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Rob Ford's Toronto

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fishie said:
What is with Americans choosing to name towns after what appear to be other (famous) towns and then mangling the pronunciation? A few examples: Cairo (CAY-ro), Calais (CAL-us), Montpelier (Mont-PEEL-yer). :confused:

The only examples I could think of here are Delhi (DEL-hi) and the Dalhousie (Dal-HOW-sie/Da-LOO-sie) discrepancy.

There's whole lists on Wikipedia of US towns with what they call "counterintuitive pronunciations" - some I'm not sure why they're on the list. Same for the UK, Australia and Canada (the main category was Names in English with Counterintuitive Pronunciations). Funny though, Detroit didn't make the list :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Stuff changes over time, I guess. And if people no longer speak the language of the original name, or never did, it's even more likely to become different.

There are a couple of placenames in Canada of English derivation that aren't pronounced the way they are in the UK either:

Keswick is kez-wick here but the one in Yorkshire is pronounced kezzick.

Leamington, in the form of (Royal) Leamington (Spa) in Warwickshire, is 'lemmington', not 'leemington' as it is in Ontario.

Agincourt, although technically the site of a battle in France, is an important event in English history and the pronunciation in the UK has an 'adge' in it, as in 'imagine', not an 'age'.


The funniest thing, however, is watching (North) Americans tie themselves in knots trying to say 'Worcestershire (sauce)': wurr ... worse ... chester ... shyre. Funny because most people in the UK just call it 'Worcester sauce', which is just 'wuss' with a 'ter' at the end.
 
the lemur said:
Stuff changes over time, I guess. And if people no longer speak the language of the original name, or never did, it's even more likely to become different.

There are a couple of placenames in Canada of English derivation that aren't pronounced the way they are in the UK either:

Keswick is kez-wick here but the one in Yorkshire is pronounced kezzick.

Leamington, in the form of (Royal) Leamington (Spa) in Warwickshire, is 'lemmington', not 'leemington' as it is in Ontario.

Agincourt, although technically the site of a battle in France, is an important event in English history and the pronunciation in the UK has an 'adge' in it, as in 'imagine', not an 'age'.


The funniest thing, however, is watching (North) Americans tie themselves in knots trying to say 'Worcestershire (sauce)': wurr ... worse ... chester ... shyre. Funny because most people in the UK just call it 'Worcester sauce', which is just 'wuss' with a 'ter' at the end.
Click to expand...

We also have a Cairo (pronouned kayro)
 
I think its safe to say that when we spend x number of pages debating pronunciation of City names, there has been a major lull in Ford land.

I'm guessing something will pop up soon.
 
basic said:
I think its safe to say that when we spend x number of pages debating pronunciation of City names, there has been a major lull in Ford land.

I'm guessing something will pop up soon.
Click to expand...

It's how we elitists here like to pass the quiet time - we discuss such diverse and esoteric topics as Ford's ancestors, sailing ships, encryption technology and '70s music.

I think we've all learned some interesting stuff along the way through the nearly 80,000 posts.
 
Various placenames of French origin in Canada, especially in the Maritimes and on the west coast, aren't pronounced exactly as they 'should' be (Quesnel, L'Ardoise, Baie D'Espoir) although they aren't necessarily named for other places.

Poor old Abraham Stouffer (descended from Stauffers) had a Stoufferville named after him, but the -er was dropped and then the two Fs became silent for some reason, hence Stouffville. Not much of his name left, then. He is buried in a town in Manitoba called Altona, which I'm pretty sure is pronounced al-TO-na and not AL-toh-na as it is in the original German.

And then there's Etobicoke, and Toronto's missing K.
 
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@reporterdonpeat 14s
Jim McMillan of the Rob Ford Rangers handing Mayor Rob Ford #TTC construction helmets he found in garbage #TOpoli
Bucth5BIYAEOHUW.jpg



weird. Whose garbage? Jimmy is going thru people's garbage?? :confused:
 
the lemur said:
Various placenames of French origin in Canada, especially in the Maritimes and on the west coast, aren't pronounced exactly as they 'should' be (Quesnel, L'Ardoise, Baie D'Espoir) although they aren't necessarily named for other places.

Poor old Abraham Stouffer (descended from Stauffers) had a Stoufferville named after him, but the -er was dropped and then the two Fs became silent for some reason, hence Stouffville. Not much of his name left, then. He is buried in a town in Manitoba called Altona, which I'm pretty sure is pronounced al-TO-na and not AL-toh-na as it is in the original German.

And then there's Etobicoke, and Toronto's missing K.
Click to expand...


Missing "K" in Etobicoke? Rob probably snorted/ingested/shot it.
 
ndawgg said:
Missing "K" in Etobicoke? Rob probably snorted/ingested/shot it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it occurred to me right after posting that there was an obvious drug joke there, since K or 'special K' is a name for ketamine, a/k/a horse tranquilizer. Users are said to disappear into a 'K hole'.
 
Kat_YYZ said:
@reporterdonpeat 14s
Jim McMillan of the Rob Ford Rangers handing Mayor Rob Ford #TTC construction helmets he found in garbage #TOpoli
Bucth5BIYAEOHUW.jpg



weird. Whose garbage? Jimmy is going thru people's garbage?? :confused:
Click to expand...

I think I saw something about the Rob Ford Rangers a few days ago - handwritten signs about cleaning up, posted near garbage cans? I didn't realize the Rangers were (a) a thing (of dubious realness, admittedly) and (b) anything to do with Singing Jimmy.
 

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basic said:
I think its safe to say that when we spend x number of pages debating pronunciation of City names, there has been a major lull in Ford land.

I'm guessing something will pop up soon.
Click to expand...

There is an upside: at least people aren't debating "cougars" anymore. That was sad.
 
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