Petition for Culturally Accurate Jersey Nameplates

[LaffyTaffy]

Sign the Petition

I started a petition on change.org to try and get some momentum on the special characters movement. If Laffy can get an accent then we can have some special characters.

Click to read more...

 

[TominNC]

When you say special characters what exactly do you mean?

 

[Leetch3]

When you say special characters what exactly do you mean?

the accent on Lafreniere's jersey

 

[Off Sides]

Radek Bonk!

 

[TominNC]

the accent on Lafreniere's jersey

No, the Rangers already have that. I believe he meant other special characters besides accents.

 

[nyr2k2]

Interesting concept. I don't know why it's not done already. I'm sure there is some reason.

 

[LaffyTaffy]

No, the Rangers already have that. I believe he meant other special characters besides accents.

Ö Ø Ü Č Å Š etc.

 

[Baby Duck Homme]

Did Thomas Pock get an umlaut on his jersey when he was here?

 

[Inferno]

Jesper fasth!!!

 

[Harbour Dog]

I like this idea a lot! I'll sign.

 

[SA16]

Why would they use letters that don't exist in English and 99% of the fan base won't know how to pronounce? They're allowed to have them if they want anyway. Most don't care. Especially the names that are translated from different alphabets which can be translated in a variety of ways.

 

[007]

Did Thomas Pock get an umlaut on his jersey when he was here?

No.

Other examples: Teemu Selänne, Sammy Påhlsson, Mikkel Bødker, Radek Dvořák. All these players' names (and Pöck's) are pronounced quite differently because of what we English-speakers see as 'special characters', and it really isn't hard to learn the differences. Fixing the jerseys could be an opportunity for hockey fans to touch the sport's rich culture. It's not like we'll pronounce the names correctly, anyway (Teemu for one, has gone on record many times as saying he doesn't care).

Regarding the jerseys, though, one issue I see: what do you do about Russian (and Bulgarian!) names? Who's standards for transliteration do we follow? We know that Igor Shesterkin's name is poorly transliterated.

 

[007]

Why would they use letters that don't exist in English and 99% of the fan base won't know how to pronounce? They're allowed to have them if they want anyway. Most don't care. Especially the names that are translated from different alphabets which can be translated in a variety of ways.

First off, more than 1% of hockey fans, even in North America, are non-native English speakers. Second: you're brutally mispronouncing the names anyway, and that isn't going to change (nor does it need to). The different characters would be interesting to a lot of fans.

 

[Fitzy]

All fun and games until the Welsh get good at hockey and then we'll be running a drastic shortage of "L"s

 

[SA16]

First off, more than 1% of hockey fans, even in North America, are non-native English speakers. Second: you're brutally mispronouncing the names anyway. The different characters would be interesting to a lot of fans.

Let me be the first to apologize for the use of hyperbole. Does it seriously make any difference if I said "that a majority of the fan base won't know how to pronounce?" They're also being mispronounced according to accepted transliteration guidelines and if the players have a problem with it they are perfectly allowed to inform everyone how to say their name. In fact, recent articles (I think about Doc Emrick but it may have been before that) talk about how all the players are supposed to speak their name out loud several times to the announcers/team to let them know how they want it pronounced. Most don't care. If Jesper Fast, for example, wanted to go by "Fasth" he certainly could. Not like he's even the only one ever in the league with that name - there was Victor Fasth who went by that spelling with no issues. He's the one who chose to make the change and he's stuck with it through two teams.

I don't see the point. Should we start putting cyrillic characters on jersey's too for some players?

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Hockey players should be allowed to put their first names or nickname son their jerseys like soccer players!

 

[Leetch3]

Jesper fasth!!!

 

[DutchNYR]

Hockey players should be allowed to put their first names or nickname son their jerseys like soccer players!

Call me old fashioned but I cringe everytime I see an adult have their first name or nickname put on their jersey.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Call me old fashioned but I cringe everytime I see an adult have their first name or nickname put on their jersey.

lol yeah I agree it sucks.

But in some places like Brazil its common for players to have a nickname like 'Pele' or in Argentina to put your second name on your jersey like Juan Roman Riquelme having just 'Roman' on his jersey.

 

[Off Sides]

Brian Little


......M
.....A R
......... C
........S T
..........a a l


JT . Mller

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

When you say special characters what exactly do you mean?

Stützle
Bäckström
Strålman
Pastrňák
Edström
Själin
Bødker
Nečas

 

[Entrancemperium]

Guess it becomes tricky with Cyrillic....... all or nothing?

 

[n8]

Guess it becomes tricky with Cyrillic....... all or nothing?

you trolling? That's an entirely different alphabet system. Or you just hate the Greeks and left them out on purpose. He's not asking for Chinese or Sanskrit here.

 

[Amazing Kreiderman]

Guess it becomes tricky with Cyrillic....... all or nothing?

Save that for Heritage night. They have HFC, Military appreciation night, imagine heritage night where players have their names in their local/indigenous spelling on the jerseys...

 

[CasusBelli]

No.

Other examples: Teemu Selänne, Sammy Påhlsson, Mikkel Bødker, Radek Dvořák. All these players' names (and Pöck's) are pronounced quite differently because of what we English-speakers see as 'special characters', and it really isn't hard to learn the differences. Fixing the jerseys could be an opportunity for hockey fans to touch the sport's rich culture. It's not like we'll pronounce the names correctly, anyway (Teemu for one, has gone on record many times as saying he doesn't care).

Regarding the jerseys, though, one issue I see: what do you do about Russian (and Bulgarian!) names? Who's standards for transliteration do we follow? We know that Igor Shesterkin's name is poorly transliterated.

Many players can’t even pronounce their own names. Tell a German speaker how Kuemper and Toews pronounce their last names.

Also: many points to any American who can pronounce the hooked “r” in Dvorak or other Czech/Slovak surnames correctly. Most can’t even make a rolling “r.”