi, people. Been a while.

So, back in 2011 I bought a deck of Ganjifa cards from the Playing Card Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. For those who don't know, Ganjifa are the traditional playing cards of India. Prototypically they're circular rather than rectangular with eight suits and twelve ranks in each suit.

Image

Unfortunately, card games never proliferated in India in the same way they did in Europe. There are only a handful of games traditionally played with Ganjifa, compared to the hundreds of games people play with the rectangular, four-suited deck. Such wasted potential.

That's why I decided to invent my own game especially for Ganjifa. I figured out the basics in 2011, put it on the backburner for a few years, and recently revived and perfected it. You can read the rules here:

https://outerhoard.wordpress.com/2011/1 ... a-part-ii/

Now I just need to name it. I can't call it Bridge (there's already a card game with that name, apparently), and since it's played with Indian cards, I'd like to give it an Indian name.

That's where you come in, if you're a ZBB member with knowledge of Indian languages and culture, enough interest in the subject to have read the rules, and the inclination to help. I have some ideas, but so far I've only consulted Google Translate and hindi-english.org, and I need informed people to suggest better ideas and warn me if mine are bad.

The name should make sense in the original language (probably Hindi), but be punchy and memorable to an English monoglot. It probably doesn't have to follow strict formal grammar, because I imagine there's room for informality when naming games in any culture. Just as long as it's not cringeworthy.

The Hindi word for "bridge" is पुल ("pul"), which sounds too much like "Pool". Rejected.

The idea I favour at the moment is केंद्र कड़ी (to be anglicised as "Kendra Kari"), partly because of the alliteration. "Kendra" केंद्र is the Hindi word for "centre", and you gain an advantage in the game by playing a card to the centre position. "Kari" कड़ी (with retroflex "r") is one word for "link", and presumably if we were playing a card game (with European cards for this example) and I played the three of clubs and you played the three of diamonds and I played the ten of diamonds and you played the ten of spades, so that each card shares the suit or rank of the one before, then each card would be a कड़ी — a link in the chain. Correct me if I'm wrong.

It bothers me a little that केंद्र कड़ी translates into English as "Centre Link", because in Australia, Centrelink is the goverment department that deals with pensions and so forth. But I'll just translate it as Centre Connection instead.

I also thought of केंद्र पाना (which I'd turn it into a single word: "Kendrapana"), but it doesn't fit the game all that well. It means "attain the centre", and would probably be a better name for a capture-the-flag style game where getting to the centre actually wins you the game rather than just gives you an advantage. But at least it's punchy.

A completely different approach would be to find a metaphorical link between the rules of the game and some Indian mythological figure or geographic location, and name it after that. The metaphor would probably have to do with going round and round in circles and trying to get to the centre. I am mindful of the potential for faux pas in taking a name from a culture I'm not versed in.

For a while I thought of naming it after Lake Pichola in Rajasthan, because an island with islands on which palaces have been converted to luxury hotels seems like a reasonable namesake, although it would be better if there was only one island, and it was actually in the centre, and "Pichola" didn't sound too much like "picture", making it sound like a drawing game.

"Kendra Kari" is still my best idea at the moment, but I'd love to hear feedback and alternative ideas from people who know what they're talking about. I'm not going to rush into a decision, so even if someone suggests the perfect name tomorrow I'll probably wait a month before making it official.

Any thoughts?

Vijay
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Re: Question for Hindi speakers about good names for a game

Post by Vijay »

Zerrakhi wrote:Hi, people. Been a while.

So, back in 2011 I bought a deck of Ganjifa cards from the Playing Card Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. For those who don't know, Ganjifa are the traditional playing cards of India. Prototypically they're circular rather than rectangular with eight suits and twelve ranks in each suit.

Unfortunately, card games never proliferated in India in the same way they did in Europe. There are only a handful of games traditionally played with Ganjifa, compared to the hundreds of games people play with the rectangular, four-suited deck. Such wasted potential.
I'm Indian and seriously don't remember ever hearing of any such thing. We do have some card games of our own, though. In Kerala, there's one called 56 that's an awful lot like Pinochle (in fact, a Pinochle deck is ideal for playing it). There's another called 28 that's much, much easier (although that's all I remember about it, unfortunately).

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